She knew what that meant. She"d seen plenty of hits in the course of her work. Drug lords knew where to get the best people for that sort of job, and they didn"t miss. A professional would be more than a match for most local law enforcement. On the other hand, she considered as she studied Cash Grier"s stony expression, she was probably in the best small town on earth for a hit man to try to kill her. Grier here had been a government sniper. Eb Scott and Cy Parks, not to mention Micah Steele, were professional mercenaries, now retired. But Eb ran a school for counterterrorism that was known all over the country, and some of the men taking courses there would be a match for any hired a.s.sa.s.sin Fuentes cared to sacrifice.
She c.o.c.ked her head and looked up at Grier. She smiled. "Finally," she murmured. "Some good news."
He stared at her without blinking. "Good news?"
"This is the worst town in America for contract killers. The only hit man who ever got into town was crippled by your wife, I hear," she said with twinkling eyes.
He laughed. "With an iron skillet," he agreed. He sighed. "Well, you"ve got grit. I expected at least a worried expression."
She shrugged. "We"ve sort of cornered the market on dangerous men in this town," she reminded him. "Look what happened to Lopez, even though he didn"t buy the farm here."
"And to his replacement, Cara Dominguez," he reminded her. "None of these smugglers believe the hype about our resident mercs," he chuckled. "Their misfortune. Okay. You"re not rattled. That"s good. But we"re taking some steps to keep you alive until you testify."
"Kevlar?" she suggested.
He studied her for a long moment, his eyes narrow as he seemed to mentally weigh the factors.
"I know some things that you don"t about Jacobsville," he replied. "You"re going to be safer than you"ll realize. Just help us out by not going anywhere alone, especially at night."
"Don"t tell me," she chuckled. "You"ve got snipers stationed in the pecan trees."
He laughed. "Nothing quite so visible. Just trust me."
She nodded. His reputation in police work was formidable. If he said she was safe, she was. But she wondered how it was being handled.
"You won"t tell me anything even if I ask, will you?" she returned.
He grinned. "Not a word. Keeping secrets is my stock in trade."
She sighed. "Okay, then. I"ll stay inside and away from the windows."
"That should do the trick until we can get enough on the hired gun to lock him up."
"You wouldn"t like to tell me who he is?" she fished.
"No, I wouldn"t. Not even if I knew. You"re safer that way. I"ll be in touch."
"Okay. Thanks."
"You"re welcome."
He drove away and she ground her teeth together. One more thing, she thought, to drive me nuts. They should have left her in San Antonio and set her up in a controlled area and offered to let the hit man do his worst. Instead she was stuck here in small town America with a killer in close proximity and they said she was safe.
She threw up her hands and went back to work. She didn"t share the tidbit of information with Consuelo, or Rodrigo. Neither of them had any idea what a mess her life was in. She wanted it to stay that way.
7.
GLORY HATED FEELING helpless. If she was a good shot, and she had a pistol, she might have been able to defend herself. But she couldn"t shoot. She wasn"t whole physically, and she"d never had anyone do more than threaten to kill her. Death threats were a part of the job for most people in law enforcement and the court system. She knew judges who carried pistols to the bench under their robes and she knew some who"d survived attacks. She"d always known that if she became a prosecuting attorney, there would be the occasional threat. But this one was deadly. Fuentes didn"t want to spend his life in prison. He was going to make sure that Glory didn"t testify.
Cash said she was safer than she realized. She wondered if he had someone working on the farm, keeping an eye on her. It would have helped her mental att.i.tude a little. But a covert scan of all the workers didn"t produce anyone suspicious.
She felt Rodrigo watching her as she and Consuelo sat down with him at the table to eat supper. He was astute for a man who ran a truck farm. Pity, she thought, that he was so good at management, and he"d never continued his education. She"d never asked what was the last grade of school he"d completed. Perhaps, she told herself, she didn"t really want to know.
Then it hit her. What if Rodrigo was not only mixed up in the drug trade-what if he was the a.s.sa.s.sin? Her fork fell out of her fingers and hit the plate with a loud noise.
"What is it?" Rodrigo asked, frowning.
She was staring at him in utter horror. No, she told herself. No, it couldn"t be! But what did she know about him, really? Only what he volunteered. He was personable, a good dancer, a hard worker and he spoke several languages. But so did a lot of criminals. He was gone every Wednesday, along with Castillo. When she"d told Cash that, his expression had closed up like a trap. Cash had said that Fuentes had sent the hit man after her, but that didn"t mean the killer hadn"t already been put in place for the mission. For all she knew, Fuentes might have had her tailed and tracked here to Jacobsville weeks ago. Here, where Rodrigo was close and could kill her if he was ordered to. Her heart sank deeper in her chest.
"Are you all right?" Rodrigo repeated, his accent slightly thicker as he stared at her.
"I"m getting clumsy," Glory excused her slip, picking up the fork again and smiling sheepishly. "It"s peeling all those peaches. My fingers are rebelling."
Consuelo laughed. "I know how you feel! We will both be stronger than weight lifters soon, with all this exercise."
"The peach crop is almost through," Rodrigo advised them. "Only a few more days and we"ll be done."
"Thank goodness!" Glory exclaimed.
He gave her a long look. "Of course, by then the first apples will be ready for picking..."
Both women groaned aloud. He only laughed.
SHE WAS WORKING IN the kitchen when Rodrigo walked in with Consuelo"s son, Marco. Consuelo was hesitant, but the boy grinned and picked up his mother and whirled her around.
"I"m sorry I was short with you last time," he told the woman. "I was just having some problems, but they"re all solved now. Rodrigo said I could come back, if you don"t mind."
Consuelo hugged him back, tearfully. "Of course you can come back!"
He kissed her. "You"re too good to me."
"Yes, I am," Consuelo replied, but she laughed.
Rodrigo was staring at Glory. He wanted to ask what was making her study him that way, but it was early morning and he had to get things organized in the fields. Sooner or later, he told himself, they were going to have to try to talk to each other. If he"d made her pregnant, he had to know. Then, choices would have to be discussed. He hoped it wasn"t true. Glory had made it obvious that she didn"t want a child. Or perhaps she did, but she didn"t want one with a common laborer who made a living with his hands. He felt cold all over. He couldn"t tell her the truth about himself. When he did, it would place even more barriers between them. He didn"t want a glorified housekeeper as a wife, any more than she wanted a foreign farm worker as a husband. It was demeaning, just the same, to think she didn"t want his child. She"d told him that she had health problems, and he knew her hip gave her trouble, but that was no reason for being unable to carry a child. The fact was that she didn"t want the child of a common farm worker. She wouldn"t admit it, but he knew just the same. It wounded his pride.
ACTUALLY GLORY WAS having more health problems by the day. But she hid it well. Fortunately she had nausea at night, rather than in the morning. She had a pretty good idea about what was causing her sudden illness, and it tormented her. She couldn"t possibly have the child. She was living a lie. Rodrigo wasn"t even in her own social cla.s.s, and he might be a criminal. He might be the killer Fuentes had hired to put Glory out of his way. She remembered a comment her doctor had made some time ago, about her high blood pressure. Some women, he said, were fortunate enough to have their blood pressure go down when they were pregnant. But Glory"s put her at high risk for a pregnancy. He said that her career was risk enough, without the addition of pregnancy. She"d a.s.sured him that she never wanted a child.
But now that had changed. She was fascinated with the reality of a child growing inside her. She"d been alone most of her life. The Pendletons were kind to her, but they weren"t her family. The child would be of her own blood.
That was the most worrying thought of all. Her mother had been mentally ill, she was certain of it. Some behavioral abnormalities could be pa.s.sed down from parent to child. What if the baby wasn"t normal?
"What is making you so worried?" Consuelo asked one morning when Glory arrived in the kitchen with dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep.
"Worried?" Glory thought fast. "Well, it"s not exactly worry..." She poured herself some coffee and refused food. "Rodrigo hardly speaks to me lately."
"Ah." Consuelo smiled. "So that"s it."
"He seemed to like me at first," Glory replied. "But lately he avoids me."
"Yes, he does." She paused. "And you are in love with him."
Glory couldn"t help the sudden radiance in her face, the brilliance in her eyes behind the rounded frames of her gla.s.ses.
"I thought so," Consuelo murmured. "I could see it when you danced with him, at the fiesta. He likes you very much, but he thinks he is still in love with the pretty blonde woman. He is conflicted."
That brought Glory back down to earth. "I look a little like her, don"t I?" she asked, sticking the knife in her own heart.
Consuelo grimaced.
Glory nodded. "That"s what I thought, too. I remind him of her, but I"m not married to someone else."
"That may be true." She studied Glory curiously. "But on the other hand, perhaps he is beginning to feel something for you and he doesn"t like it."
Glory sighed. "I guess that could be true, as well," she agreed.
CASTILLO WAS LEANING against the back door later when Glory had to go out to the warehouse for more peaches. She was wearing a pretty white sundress embroidered with yellow sunflowers. It had puffy sleeves and a full skirt. Her hair was in its usual braid. She looked young and fresh. It had been extremely hot in the kitchen and the air-conditioning unit wasn"t coping well with the blazing heat. She rarely ever wore very feminine clothes. Consuelo had loaned her the dress. Thick jeans were just too hot in that kitchen.
"You know, you"re not bad looking," he remarked with open l.u.s.t in his small, close-s.p.a.ced eyes. "I could go for you."
Glory wasn"t afraid of him. Not when she knew Rodrigo was nearby, at least. She turned and looked at him without blinking. "I"m not in the market for a boyfriend, Mr. Castillo," she said flatly.
"Honey, every woman wants a man," he drawled, moving deliberately closer to her. "Even if she doesn"t know it."
She backed up a step.
He only laughed. "That"s it. I like a woman who pretends she isn"t interested. Go ahead and fight me, nia. It makes it more exciting."
He reached out and caught the front of her sundress with his forefinger, tugging it down so that the swell of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s was visible. She felt sick all over.
Before she could react and slap his hand away, she saw Castillo"s expression suddenly change just before he went flying backward onto the ground.
Rodrigo stepped past Glory, his furious eyes on the downed man. He cursed him in Spanish and challenged him to get up and fight like a man. For a man who seemed to be calm and laid-back most of the time, Rodrigo looked amazingly dangerous now. Even Glory took a step backward when she saw his tall body tense.
Castillo fingered his bruised jaw. He was trying to hide it, but he was afraid of the taller man. Ramirez had moved like lightning. Castillo hadn"t even seen the attack coming, and he was used to fights. He flushed as he dragged himself to his feet. "Lo siento," he told Rodrigo. "I didn"t know she was yours."
"You know now," Rodrigo bit off. His voice was very soft, but the tone was chilling. "Leave her alone."
"Sure. Sure!"
Castillo moved away without another glance at Glory.
She was trying to catch her breath and not succeeding very well. She looked up at Rodrigo curiously. His eyes were still filling with anger. His fists were clenched at his side as he turned to her.
"Thank you," she began.
"If you don"t want unwelcome company, dress like a working woman, not like a debutante strolling in a rose garden," he said bluntly. His tone was crisp. Furious.
She gaped at him. "I"m wearing a sundress! It isn"t even suggestive...!"
"You wear blouses and slacks or jeans on the job here," he interrupted. "I have better things to do with my days than protecting you from other men!"
"Buster, if I had a blunt object right now, you"d need protecting from me!" she shot back at him. "It"s hot in the kitchen and the air-conditioning isn"t working today! We called the repairman, but he hasn"t come yet. So Consuelo loaned me one of her dresses, because I don"t have any! Anyway, I"m not wearing baggy pants and an overcoat in my kitchen just because your men can"t control their own l.u.s.tful urges!"
He stepped in closer, so that she could feel the heat and power of his body next to hers. "You are getting even because I avoid you," he accused.
Her eyebrows arched. "You"re avoiding me? Really? I"m sorry. I didn"t notice!"
A dusky patch overlaid his high cheekbones. His eyes were black with fury. The words wounded him, and he struck back. "Do you think you were an experience no man could forget?" he asked, lowering his voice so that only she could hear him. His eyes were ice-cold. "An inexperienced, frightened innocent who didn"t even know how to respond to a man"s ardor?"
The insult hit home, and she couldn"t hide it.
That seemed to make him even madder. "What are you doing out here in the first place?"
"We need another bushel of peaches to finish out this batch."
"I"ll send Angel up with them. Anything else?"
"No, thank you." Her tone was as cold as her pride. She turned and went back into the house without another word.
HE WATCHED HER OVER the supper table. She had a small salad and a gla.s.s of iced tea, refused dessert and excused herself, all without meeting his eyes once.
"What"s wrong with her?" Consuelo asked softly when she was out of the room. "Have the two of you had a fight?"
"I don"t fight with employees," he returned. "The truth is that she"s attracted to me and I find her unappealing. I grow weary of the heartsick looks she sends my way. She"s hardly the type of woman I would choose," he added coldly. "She is uneducated and she has nothing to offer a man of experience. She has the naivete and the instincts of an adolescent. I felt sorry for her, and I was kind. She misinterpreted my compa.s.sion for affection. And," he said, finishing his coffee, "let"s face it, she"s no man"s idea of an American beauty. Not with that long hair out of a fairy tale and those atrocious gla.s.ses she wears. No man would fall all over himself trying to seduce a woman so plain, who lacks even the most basic dress sense."
"You should not say such things about her," Consuelo chided. "It would wound her to have you speak in such a manner."
"She will not know. Unless you tell her," he replied.
"As if I would wish to hurt her. She is a good woman."
"Good women are boring," he laughed. "I prefer mine wicked and overstimulated."
"Oh, you!"
Glory turned away from the half-closed door and made her way back down the hall, tears streaming down her pale face.
She didn"t understand how Rodrigo could be so cruel after the long, sweet interlude in her bed. She"d given in without a fight. She"d responded wholeheartedly. But she was a novice, and he liked experience. She felt cheap. Used. Unwanted. She"d come down here to save her life, but her heart was being killed. Somehow, the threat of Fuentes"s revenge wasn"t half so painful as Rodrigo calling her plain and saying he didn"t want her. He considered her uneducated-she, who"d graduated with honors from law school!
It was worse, somehow, because she was almost certainly pregnant. She didn"t dare tell him now, not after what she"d overheard. She had to get Fuentes back into court and convicted so that she could stop living a lie. She wanted her old life back. She never wanted to see Rodrigo again as long as she lived!