“You do not seem so cocky now, Morgan,” he said. “Have you lost your courage?”
Steve shrugged. His eyes were dark blue, ruthless in a face that had been battered by heavy fists.
“It’s easy to taunt a man who’s tied up, Delgado. Cut me free and ask me that question.”
“Ah, no, that would be foolish.” Delgado moved to the small wooden table against the far wall and poured dark wine into a cup, then turned to gaze at them, satisfaction glittering in his dark eyes. “This has turned out much more pleasing than I had thought. You have been of great help, Morgan.”
“Glad I could oblige,” Steve drawled. “What do you hope to gain by this? You can’t keep a United States senator captive forever. Every soldier in Texas will be out looking for you.”
“But I am not in Texas. I am in Mexico. Even your famous Rangers cannot follow me here.” Delgado looked quite pleased with himself, his smile smug. “It was a great stroke of fortune that delivered the bait to lure you. I had not thought of using your children.”
Steve’s gaze shifted to the senator, a flick of his eyes that made the Mexican grin.
“Yes, he saved me much trouble. I am grateful to him for his thorough attention to details.”
“Morgan…” The rasping voice dragged Steve’s gaze to the cot as Brandon struggled to sit up. “Not the way I planned. Would not harm them.”
“Shut up, old man,” Delgado barked. “You are useless to me now that I have what I want. Do not tread too harshly or I will rid myself of your presence.”
Steve stretched out his legs, hooked one foot lazily over his other ankle and leaned his head back against the wall.
“I think I’m getting the picture here. It wasn’t the senator who planned this. It was you.”
“Of course it was me. After you killed Luna, I had to think of some way to keep the senator interested in mining for silver. He thinks only of railroads, of laying tracks into Mexico to take out copper and silver instead of where the true profit lies. Mules are more efficient, prisoners productive in getting the silver out without Díaz knowing how much is produced. Not even the senator knows just how much ore the Galena has yielded. I am a very wealthy man, Morgan. I will not allow the stupidity of one greedy gringo to ruin it all for me.”
“So you used the senator just like you used Rafael Luna and his desire for vengeance.”
“It was much easier. I had no way of funding the mine. Once I had Brandon interested in financing the production, it was easy enough to manage. Luna was quite clever, but he allowed his lust for a woman to cloud his judgment. If you had not rid me of him, I would have had to do it myself.”
“And now? You have us all here.”
“Yes.” Delgado rose from the chair, tilting back his head to toss down the last of the wine. “You are dangerous to me. You know too much, and you have an annoying habit of destroying my plans.”
“Let the children go. Killing them won’t solve anything.”
“It is unfortunate that they must die, but children die every day. By the time your bodies are discovered out here, you will be old bones. Ramirez!” An armed guard nodded when Delgado said, “Take them out and kill them, then cover the bodies with rock.”
Ginny’s breath caught painfully. Desperate, she hugged Laura and Franco to her, her eyes seeking Steve’s in the hope that he could avert disaster. But he was being dragged to his feet with Paco, both of them shoved toward the door covered with a ragged blanket.
Tante Celine moaned softly as the guards motioned for them to rise, and Ginny remembered the knife she still kept strapped to her thigh.
As the children began to cry, she hushed them, her hands trembling as she stroked their small heads. “It will be all right, little ones,” she comforted them in French. “Listen to me and do whatever I tell you.”
Senator Brandon was hauled from the cot, staggering as he was guided toward the door. The blanket lifted briefly when Steve and Paco emerged, allowing in a shaft of fading light. Then, suddenly, Steve was lunging forward, his arms somehow free of restraint, a gun filling his hand as he tuned, aimed and fired.
Delgado swore harshly, then gave a grunt of surprise as a bullet punched a neat hole in the middle of his forehead. Eyes wide, he pitched forward soundlessly.
Ginny jerked as a volley of gunfire filled the arroyo. She heard men shouting and a bugle blare. The colonel had kept his word!
Senator Brandon stumbled, threw his weight into the man nearest him with a piercing howl that Ginny had never heard before. It sounded like a battle cry: it was the perfect distraction.
Moving swiftly, she drew the sharp little knife from beneath her skirt before their guards could react and plunged it into the man nearest her, the blade piercing his heart so swiftly that he dropped like a stone, an expression of shock on his face.
Wrenching it free, Ginny hissed in French to her aunt and the children that they must run and hide. She turned to the other guard and saw in his eyes a flare of rage and fear as her arm lifted. A bark of muzzle fire erupted, smelling of sulphur and heat, an orange spurt close to her face. A sharp pain seared into her shoulder, but her forward momentum drove the knife into the man before he could retreat.
All around her was pandemonium, the sound of gunfire and men shouting washing over her in a blur. Ginny was vaguely aware of a woman screaming when she collapsed atop the guard, her fist still clutching the dagger’s handle, the blade imbedded in his throat. The gagging sounds faded and the wash of
