He did now.
For he was still alive, and the doctor who had brought him to the point of suicide was long dead—killed by one of the young men he had forced to submit to his advances, gutted like a fish and left to die in his own blood.
A fitting end for a man who had caused so much misery and death.
“Men who live by the gun, die by the gun,” his grandfather had told him too many times to count. Maybe he’d end one day as the doctor had ended, dying the way he had lived. But for him it would be with a gun in his hand.
But not now. No, not now, by God!
“Amigo,” came a whisper in the dark, “there is water to wash your cuts here….”
It was an offer out of despair, an act of humanity in an inhumane place. Steve looked up, saw in the fitful light that filtered through the bars of their cell the face of his cell mate, and nodded.
“Gracias, amigo….”
As his cell mate gingerly washed his back, sluicing a small amount of their precious drinking water over the raw cuts, Steve reflected on his situation.
It was all too familiar to him, the dark days of tedious back-breaking labor deep in the mine shafts. All he had to do was wait. He would have plenty of time to do nothing but think and plan. Like before, he would escape. And like before, he would kill the man who had put him here.
LA CORTESANA
22
How unnerving it all was. It was the end of autumn, the end of a presidency, and the air of death permeated the entire city. Ginny was given an apartment in a little house off the main plaza, and since she had brought only the barest of necessities with her, Lerdo generously saw to her wardrobe.
“It is the least I can do for you, Señora Alvarado, since I am the cause of so much inconvenience to you. Luna should not have overstepped his bounds.”
Rafael Luna would do much more than overstep his bounds if she gave him even half a chance, Ginny realized, for he was at her heels at every opportunity. He was her escort—a guard for her own safety, of course—but she knew that it was much more than that. While it was obvious that he wanted her in his bed, there was an underlying reason for his constant attendance on her as well. Why else would be go to so much trouble? And why else would he stop her from finding Steve?
Steve. She was sick with worry for him, and had not been able to get a message to Don Francisco, though she had certainly attempted it. Luna, of course, for reasons of his own, intercepted her messenger. She shuddered to think of the man’s fate, for she had not seen him since.
“Señora, as you are on a mission of some delicacy, you must not continue to attempt sending messages. Surely, you realize the danger to el presidente should you be so foolish as to say the wrong thing.” A faint smile curled Luna’s mouth, and his eyes were watchful, regarding her with the same hot gaze that made her feel as if he knew what she looked like beneath her gown.
“I am not a fool, General Luna, but I am worried about my husband. Since you profess to be ignorant of his fate, I must find him myself.”
“Should you continue, you may find to your sorrow that he has been lost forever. Do not provoke trouble, señora.”
“Are you threatening me?” Ginny was furious, her hands knotting into fists at her sides. She clenched them into the silk of her skirts and snarled, “I refuse to be intimidated!”
“There is a vast difference between intimidation and warning, but you will do as you see fit, of course.” Luna observed her coolly, and she bit her tongue to keep from lashing out unwisely. Why warn him of her intention?
She wanted to ask, why? but was too stubborn to give him the satisfaction. An indifferent shrug was her only reaction to his intimidation, and that sufficiently annoyed him.
It was a duel between them, and she had the despairing thought at times that she was being forced into retreat.
Fretfully, she insisted that Lerdo discover what had happened to Steve, and told him that she suspected Luna had something to do with his disappearance.
“I have no sound basis other than intuition, but I am certain he not only knows what happened to Steve, but he is somehow behind it.”
Lerdo looked surprised. “But what reason would he have for harming him? They have never met, you said.”
“Not to my knowledge…no, they must not have known each other or Steve would have recognized him in Ojinaga. Oh, I don’t know why Luna would want to get rid of him, but he did. I know he did. There is no other logical reason why Steve is not here at this moment. As the Mexican ambassador, he may have incurred Luna’s enmity without meeting him.”
“And is it not possible that your husband had his own plans, Doña Genia?” Lerdo smiled gently. Deep circles under his eyes bespoke his sleepless nights, and he held himself with the air of a man resigned to his fate. “It is far more likely that the nature of his business would call him away, is it not? This is not the first time he has suddenly disappeared, you must admit. I remember him in California. He had a reputation for being a man of danger and mystery then, too.”
“There is a vast difference between mystery and sudden disappearance, Your Excellency.” Ginny kept her tone calm with an
