The Outlaws (24 page)

Ezra nodded, knowing Billy spoke the truth. If he thought about it, this was something he knew, but hadn’t figured into what they meant to do. But Billy figured in everything. That’s why no lawman would ever catch him. The tendejon was still in business. Billy pushed into the place with Ezra following and being careful not to look directly at any of women.

“Now, mi amigo,” Billy said, “I’m going to see you get the prettiest senorita here.”

Ezra glanced at Billy, who wore a teasing grin. Ezra thought he’d successfully concealed the fact he’d never taken a woman to bed, but it was plain Billy knew it.

“How about that one?” Billy nodded his head at a lushly curved woman in a low-cut red gown.

Ezra swallowed and shook his head. He couldn’t deny she was attractive and even excited him, but her smile hinted of experience, of knowledge Ezra hadn’t learned, and that unnerved him.

He figured when he was alone with her she’d laugh at him. Yet if he tried to back out completely, Billy would realize he was afraid. Ezra knew he couldn’t bear that.

“Maybe you want to choose one for yourself,” Billy said. “Which one?”

Ezra licked dry lips as he looked from one woman to the next. His heart hammered in his chest. He longed to be able to swagger up to one of them like Billy could and smile and slip an arm about her.

He couldn’t. It’d be far worse if Billy laughed at him than if one of these women did. He had to make a choice. Pick one of them. He spotted a tiny woman, half-hidden behind a buxom senorita who was laughing up at a bearded man.

“That one,” he said to Billy, gesturing with his head.

“The big one?” Billy sounded surprised.

“No. Behind her. See?”

“She’s all yours, amigo. Go and get her.” Billy gave Ezra a push that sent him stumbling.

Ezra caught himself and walked on, his palms sweating, the blood roaring in his ears.

“Buenas tardes, senorita,” he managed to blurt out when he stood facing her.

She stared up at him with widened eyes. Fear lurked in their dark depths and Ezra blinked in surprise. There was nothing about him that ought to scare her.

She tried to smile.

Two guitar players put down their drinks and began strumming a spirited tune. Couples moved into a cleared space to dance.

Ezra hadn’t danced with a girl since that time with Violet. He didn’t know how well he’d do with so many people watching.

“What’s your name?” he asked, speaking in Spanish.

“Juanita.” The word was so soft he hardly heard it.

“Mine’s Ezra.”

“Ez-ra? That name is new to me.”

“Do you want to dance?”

Juanita looked relieved, A genuine smile lighted her face, making her quite pretty for a moment. He thought she probably wasn’t any older than he was.

“Oh, yes, let’s dance,” she agreed.

He put an arm about her waist and moved onto the tiny dance floor. Juanita was light on her feet so that he didn’t do too badly as they whirled and dipped. The feel of her body against his began to arouse him.

He realized she was aware of this when she whispered, “May I have a drink before we go upstairs?”

God knows, he could use a drink!

They stood in a corner sipping aguardiente; sweet and fiery. He was in no more of a hurry than she to finish and finally they both had a second glass.

When that was gone, Ezra felt the liquor’s warmth spreading into his loins and suddenly he was eager to go upstairs with Juanita.

In a small room, barely big enough for the cot, a chair and a wash stand, Juanita slid off her black dress, folding it neatly on the chair. She wore nothing underneath. He caught his breath, his hands fumbling with his belt.

Her small breasts were peaked with tan nipples that stood erect in the coolness of the upstairs. Her body curved in to a tiny waist, then out to the fullness of her hips. When he glanced at her face, he saw her eyes were cast down.

Ezra lifted her chin, forcing her to look at him. Her eyes had a glazed look, but he thought terror flickered beneath.

“What’s the matter?” he asked.

“Nothing.” Her voice was slightly slurred. “Do you not wish to undress?”

He was eager to feel her skin against his and hurried to get out of his clothes. He reached for Juanita, pulling her against him. She was as cold as ice. He felt her shiver.

“We can get under the blanket,” he offered, pulling her down onto the cot.

She made no resistance.

Ezra lay on his side, holding her close to him, his throbbing sex thrust against the soft skin of her thighs. He caressed her back, ran his hand along the curve of her hip.

It wasn’t as though he didn’t know what came next. He did. And he wanted very much to do it. He was on fire with the need to thrust inside her. But he waited, stroking her. She yielded to every move he made, but he sensed her unwillingness. He wanted her to want him and he knew she not only didn’t but wasn’t even pretending she did.

“Is it me?” he asked hoarsely, pulling slightly away from her.

“What? I don’t understand.

“Is there something about me you don’t like?”

“No, Ezra, I like you very much. Better than most.”

“Then why are you so afraid?”

“I’m not afraid of you. Not anymore.”

He looked at her face in the flickering light of the candle on the wall. Her eyes were pools of shadow that told him nothing.

“But you were afraid at first.’’

She nodded. ‘“Because you are a tall man.”

Ezra tended to forget he’d shot up to six feet. Still, what did that have to do with anything?

“Big men sometimes choose me because I am so small. Because they like to hurt me.” She seemed to sense his confusion. “Not when they take me, not that. It is not very much different, one man from another, doing that.”

With her words, his desire lessened. She reached down and touched his sex lightly. He gasped as her fingers stroked him.

“I think we have talked enough,” she said.

Her hands urged him to move over her, guided him inside her. Everything faded but the overwhelming excitement of her inner warmth and softness. He moved and thrust, his passion out of control, mounting, peaking. Exploding. Yet when he was finished and lay resting on the cot, Ezra felt cheated of all he had wanted. He’d tried somehow to make more of this than Juanita was willing to grant him. He watched her wash herself, seeing for the first time a pattern of dark stripes across her bare back and buttocks.

He sat up. “What are those marks on your back?” he asked.

She glanced over her shoulder at him. “I told you. From a man who wanted to hurt me. He used his belt.”

Her voice was matter-of-fact. “I can’t tell which men will be like that until we come upstairs, and then it’s too late.”

He felt sick, the liquor sour in his stomach. He rose from the cot and dressed quickly.

Juanita, her dress covering her once more, put her hand on his arm.

“With you it was very sweet,” she said.

Her smile was also sweet, but Ezra thought her eyes were haunted. He realized with a shock he was seeing Violet’s face instead of Juanita’s, and he understood then that he’d chosen this girl because she reminded him of Violet.

Ezra leaned over and kissed Juanita gently on the lips. “I wish you didn’t have to work here,” he said.

She drew back. “It’s not so bad. I’ll soon have enough money so I can get married. Where else could I earn such money?” She smoothed her hair. “I don’t think you understand, Ezra.”

Hastily he reached into his pocket for his money, handed all he found to Juanita, thinking that, no, he didn’t understand. Anymore than he understood why Violet let herself be hurt and humiliated by Billy’s indifference.

“But I have given myself to Billy,” Violet had told him when he’d tried to talk to her about it. “It’s the same as being married. A wife must stay with her husband. Be true to him, no matter what.”

“You’re not married to him,” he’d protested, but Violet had said he was a man and men didn’t know how women felt about these things.

Ezra was sure Billy didn’t care one way or the other whether Violet was with him or not. And Billy certainly didn’t think of himself as Violet’s husband.

Ezra trailed down the stairs after Juanita. He found Billy at the monte table. Winning. He sat down and managed to lose what little money he had left.

He purposely didn’t look around, not wanting to risk seeing Juanita with another man.

He and Billy left El Paso just after midnight, following a road that wound downstream along the Rio Grande. The country was desolate under a sickle moon. Barren.

“Enjoy yourself?” Billy asked.

“Lost all my money.”

Billy laughed. “Maybe I got ahold of your luck tonight. How about the girl?” Ezra shrugged. He didn’t want to talk about it. About her.

“Well, amigo, you were the one who chose her. I have no complaints about my evening.” He grinned at Ezra.

“How’d you like to be a Texas Ranger?” he asked after a moment.

Ezra stared at him.

“We’re going to join up, Ez. Going to be full-fledged Rangers by the time we get to that San Elizario calabozo. First of all, though, we’ll find a horse for old Jose. As I remember, he’s partial to roans,”

“You think we look like Rangers?” Ezra asked.

“Why not? It’s all in the way you do the thing that counts.”

Ezra’s spirits lifted. It was plain Billy had one of his daredevil plans in mind. There’d be excitement and maybe fireworks. Nothing so dull as tying a rope to jail window bars and hoping your horse could pull them free from the adobe.

By the time they reached San Elizario it was past three o’clock. Ezra had gotten over feeling tired and his nerves were taut with expectation as he followed Billy along a narrow alleyway a block from the jail, leading a rangy roan Billy had separated from a remuda at an outlying ranch.

“We’ll leave the horses here.” Billy muttered.

They dismounted and tethered them to a gatepost at the end of the alley.

No lights showed. The entire town seemed to be asleep.

Billy and Ezra stepped out of the alley. Up ahead a dim glow showed from a window in the jail. As they neared it, Ezra saw it was a dilapidated, small adobe.

Billy strode directly to the wooden plank door and thumped his fist against it.

“Open up!” he ordered, then repeated the command in Spanish, easing his Colt from his holster as he spoke.

Ezra pulled his own pistol.

After a moment a man’s voice from inside called, “Quien es?”

‘‘Texas Rangers,” Billy said in Spanish. “Open up. It’s cold as hell out here and we’ve got two American prisoners.”

Ezra heard keys clank together. The door swung slowly open, Billy shoved in, thrusting the muzzle of his Colt into the fat belly of a sleepy-eyed jailer.

The Mexican raised his hands and Ezra, close behind Billy, disarmed the man, then grabbed his keys and handed them to Billy.

As Billy reached for the keys, a guard appeared in an inner doorway. His hand dropped toward his holster.

“I wouldn’t,” Ezra said, finger on the trigger.

“El Chivato!” the guard exclaimed, looking from Ezra to Billy. His hands rose into the air.

Ezra eased his finger off the trigger. After disarming the second man, Billy left Ezra guarding the two Mexicans and walked through the open door to the cells.

“Jose?” he called. “Como le va, amigo?”

“Nombre de Dios,” a voice said, “it really is you, Billy!”

Ezra heard the key rattle in the cell lock and Billy appeared with Jose Chavez behind him.

“I spit on this miserable hole!” Chavez said. “Give me one of those pistols, compadre, so I can make certain these bastardos never lock me in it again.”

“No shooting, Jose,” Billy warned. “We been nice and quiet so far. Find yourself a saddle and let’s vamoose.”

Chavez didn’t argue.|

Ezra went for the horses, bringing them to the jail. Billy held the guards at gunpoint while Chavez threw a saddle on the roan. They mounted and galloped out of town, heading back to El Paso.

As soon as San Elizario was behind them, Billy pulled up alongside Chavez and handed over a silver-handled Colt he’d taken from the fat jailer.

“Gracias,” Chavez said. “How did you find me?”

“Your cousin Miguel. You planning to join up with me again, Jose?”|

“I have a wife in Chihuahua now, Billy. You understand.”

“Sure. If you happen to be around Fort Sumner sometime, look me up.

“I’ll do that. Send for me if you’re ever in jail, Billy.”

“I don’t expect to be behind bars again, old friend.”

“Anyway, you don’t look much like a Texas Ranger.” Jose laughed, waved, and turned off the El Paso road to be swallowed up in the dark.

Ezra tried to relax, his muscles still tense from the confrontation with the jailers. Would he have shot the guard if the man had grabbed for his gun?