Someone Like You (Night Riders) (6 page)

She’d also stayed because of Luis.

“The only reason I’m here is to take care of Luis and manage the house.” She wasn’t just taking care of Luis until something better came along. She loved him. It would break her heart to lose him.

“As executor and heir to half the ranch, I think it’s within my rights to request a small amount of your time.”

She couldn’t argue with that. He had the power to relieve her of her duties and order her to leave the house. She wondered if that was why he’d brought her outside. She had never considered living at the ranch to be a permanent situation, but over the last nine years it had become her home. Luis and Dolores were her family. As long as Warren had been alive, as long as she thought Dolores would inherit the ranch, there had been a clear expectation that she would remain. Warren must have intended for her to stay after his death, or he wouldn’t have made her joint guardian of Luis. She shouldn’t let her distrust of Rafe cause her to jump to
conclusions. “You’re quite right. I’m used to being the one to make decisions. It’ll probably take me a while to change.”

Rafe regarded her in silence for a moment. “I haven’t said I want to make a change. I know nothing about taking care of a young boy, but I intend to learn.”

Terror that she might lose Luis raced through her. “Are you saying you want me to stay on until you can find someone to replace me?” When she’d first learned about the will, everything Dolores had said about Rafe had led her to expect they’d both have to leave. But when months went by without the lawyer being able to locate Rafe, she’d started to believe he’d never be found and she would be allowed to stay.

“I don’t know. I don’t think you’re like Dolores, but she’s your sister so I don’t know if I can trust you. You appear to have done a good job with Luis’s education, but it seems he never leaves the house. How is that going to help him know what to do with a ranch?”

Rafe’s criticism stung. She was aware Luis needed a much broader education than she could give him, but she’d done the best she knew how with the boy.

“I was only fifteen when Dolores invited me to live with her, so you might say Luis and I have grown up together. I knew nothing of horses, ranch management, or any of the sports and activities men find so necessary. I repeatedly urged your father to take an interest in the boy, but he refused.”

“I can’t understand that. My father put me up in the saddle with him before I could walk.”

How could she tell him that Warren wouldn’t see the child because looking at him reminded him of the son he’d lost, the son he apparently loved even after ordering him to leave the house? Despite what he’d done, Rosana insisted Rafe’s leaving had broken his father’s heart. She wondered if she’d feel the same about Luis. He was practically like her own son.

“I asked your father for his reason, but he never gave it.
He became very reclusive after you left. During the last two years of his life, he rarely left his room.”

“No doubt that was Dolores’s doing.”

It was hard for her to accept his deep dislike of her sister without throwing his own errors in his face. She’d never been in love, so she could only imagine how devastating it must have been to learn that the woman he loved planned to marry his father. But that had happened ten years ago. It was time to move beyond those past injuries.

“It hasn’t been easy for Dolores. She’s too young and too pretty to settle willingly into widowhood, and her allowance is too small to allow her the freedom she wants.”

“Don’t waste your time asking me to increase her allowance. If it were in my power, I’d eliminate it altogether.”

“She was your father’s wife, the mother of your…brother.” She still stumbled when she said that.

“That woman destroyed my life and ruined my father’s. She’s cold, conniving, calculating, and utterly without conscience. I’m glad you were here to take care of Luis. There might be a chance for him despite the blood in his veins.”

“The same blood runs in
my
veins.”

“I haven’t forgotten that.” His tone was cold, unyielding.

“If you wish any changes in the house hold arrangements, just let me know. If you would prefer that I hand them over to Rosana, I’ll do so.”

“I don’t want that.”

She hoped her relief didn’t show. She stood. “Is there anything more you wish to say?”

“We have to talk about Luis.”

“It would be better if you spent some time getting to know him first.”

Rafe had been leaning against one of the supports of the gazebo. Without warning, it cracked, splintered, and collapsed. Maria hardly knew how it occurred—it was such a surprise and happened so quickly—but she found herself in Rafe’s arms, safely outside the gazebo as the structure collapsed
on itself. It would have been hard to say which caused the greater shock. “You can put me down now.” She didn’t know how she managed to sound so normal. She felt anything but.

“Are you sure you can stand?”

“Thanks to you, I wasn’t hurt.”

“It must be a shock.”

“I’ve had worse.” But nothing more startling than finding herself in the arms of a man like Rafe. When he set her on her feet, her legs were wobbly.

Rafe knelt down to inspect the fallen timbers. Maria didn’t know what he could see in the dark, but Rafe’s inspection was thorough.

Rafe turned to look at her. “Have you seen anyone hanging around the gazebo?”

“No, but I can’t see it from the house. Why?”

“Someone has worn down the wood in an unobtrusive way. Someone wanted the gazebo to collapse.”

“Why? Nobody uses it but me.”

Rafe’s gaze narrowed. “Who could want you killed or badly injured?”

The thought that anyone could want to harm her was too absurd to entertain. “No one. No one would have anything to gain by my death.”

Rafe regarded the jumble of wood. “Someone must think he does.

“I’ll look again tomorrow,” he continued. “In the meantime, try to think of why someone would want you dead.”

“Surely I wouldn’t have been killed if it had fallen on me.”

“The beams across the top are four inches thick, twelve inches wide, and about twenty feet long. Any one of them would have crushed your skull.”

Maria couldn’t make herself believe anyone would want her dead, but she didn’t want to think about it anymore. “It would be nice if you would spend some time tomorrow with Luis. He needs to get to know you.”

“Why?”

“You’re the heir, the executor, his guardian. You’ll be living here.”

“I don’t want to inherit this ranch or have anything to do with it. I’m heading back to Texas as soon as I can.”

Maria closed the door to her room and breathed a relieved sigh. Over the years she had come to feel that her room was a sanctuary, a place of quiet in the midst of constant drama. She was still reeling from Rafe’s disclosure that he would be returning to Texas as soon as possible. It didn’t make sense. Why should a man walk away from such an inheritance? In Texas he was an ordinary cowhand. Here he would own half of a ranch that would make him one of the richest men in California. No man in his right mind walked away from something like that!

How would his leaving affect her? Since she was joint guardian of Luis, she doubted she would be turned out. She’d hoped to see Luis grow up and assume his rightful position in society. She would be devastated if she had to leave. Luis had become an integral part of her life, the child she didn’t have, the child she might
never
have. But running such a huge ranch on her own would be impossible.

Who would help her? Miguel was planning to leave at the end of the harvest to go live with his cousin near San Diego. There was no one to take his place, to teach Luis how to manage his inheritance, to keep the ranch prosperous until he was old enough to take over its management. Hundreds of people depended on Rancho los Alamitos for their livelihood. The town of Cíbola might wither and disappear if the ranch failed.

But the thing that worried her most was her opinion of Rafe.

Nine years ago he’d been the handsome, spoiled only son of an indulgent father, unable to accept that the woman he loved wanted to marry his father. Being driven out of his mind by grief, anger, and jealousy, he probably was trying to
convince Dolores to choose him, got carried away by the passion of the moment, and ended up forcing himself on her. Unable to face his own guilt, he’d accused his father of having seduced her, had a terrible fight, then ran away. A classic case of a young man losing control while under the sway of volatile emotions.

The Rafe Jerry who’d appeared at the ranch earlier today didn’t fit that image. He was handsome, but there was nothing spoiled, overindulged, or self pitying about him. He was still angry at Dolores, didn’t trust Maria, and admitted he knew nothing about boys, but she had never seen anyone less likely to lose control, to rape a woman. He might have been a volatile youth—though Rosana said he never was until Dolores came into the house—but he wasn’t any longer. And that impressed her.

What scared her was knowing that being impressed with him was even more dangerous than being attracted to him. Any woman breathing would be attracted to a man like Rafe. His black hair, black eyes, and slightly olive complexion were gifts of his Spanish heritage, yet he had the height and broad-shouldered strength of his father’s Scottish ancestors. He moved with the grace of a man who kept himself in good physical shape and wore his clothes like a second skin. He had the presence of a man who was supremely confident in himself, one who had no doubt he could handle any situation that might arise.

What woman wouldn’t be impressed by a man like that? She supposed she’d always had reservations about Dolores’s version of what Rafe was like. Everyone knew Rafe and his father had quarreled over Dolores. Terrible things had been said by both men, but the sympathy of the house hold was entirely with Rafe. What no one knew was that Luis was Rafe’s son. Dolores said Warren had married her so the child would have a father he could be proud of. She said Warren was adamant that no one was ever to know. That made it
difficult for Maria to understand why Warren would give Rafe control of the ranch and everyone on it.

“What did he say to you? You were gone a long time.” Dolores had entered without knocking, had eased the door shut behind her

“Why are you sneaking into my room?”

“I don’t want Rafe to know I’m here.”

“We’re sisters. What could be more natural than a chat before going to bed?”

Dolores drew up a chair next to her sister. “Rafe is a very suspicious person. He’ll want to know what I’ve said to you.”

Maria hadn’t noticed Rafe wanting to know anything about Dolores, but she said nothing.

“He hates me,” Dolores went on. “He’ll do anything he can to get back at me for marrying his father.”

Maria was sure he’d never forgive Dolores for what she had done, but Rafe didn’t appear to be a man who would waste energy on things that couldn’t be changed. “He didn’t talk about you except to say that he doesn’t trust you. I’m not sure he trusts me, either.”

“Maybe so, but he’s attracted to you.”

Maria laughed at the absurdity of that notion. “He’s not sure you and I are alike, but he doesn’t intend to take responsibility for the house hold from me just yet. Apparently I’m to have a trial period before he makes up his mind.”

“He’d be a fool to ask you to leave. No one loves this place as much as you do.”

“I doubt that will be an important consideration with him. I don’t know what he was like at nineteen, but the grown-up Rafe Jerry is a pragmatic man who won’t allow sentiment to color his judgment or affect his decisions.”

“He’s a different person,” said Dolores.

“We’re all different from what we were ten years ago.”

“Did he say he would increase my allowance?”

“He said he’d eliminate it if he could.”

“He wouldn’t do that,” Dolores stated confidently. “He has too much pride to endure people criticizing him for being so brutal to his father’s widow.”

Maria doubted Rafe cared what anybody thought. “We agreed to talk about Luis tomorrow. He doesn’t think I’ve done a good job raising him.”

“Why should he care? He’s never seen the boy.”

“Luis is his son”—Maria didn’t hesitate to speak the truth to Dolores—“joint heir to his father’s estate.”

There it was again, Dolores avoiding her gaze. Why did she do that every time Maria reminded her that Rafe, not Warren, was Luis’s father? “Rafe won’t share control of the ranch with anyone,” Dolores asserted.

“He’ll have to share it with someone. He said he’s going back to Texas as soon as he can.”

“He’ll never leave. Inheriting the ranch will make him one of the richest men in California.”

“I don’t think that matters to him.”

Dolores looked at Maria as if she’d lost her mind. “Of course it matters. He only left because his father disinherited him. He’s back now because he got the ranch instead of me.”

Maria wondered why, if Warren had disinherited Rafe, he’d changed his mind without seeing his son again. She hadn’t known Warren as well as she would have liked, but he’d always struck her as a man who wouldn’t change his mind without a good reason.

“I can tell you only what Rafe said.”

“He’s got some trick in mind. He was always crazy about this place. There were times when he would get so caught up in his work, he would forget he’d promised to meet me.”

That didn’t sound like a young man who was crazy in love. Usually adult responsibilities were the first things to be forgotten. “I wouldn’t know anything about that. I can only take him at his word.”

“Never do that!” Dolores sounded insistent. “Rafe won’t stop until he gets what he wants.”

If he’d wanted the ranch, why had he left? Why hadn’t he come back, tried to regain his father’s trust, tried to push Dolores out of favor? With her single-minded concentration on her own pleasures, he could have found a hundred of ways to put a wedge between husband and wife. “I’m too tired to discuss Rafe any more. If I don’t get some sleep, I won’t be fit to talk about Luis tomorrow.”

“Don’t let him get Luis off by himself. You don’t know what might happen.”