Authors: Marie Harte
“Go
ahead. Throw the knife. Make sure you hit my heart. Take my life, there’s
nothing much left for me here.”
“Not
Brian.”
Pilar
nodded. “I figured you killed him when he didn’t return days ago.”
“Not
me. One of McKenzie’s men did it. I sat with him as he died.”
“Butch,”
Pilar spat. “A monster. How ironic I found another deviant as bad as Bartel.”
Thais
didn’t know what made her say it. “Brian said he loved you.”
“He
did?” The despair in Pilar’s eyes stunned Thais into silence.
Not
sure why she bothered to provide comfort for this enemy before killing her,
Thais couldn’t help herself. “He did. His death took time. It was not pleasant.
He’d been shot intentionally in the belly, which we found odd.”
A
low groan interrupted them both.
A
dark haired man stumbled into the barn and fell at Pilar’s feet. “Brian,” he gasped,
bleeding from several bullet wounds to his body. “Dead. I knew it.”
Pilar
sank to her knees and cushioned his head in her lap. “No, Goddess. Not you, too.
Deke.
” She leaned down and wrapped her arms around him.
The
light of life slowly faded from his eyes. “Did we…?” Deke mumbled something
more Thais couldn’t hear.
Tears
ran unchecked down Pilar’s face. “You stubborn bastard. If anyone could, it’d
be you.” She put his hand to her belly, and Thais stared at the pair in horror.
Was Pilar indicating a pregnancy?
Deke
smiled and passed into the land of the dead, while Pilar sat staring at him.
“Are
you really breeding?” Thais whispered.
“No.
But it was something he wanted. Something
I
wanted, so very, very much.”
Pilar’s tears continued, but she didn’t sob aloud. Her silent grief tore at
Thais’s resolve.
Thais
didn’t know what to do. For years her every thought had been to bring justice
to those who’d destroyed her people. Now when she had one of those responsible,
it felt as if the Goddess had already meted out her own justice. Thais was
nothing here but a witness.
Pilar
looked up at her. With slow, sure movements, she raised the tip of her spear
and scored a line through the flower on her cheek. It had to hurt like hell. She
did it again and again, until her cheek remained a mutilated mess of flesh and
blood.
“Well,
what are you waiting for? Take the justice our sisters demand,” she said in an
icy voice.
Thais
raised her knife, ready, but no longer eager to deliver Pilar’s death.
“Thais,”
Hinto yelled from outside the barn. “Thais, honey, you okay in there?”
Silence.
Pilar
quirked a brow. “Hinto. Yours, hmm?” She stroked Deke’s hair. “I once had a man
I loved. I let him and my child be taken from me. Here’s my second chance at
happiness, lying dead in my lap.” The fight had gone out of her. “Do to me what
you will. I deserve nothing less, and nothing more than this eternal suffering.”
Pilar
leaned down to place a kiss on Deke’s head and gently lowered him to the ground.
She stood and waited with a dignity she’d been lacking for as long as Thais had
known her.
Thais
suddenly understood, and because she did, a terrible weight lifted from her
shoulders.
Atonement
couldn’t come from a lifetime of vengeance. It couldn’t come from rage or from guilt,
but from acceptance, from forgiveness, and from being right with herself—untainted
by hatred.
“You
shouldn’t have made a deal with the devil,” she told her mother’s rival, now
just a pitiful shell of a woman. “And you shouldn’t have hated her for loving
me, or for being with Thalen.”
Pilar
didn’t speak.
“But
I understand why you did what you did. And I think—I think I believe you when
you say you didn’t mean for the worst to happen.”
Pilar’s
true punishment: nothing she did could ever make it right again. She’d lost not
only her child, but two men she’d loved, and all at the hands of her own making.
“I’m
sorry for you, Pilar.” Thais struggled with the words, so hard to say yet she
truly felt them. “And I forgive you.”
The Great Mother guide me now.
Thais
turned from Pilar and walked away, the pain in her chest growing.
She
sensed Pilar move with her but didn’t worry about giving her back to the enemy.
A strange sense of unreality settled over her as she put her faith and love in
the Goddess. For a moment, she could almost smell the vanilla spice of her
mother’s favorite oils.
And
then Pilar attacked.
Hinto
shouted, Wolf swore and Jon fired at something just in front of her she could
no longer see. A great weight settled on top of her. She couldn’t breathe. The
pain of taking a breath overwhelmed her.
“Die
you son of a bitch,” Hinto shouted, and everything blurred.
Thais
blinked up at a black sky. She inhaled, eager to fill her chest with air, and
moaned, aching all over.
The
smell of a fire burned nearby. She turned her head to see what the hell had
happened, and Hinto’s worried face swam into sight.
“I’m
not dead?” Surely Dozie’s prediction had come true.
Hinto
placed kisses all over her face. “You had me so worried. You’ve been out of it
for hours.”
“What
happened? Why do I hurt?”
“We
think you cracked a rib. Not sure if it happened when Pilar knocked into you or
before. But Thais, she saved your life.”
“What?”
Was she having delusions? Thais reached up to rub her head, glad to feel her
skull in one piece.
“Butch
wasn’t dead. I’ll go to my grave remembering that fear. I swear to you, I stuck
my knife in his gut. He didn’t move, and I was so concerned about you I left
him behind without making sure.”
Wolf
snorted. “Ease up, Hinto. I would have thought him dead too. Fuck me, but that
blood all over him was so dark it was black. You hit him good. No way he should
have been up after that.”
Hinto
continued, “Thais, I heard you with Pilar. I didn’t let them interfere, though
it took a lot to keep Jon back. For a quiet guy, he’s a real pain in the ass.” Hinto
glared at Jon, who rolled his eyes and continued cleaning his rifle.
Thais
noticed Salvatore and the others keeping a respectable distance away.
“Everyone
still here?” she asked, her voice hoarse.
“Yeah,”
Wolf answered. “They took care of a few of McKenzie’s remaining ranch hands. The
remaining Nolans scattered like roaches.”
“Gregor?”
“Dead,”
Hinto said, an odd look on his face. “We found him naked and tied to his bed. Had
blood running from a slash in his belly and his wrists. And his dick had been
severely mauled.” He appeared uncomfortable talking about it.
“Good.
His gun?”
“Gone.”
She
sighed. “Maybe Kitty’ll believe us if we bring her something else.”
“I
took the ring off his finger for proof. It’s the McKenzie crest. She might
accept that.”
“Hell
Hinto.” Wolf snorted. “Don’t be stupid. Bring her back his head. No question
there.”
Hinto’s
eyes glinted in the firelight. “Good point.”
“Why
did Pilar attack me?” Thais still wanted to know. How had the woman saved her
life?
Hinto
ran a hand through his dark hair. “Butch wasn’t really dead. Me, Jon and Wolf
were watching you fight Pilar. Highlighted by that fire, you two looked like
ghostly demons from hell. You’re a lot scarier than you look, honey.”
“Funny.”
She groaned when she tried to sit up.
“No,
don’t move. Point is, while we were watching you two, and hearing you forgive
her then walk away—Thais, I just… Honey, I am so damned proud of you.”
Wolf
cut in with a sigh. “What big brother is taking
forever
to tell you is
that Butch surprised us. He stumbled into the open and took a shot at you
before we could blink. Not sure how the hell she did it, but Pilar shoved you
down in time to take the bullet.” He glanced away from Thais, and she followed
his gaze to see Pilar no longer among the living. “Before she died, she said to
tell you something.”
“What?”
Thais felt like crying, and she didn’t understand why.
Hinto
said quietly, “She said giving him away was her biggest mistake. Do you know
what she meant?”
“Yes,
I do.” Thais didn’t want them to see her crying, but she couldn’t help it. She
closed her eyes. Hinto carefully lifted her onto his lap, mindful of her injury,
and held her while the tears came.
She
cried for Pilar. She cried for her mother, her sisters, the queen and the
princess. For the little boy Pilar would never know, and for the love her
mother had never felt for the man who’d given her a daughter.
“It’ll
be okay, Thais. If you didn’t find what you need, we’ll keep looking.” Hinto
rocked her, soothing her with his touch, with his love.
“I
found what I need. I love you, Hinto.”
She
felt his smile against her cheek. “Hot damn. I knew you wouldn’t be able to
resist me.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“Well,
Kitty, is this good enough?” Hinto handed her a large box.
She
set it on the table and opened it.
“Couldn’t
find his gun, but I figured this would work well enough.”
Kitty
started to laugh. Thais smiled and winked at Hinto.
“Shee-it.
I knew you two’d do it right. I’m guessing Butch is no longer with us?”
Hinto
lost his good humor. “Hell no, he’s not. After he almost raped Thais and nearly
killed her we—”
“He’s
dead,” Thais said. “You might have warned us to beware the bigger threat.”
Kitty
didn’t even have the decency to apologize. “Honey, I figure I did you a favor.”
“Oh?”
“A
fool coulda seen how you were itchin’ to kill a man. I served you not only
Gregor, but Butch as well. And I threw in a stud to boot.”
“A
stud?” Thais frowned.
Hinto
flushed. “Dammit, Kitty. I’m not a horse.”
Thais’s
confusion cleared and she chuckled. “Ah, a stud. Yes. I must thank you for your
sage advice. He was more than helpful on this journey.”
A
journey that damned Dozie had almost convinced Thais would end at Butch’s ranch.
He’d near to strangled the old woman when they’d returned home a few weeks ago.
“Hell,
Thais. I ain’t never said
when
your journey would end. I
just said it would. I saw you tied to Hinto even before I had that vision. Ease
up, girl. Everyone’s got to die someday,”
Dozie had said before bursting
into a fit of laughter.
“See?
I knew he’d be the one to help you overcome any issues of a more personal
nature.” Kitty paused to study her, and Hinto knew what she saw. A beautiful
woman in men’s clothes with glowing eyes and the healthy frame of a body on the
mend.
Thank
God. Thais was one hell of an ugly patient.
“No
way I can talk you into serving as one of my girls? Offer’s still open. We’d
make a killin’.” She guffawed at Hinto and poked him in the chest. “Easy,
Hinto. I’m just funnin’ your gal. Besides, DeeDee’s beside herself now that
you’re no longer gonna come callin’. Hell, I think all the whorehouses in Four
Corners will lose a fortune.”
Hinto
didn’t like the look Thais sent him. “Honey, it was before I knew you. I’m a
man, I have needs.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Kitty
grinned. “Like I told you, Dee isn’t quitting the business. She’s one of my
best girls, and now that she’s a free agent, she’s making more than she was
before.”
“As
long as she makes her gold from
other
customers.” Thais didn’t smile,
but he could tell she wanted to. His Amazon didn’t have to worry when it came
to his loyalty. Any woman that could wield a knife the way she did had earned
his devotion, even if she didn’t already own his heart.
They
chatted for a bit, sharing some tea with Kitty as she regaled them with tales
from some new customers. Then talk turned to what she’d learned about Bartel
and Pilar.
“Now
how about I settle my portion of the debt. You gave me what I wanted.” She
nodded at Gregor McKenzie’s head floating in a glass jar filled with slowburn. Dozie’s
answer to his father’s hidden stash of liquor. “Your woman with the flower is
playing footsie with the railroad, but I haven’t heard much about her in a
while.”
“
Was
playing footsie,” Thais corrected, her voice solemn.
“Oh?
Well then.” Kitty cleared her throat.
Hinto
shared a glance with Thais. From everything he’d heard that night, he
understood Thais’s ambivalence in dealing Pilar the death she’d craved. Sure,
the woman was a bitch. She’d thrown in with some bad people and had gotten her
tribe all but killed. But when she lost her son, she lost her very future. In a
world where tomorrow meant everything, Pilar had sacrificed her child and lost
it all in the end. Her life, her love, her family.