Tracker's Sin. Sarah McCarty

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ is dirty outside.”

      “I’ll put a blanket down.”

      “You are still unsettled from this morning.”

      No, she wasn’t. She was actually doing quite well. Better than she had in a long time. And that was because of Tracker. The man had blown into her life like a tornado. All she knew of him was from legend and their brief interaction, but she felt she’d known him forever. Felt as if she needed to know more.

       Are you sure you’re getting the right answers?

      The Moraleses had given her a safe haven in which to heal and to have her child. She hadn’t questioned anything in those early months, just accepted the past as it was painted for her by Josefina. But with the rising tension in the household during the last few weeks, she’d begun to do some thinking on her own, because something was wrong and no one was talking. Josefina had become snappish and possessive of Miguel. And as a result, Ari had begun to notice how much of her life was controlled by the Moraleses.

      And now they were going to send Tracker away under the pretext that he had upset her. Why? When he was the best protection they had?

      Miguel grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled. She winced as she gently pried his fingers free before holding his hand in hers and bringing his fingers to her lips.

      “He is getting muy fuerte,” Josefina praised, stroking his little arm.

      Ari smiled. “Yes, thank goodness.” He was precious. The most precious thing there was. It didn’t make sense that Vincente would send away a Texas Ranger. And not just any Texas Ranger, but the legendary Tracker Ochoa, a man they said had once ridden into a blind canyon filled with outlaws lying in wait, and came out unharmed, with ten bodies draped over saddles. Men like that didn’t ride into their tiny town every day. They should be thinking of ways of keeping him there, not sending him away.

      “I think we need to ask Tracker to stay.”

      Josefina’s expression snapped closed. “No. He is a bad man. He will bring trouble.”

      “We already have trouble.”

      “Vincente will handle it.”

      “Vincente is only one man.” And not a young one.

      “It will work out.” Josefina patted Ari’s hand. “You will see. Vincente will talk to these men. We do not need the likes of that one.”

      “That one is a respected Texas Ranger.” Ari didn’t know why she felt the need to defend Tracker, but she did.

      “He has bad blood.” Josefina made a sign to ward off evil. “He attracts evil to him. You can see it in his eyes.”

      The only things Ari had seen in Tracker’s eyes were pain and loneliness. And desire.

      Josefina squeezed her hand before taking Miguel from her. “Your illness affects your judgment. You must trust me in this.”

      Must she? The inner discontent that had been growing this last month flared. Ari wanted to reach out and grab Miguel out of the woman’s arms. Lord in heaven, was she really so crazy that she would turn on her family?

       Are you sure you’re getting the right answers?

      The skepticism in Tracker’s question bled into her beliefs. What did she really know about the Moraleses beyond what they told her? And if she was their daughter-in-law, why was there nothing of hers in the house? She and her husband had lived elsewhere, but couldn’t someone have brought her things? If for no other reason than to stimulate her memory?

      “I want to go home,” she told Josefina. There was the slightest hesitation before the older woman set Miguel down on the blanket on the floor of the main room.

      “You are home.”

      Ari licked her lips and tried again. It was so painful for the Moraleses when she brought up their son. She couldn’t blame them for always changing the subject. “I know this is difficult for you, but I need to go to the home that I shared with Miguel’s father. I know you think it’s only going to…upset me again, but it’s something I need to do. I need to touch something from Antonio’s and my life together.”

      So it would feel real.

      “You have proof of your life together in your son.”

      Ari had tried before and never succeeded in convincing Josefina that Miguel had nothing to do with his father in her mind. He somehow seemed more connected with her survival than her past. Of course, she hadn’t tried very hard. But Tracker’s arrival had done more than stir feelings of being a woman. It had also stirred her need to find some part of herself that had been lost on that bloody day when her husband had been killed.

      “When I look at Miguel, I see nothing of Antonio. When I look at my baby, I see Miguel’s eyes, Miguel’s nose, Miguel’s face. It’s almost like Antonio never existed.”

      Josephine stumbled and bumped into the small table beside the horsehair sofa. The lamp on top rocked. Ari hurried over to catch it before oil spilled over the floor.

      “Are you all right?” she asked.

      Josefina straightened and smoothed her hair with a hand that shook. The shaking might have been from the small fright, but that sick feeling in Ari’s stomach grew worse.

      “Antonio did exist, didn’t he?”

      Josefina made the sign of the cross. “How dare you ask me such a thing? My son was very much a man.”

      Ari immediately felt guilty. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I keep trying to explain that he’s just not real to me. I need him to be real. I need to go home to touch that part of me that I lost.”

      Josefina was shaking her head before Ari even finished. “No. It is not wise.”

      “I wasn’t asking permission.”

      For the first time in the eleven months since Ari had been here, Josefina looked angry. “You are ungrateful.”

      “I just need to know.”

      The older woman slashed the air with her hand. “You would open old wounds for everyone. Bring back the grief that we have just buried. For nothing.” She slashed the air again. “And your memory will not come back.”

      “You don’t know that.”

      “I know the Lord shields you from what you cannot bear. My son is dead. Your life with him, it is also gone as if it never existed, but you have a future here. We are your family now. Vincente and I will share memories of Antonio with you. You will share them with Miguel. It is enough.”

      “No, it’s not.” Ari had never been more sure of anything in her life. She picked Miguel up off the floor and turned on her heel and headed for the door. “I need my life back.”

      “You do not know what you do,” Josefina called.

      She stopped at the door and looked back. The woman was completely distraught and there СКАЧАТЬ