For a few minutes, Longarm and Coffin were busy supervising the unloading of baggage from both coaches. Some of the idlers who were standing around watching were more than happy to earn a couple of dollars unloading the bags and taking them upstairs in the hotel. Longarm and Coffin made sure that each bag went to the proper room. Longarm figured it would be prudent not to let Coffin anywhere near Sonia’s room, so he saw to that one himself. He was going to have to have a talk with the Ranger about proper behavior.
Hell, he understood how Coffin felt, though. One look at Sonia and he had wanted to fling her down right there in the street, pull her skirts and petticoats up over her head, and go at her in front of God, her father, and everybody else in Del Rio. And Sonia had looked as if she wouldn’t have minded if he had done just that.
Maybe he was mistaken, he told himself sternly. Maybe she was just a nice, innocent Mexican gal with nothing on her mind but accompanying her papa on this trip to Texas.
But then he stepped into her room with his arms full of her bags, and she turned toward him from where she was standing beside the bed, and it was all he could do not to drop the bags and jump her right then and there. She had taken off the jacket of her traveling outfit, revealing a lacy white silk blouse. Her heavy breasts thrust out proudly against the soft fabric, and he could plainly see her nipples through the silk. They were large and dark, and he could almost taste the sweet-salty tang of the pebbled flesh on his tongue.
“You are so kind, Senor Long,” she said as Longarm set the bags on the floor. “My father has spoken much of you, of how your courage and daring saved him from a dreadful fate.”
“Like I told him downstairs, it was sort of by accident,” said Longarm. “I was just glad I was in the right place at the right time.”
“Still, I am grateful.” She moved closer to him, not stopping until she was only about a foot away. “Sometime, I would enjoy showing you just how grateful I am, Senor Long.”
Well, thought Longarm, there wasn’t much chance of misinterpreting that comment. Not with the way she was standing there looking up at him from heavy-lidded eyes, with her full red lips open just a little so that he could see the tip of her tongue. If she had leaned a little closer to him, her breasts would have been brushing his chest, and for one wild instant, Longarm considered closing that gap. It would have been so easy to slip his arms around her and pull her unresisting body tight against his.
Then a footstep in the hall reminded him that the door was still open, and he stepped back with a polite nod. “We’ll have to see about that, senorita,” he said. He touched a finger to the brim of his hat. “Enjoy your stay in Del Rio.”
Then, before her charms could hypnotize him again, he turned away quickly and left the room.
The federate captain was standing in the hall, as if he was waiting there for Longarm. It turned out that he was, because as soon as Longarm shut the door of Sonia’s room behind him, the Mexican officer nodded curtly to him and said, “I would speak with you, senor.”
“All right,” Longarm said coolly. “I’ll be glad to listen.”
“You are the one who some of the people of my country call El Brazo Largo, are you not?”
“I’ve been called that a time or two when I was south of the border,” admitted Longarm.
The federale’s hatchetlike face twisted momentarily in a sneer. “When you were south of the border interfering in Mexico’s business, you mean.”
Longarm forced himself to control his temper, and said calmly, “Any time I’ve crossed the Rio Grande, I’ve had a damn good reason to do it.”
The Mexican shrugged. “I did not come here to argue about the past,” he said. “I am Capitan Pablo Hernandez. Just like you, I have been given the job of seeing that the delegates from my country remain safe during these meetings.”
“Figured as much,” said Longarm.
“In addition, I have taken it upon myself to insure that Senorita Guiterrez, though not an official member of the party, also is safe.”
“I want the same thing,” Longarm assured the man. He gave in to a twinge of curiosity and went on. “Just why did the girl come with her father anyway?”
Hernandez’s voice dropped to a hiss as he said, “Dios knows why the wildcat does any of the things she does.”
“Wildcat, eh?” said Longarm with a grin. “Reckon you must’ve had some trouble with Senorita Guiterrez before now.”
“She is a puta!” said Hernandez in a whisper. He was practically trembling with outrage. “That one thinks only of what is between her legs, and she cares little who satisfies her cravings, so long as they are satisfied often!”
Longarm liked to think he wasn’t a crude man by nature. So he tried to tell himself that he was only looking for information that might affect his job as he lifted an eyebrow, grinned wickedly at Hernandez, and asked, “How often does she invite you into her bed, Capitan?”
“Never!” exclaimed Hernandez. He sounded more offended that Longarm would ask such a thing, instead of disappointed over the answer he was forced to give. “I want only for her to allow me to do my job, but everywhere we go I am forced to waste time extricating the senorita from one embarrassing situation after another! And does her father ever deny her the right to accompany him on his travels whenever the mood strikes her? His pure little princess? No, of course not!”
Longarm held up a hand as Hernandez’s tone began to rise from its formerly conspiratorial tone. He didn’t want what the federate was saying to be overheard by the wrong person and cause any hard feelings that might only make Longarm’s job more difficult. “Don’t worry, Capitan,” he said. “You have my word that I’ll keep an eye on the senorita.”
“Is that all you will keep on her? I know how that witch can work her magic.”
“There won’t be any embarrassing situations on this trip,” Longarm declared. “I can promise you that.”
And he meant it. When and if he bedded Sonia Guiterrez, he would be discreet about it.
Hernandez relaxed a little. He had almost worked himself into a lather, Longarm thought, and his face was flushed. Hernandez inclined his head in a minuscule nod, then turned and stalked away down the hall. Longarm was a little surprised he hadn’t clicked his heels together before he left.
Longarm turned to start in the other direction, and saw Lazarus Coffin watching him from the end of the corridor. Coffin was leaning on the railing next to the staircase landing. As Longarm reached him, he asked, “What was you and that little greaser jawin’ about, Long?”
“Captain Hernandez had a few concerns,” replied Longarm. “I put ‘em to rest.”
Coffin’s eyes narrowed. “I’d like to put that gal to rest. She’d be rode hard and put up wet when I was through with her, I can tell you that.”
“Just don’t tell anybody else,” Longarm said. “Don Alfredo seems to have a blind spot where his daughter is concerned.
“You mean he don’t notice when she looks at ever’ man she runs across like a she-dog in heat?”
Longarm sighed. “Evidently not.”
“Then I reckon he’s got more troubles than just wranglin’ with ol’ Franklin about how the border’s goin’ to run.”
Someone cleared his throat behind Coffin. Longarm hadn’t seen anyone approach due to the Ranger’s size, but he should have heard the footsteps. Franklin Barton circled around Coffin as the big man turned around sharply. Barton could walk like an Apache, and Longarm wondered how a Washington diplomat had acquired that skill.