Slocum and the Bandit Cucaracha Page 6

  “You have no man?”

  She shook her head.

  “Why do you stay?”

  “How would I go? Fuck my way to Juárez? It is all I have to sell. I have no money. Then down there some mean pimp at Juárez would collar me to work for him and I’d be no better off down there than I am here.”

  Slocum nodded.

  With a head toss to the outside, she frowned in disgust at him, “Why are you using him?”

  “The wife of an amigo of mine was kidnapped by bandits. I am looking for her.”

  “Who kidnapped her?”

  “Someone called La Cucaracha, the Cockroach.”

  “Ah, he is one of those bandits that raid here too.” She swung her head to indicate someone was coming.

  Monte returned, opened the door, came in and took a place on the floor.

  “Do the horses have feed?” Slocum asked.

  “Sí. They will be fine. How have you been, Nada?” Monte asked.

  “Fine without you.”

  “Ah, you have missed me not coming by to see you.”

  “Would you miss a large boil on your ass?”

  “Oh, that is no way to talk to me. I have saved you several times.”

  “Ha, and you were well paid.” She turned away shaking her head at his words.

  “Oh, you liked it. You have any wine?” He looked around.

  “You can go buy some. You have any money?”

  He dropped his gaze to the blanket. “Maybe my amigo has some dinero and he would buy us some.”

  “How much is the wine?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Half a dollar a bottle.”

  “You know who sells it?” Slocum asked him.

  “Juan sells it?” Monte asked her.

  She nodded.

  Slocum gave him two dollars. “Get us some wine.”

  Monte rose wearily, shrugged and took the money. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Food will take some time,” she said after him, tending her cooker and getting up to bar the door after him. With her back to it, she smiled slyly at Slocum.

  “Quick. I seldom get such a grande hombre like you.” She rushed over and dropped on her knees, taking his face and kissing him. Then, sprawled in his lap, she pushed her breasts into him and again sought his mouth, hugging him.

  “You don’t want me?” She frowned at him when he did not respond to her attack.

  “Ain’t that. How long will he be gone?”

  “Outside?”

  “No, he’ll be back and interrupt us.”

  She wrinkled her small nose and sat up. “I thought you were a big man.”

  He took her face in his hands and kissed her. “Wait until he sleeps.”

  Looking disappointed, she rocked her head from side to side. “Oh, what a shame.”

  “Better undo the door,” Slocum said. “He’ll be back shortly.”

  She got up and flounced over to take off the bar. “Why do you put up with him?”

  “I want to locate and rescue the lady.”

  “I bet he runs away when things get tough.”

  With a shrug, he shook his head. “He’s all I have right now.”

  She shook her finger at him. “You must be careful.”

  “Oh, I will be.”

  In a short while Monte returned with the wine. She uncorked one bottle and took a deep drink. She handed the bottle to Slocum and he took a drink, then handed it on to Monte.

  Nada made some corn tortillas and rolled up some beans and spicy sauce inside to serve them. She brought Slocum’s meal first on a tray, then put some on a cracked plate for Monte. She took her place beside Slocum and drank some more wine. Fussing over him, she talked about village things—a baby was due, her cousin’s second one. A man who left his wife six months ago had returned and begged her to take him back.

  “Did she?” Slocum asked.

  “Sure. She had no choice.” She tossed down some more wine and then shook her head. “No choice. That is bad too.” She shook her head again.

  “When will you leave? Tomorrow?” she asked.

  Monte shrugged with his mouth full. “Whenever.”

  “Sunup,” Slocum said, not satisfied that his guide was anxious enough to get on their way early.

  When they were ready to turn in, Nada told Monte he could sleep outside in a hammock. He looked at Slocum for some help.

  “Don’t ask me. It’s her house.”

  Hands on her hips, she sent Monte outside, then barred the door. Then she drew a deep breath and winked at Slocum in the flickering light. Walking over to him, she unbuttoned her low-cut blouse and exposed her proud breasts right in front of his face.

  “Very lovely,” he said. Admiring her prizes, he handled them and kissed each one as she quickly untied the waist strings of her skirt.

  “Oh, I am so excited that you are here.”

  She rose up and shed her skirt, then spilled on top of him before he could undo his gun belt. Quickly she sprang up and let him open the buckle and wrap the belt up. After he’d placed the gun belt close by, she fumbled with the buttons on his shirt, finally stripping it away with his vest and tenderly kissing his bare chest.

  “Oh, hombre, I can hardly wait. It has been so long.”

  Slocum shed his boots and then dropped his pants. Now seated, she grasped his dick with her small fingers and dove for it. Her lips wrapped around his cock sent a shock wave to his brain. He kicked the britches off his feet and clutched her head as she licked and sucked on his rising appendage.

  Hands under her armpits, he pulled her up to kiss her, and she was breathing so hard he worried she might have a heart attack. She wrapped her arms around his head, squeezed him against her firm breasts and in gibberish said, “Oh, oh, you are such a man.”

  He managed to get her underneath him, and she jackknifed her legs so her ankles were at her ears, and he slipped his cock into her.

  “Oh, oh, yes!” she cried out, hunching toward him. “You are bigger than a horse. Ride me. Ride me hard.”

  His world threatened to turn upside down. There was no room to spare inside her box, and the muscles clutching him were tearing at his skintight dick. The room turned into a whirlpool, and they spiraled around it like desperate lost souls until the hand of purpose squeezed his testicles so hard, he exploded inside her. They melted down like a small shard of ice in the desert sun.

  “You need me to go along and help you. Your dumb, worthless guide will abandon you when things get tough. I tell you he is a liar and a sneaky coward. I know him well.” Her small hand was already working on him again, and she was out of breath. He knew only another round would sate her. He kissed her.

  “It will be dangerous as hell to go with us,” he warned her.

  She eased his rod inside her slick gates, this time with her short legs wide open for him in a wide V. “I work cheap and I know these mountains, damn good—”

  6

  Before dawn Slocum saddled his horse. With Nada riding double behind him, they followed Monte up the main trail. Her arms were around his waist and her tits were pressed into his back, and she seemed thrilled to be taken along. Slocum couldn’t tell whether his guide liked the notion or not. But Slocum was footing the bill so Monte had little to say about who went with them.

  This region was still not a part of the Madres that Slocum knew well, as he did some places on the western slopes. There were lots of pine trees at this elevation, and they spooked several mule deer that bobbed away like jackasses in high hops.

  “Where are we headed?” Slocum asked when they stopped at a clear trout stream to water their horses.

  “Where they have the McCarty woman.”

  “Good. But how come no one saw her come into the mountains?”

  Monte shrugged. “I guess they disguised her as a man.”

  Slocum narrowed his eyes at the man. “You’re certain she’s up here?”

  “Why would I bring you up here if she wasn’t? You wouldn’t pay me if sh
e wasn’t, would you?”

  The man had a point, unless this Cockroach was paying him to deliver Slocum into a trap. No, Monte was too nervous to try that. Still, how did his guide know where she was hidden? Especially since no one else had seen her.

  In midafternoon, they reached a village, larger than the one where Nada lived.

  She leaned forward and quietly told him, “This is San Phillipe. There is a church here and a cantina. I will try to find out where the woman is. I have friends here.”

  She slipped off the horse’s rump.

  “Where will we meet you?” Slocum asked.

  “I can find you, hombre,” she said, and with that she was gone like a small whiff of smoke.

  “Where did your puta go?” Monte asked.

  “To see a man about a dog,” Slocum said absently. “Where will we camp?”

  “Oh, at a place that has horse feed.”

  “Good. Mine needs some good feed tonight.”

  “They charge more for alfalfa.”

  “Buy it.”

  Monte nodded, but seemed unconvinced. “They can eat grass just as well.”

  “Which would you eat, the chicken or the feathers?”

  Monte simply rode on. “It is your money.”

  No wonder Monte had such a skinny horse. The idiot never cared for the animal. They rode over a stone bridge like the kind the Romans had built, which he’d read about in books as a boy. At the sight of some dust-coated, hipshot horses at a hitch rack, Slocum gave a head toss.

  “Local vaqueros,” Monte said. “That is a cantina where they hang out.”

  “Are they bandits?”

  “Oh, maybe they ride with them—sometimes.”

  “We near the Cockroach’s place?”

  Monte shook his head.

  “How much farther?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  Slocum looked hard at the man’s back. He still might need to kill him. If Monte doubted that Slocum would kill him, he better think twice. And what would Nada find in this place? She acted like she could learn something here that would help him.

  The pole corrals were stout enough to hold their horses. The short, thickset, ugly man who said he owned the place asked them for twenty cents apiece to board their horses and feed them the good stuff. Slocum paid him after the man showed him a sample of the sweet-smelling hay.

  When the two horses were unsaddled and put in the small pen allotted to them, Monte looked around. “Where is your puta? When do we eat?”

  “It’s still early.” Slocum unrolled his bedroll and spread it out. “If she doesn’t come back soon, I’ll buy you something from a vendor.”

  “Why bring her along if she won’t cook?”

  “She makes good scenery,” Slocum said, not interested in listening to the man bitching about her.

  “She only wants part of the reward. That is the only damn reason she came along.”

  “Maybe,” Slocum said, ready to put his hat over his face to take a siesta. “You going to guard the place?”

  “I guess, if you’re going to sleep.”

  “I’m going to do that.” He rolled over onto his side, gave up on the hat and closed his eyes. Before he fell asleep, he envisioned Nada’s compact body—nice.

  When he awoke, she still wasn’t back. He sat up and saw his guide with his back to a pine tree about half asleep.

  “No problems?”

  “We don’t have a cook yet.”

  “I told you what I’d do.”

  “Why waste money? You brought her. She’s a lazy bitch and will use you anyway to get out of work.”

  “Whatever.” Slocum scrubbed his beard-stubbled face with his callused palms. Monte was sure pissed about having Nada along. No matter. He trusted her a lot more than he did Monte. Maybe she would find some information he could use.

  The sun dipped to touch the western horizon, and Nada arrived with two bottles of red wine and a poke full of burritos. She handed Monte one bottle of wine and two burritos wrapped in fire-flecked flour tortillas. Then she went over and sat cross-legged on the ground beside Slocum.

  He opened the wine bottle and offered her a drink. With a shake of her head, she looked across at Monte. “She isn’t there any longer.”

  “What in the fuck are you talking about?” Monte demanded.

  “The hacienda woman you two came after.”

  “How do you know?”

  “They moved her today.”

  “Where to?”

  “You are the guide. Figure it out.” She took the bottle from Slocum and then sat it on her leg and held it by the neck while she argued with Monte.

  “Bitch! You don’t know shit about where she is or was.”

  After a deep swig, she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. “I know more than you do about her.”

  “Hold up,” Slocum said. “First, lower your voices. Everyone in this village doesn’t need to hear about our business. Second, Monte, tell me where you think she is.”

  “She is at a ranchero near here.”

  Nada shook her head. “No. She’s not at the Sancho Ranchero.”

  “Where is she then?”

  “The Cockroach moved her this morning.”

  “How do you know?”

  “One of his men got drunk last night and told a working girl that he was taking the woman to his boss’s place—this morning.”

  “Ha. You don’t even know this boss’s name. See, she has this cock-and-bull story. . . .”

  “His name was Reynaldo.” Her cold words made Monte stop and swallow.

  “Who’s he?” Slocum asked.

  “Reynaldo DeVaca. He is the meanest man in this country.” She shook her head. “He kills people like they were flies.”

  “We agree on one thing. DeVaca is a madman.” Monte took more wine from the neck.

  Slocum shook his head. He could not allow Martina to be in this DeVaca’s hands for long, no matter if he was under another man’s orders. Cruelty festered out of some men regardless of the control others had over them.

  “What shall we do?” she asked.

  “Either of you know where his main hideout is?”

  Monte shook his head. “I only knew about this ranchero where they held her.”

  “Liar!” she spit out. “You don’t want to remember. They told you if you ever came back they would slit your bag, jerk out your balls and stick your leg through the sac.”

  “Shut your mouth, bitch.”

  Slocum scowled at him in disbelief. “You’ve been to his hideout?”

  “I’m not going back there. Not for any money. Not even five hundred pesos.”

  “Draw me a map.”

  Monte had dropped his head down in despair as the darkness grew deeper around them. “If those bastards ever learned I even drew it, they would find me and kill me.”

  “See, I told you he was a coward.” Nada pointed her finger at him in disgust.

  Slocum chewed on his burrito and merely nodded in reply. They had been so close, and now to discover that she’d been moved. Damn, he hated that more than anything. So close and then so far again. What should he do next?

  “Why did you come?” Monte demanded of her. “Just to ruin me? Just to ruin my chances of making some money?”

  Her mouth full of beans and tortillas, she shook her head at him until at last she could speak, “He would not have paid you for an empty casa.”

  “Stop arguing.” Slocum silenced both of them. “Does this DeVaca live on the ranchero where they held Señora McCarty?”

  “I don’t know,” Nada said.

  Monte moved closer to them. “No, it belongs to the Sancho family. They live in the federal district, and the crew of vaqueros works for a close amigo of the Cockroach.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Ulysses.”

  “Maybe he will tell us where they took Señora McCarty.”

  “No, he is a tough hombre, and he has a dozen men.” Monte took a drink from his bottle.
“They are all ruthless killers.”

  “So?” Slocum could not believe what they were arguing about. Every bandit south of the border and most of them north would kill at the drop of a hat. His concern was not being killed but how to regain Martina from them.

  “In the morning we are going to this Sancho Ranchero and see what we can learn. Now that’s settled.”

  Damn, he hated arguments.

  7

  “Monte rode out last night,” Nada whispered in Slocum’s ear to awaken him in the cool predawn. On her knees beside the bedroll, she made a disgusted face. “I told you he was a coward. He took our food too.”

  “Can we find this ranch?” He rose up, propped by his elbows behind him. “We might get someone there to talk about where they took her.”

  She nodded firmly. “We can do anything that coward can do. And I know where the ranchero is.”

  “Good.” He threw back the covers and pulled on his pants. “We better find something to eat.”

  “I know a woman who will feed us and keep her mouth shut.”

  “Good.” He shook out his right boot to be certain no roaming scorpions had taken residence in it overnight and pulled it on. “I knew he had no backbone, but he gave up lots of money.”

  She shook her head. “He has no huevos.”

  He grinned at her. “You must know.”

  She smiled and nodded. “I know him too well.”

  “How far is this ranch?”

  “A few hours.”

  She rolled up the bedroll and tied it with rawhide strings while he saddled the horse. In a short time, they rode out with Nada holding on behind Slocum. They took a route through the forest around the settlement and found a camp with a ramada, from which a woman emerged.

  “This is Rema.” Nada introduced the willowy woman who swept back her long hair.

  “Good morning.”

  “We need some food. That snake Monte rode out on us and took the little food in our camp with him.”

  Rema wrinkled her nose. “That sorry prick is not worth anything.”

  “See? See what she thinks about him?” Nada shook her head. “She knows him too.”

  “Come, hombre.” Rema took Slocum’s hand. “I have some food for both of you.”

  Nada took his other arm, and the two women herded him under the ramada, which he had to duck to enter. It was a big shame they needed to get going—he could see where the three of them could have had a wild party.