Page 61 of The Promise of Jenny Jones
She clasped her hands in her lap so tightly that the knuckles turned white. “We need to stop thinking about—other things—and devise a plan,” she said tightly, speaking through clenched teeth.
“Can you stop thinking about—other things?” he asked. He sure as hell couldn’t.
“What other things?” Graciela demanded, looking back and forth between them.
“Nothing important,” Jenny said sharply, her cheeks turning crimson.
Ty laughed softly. He would conquer her helplessness kiss by kiss. Though he suspected he would live to regret it, he would teach her who controlled events between men and women. When she understood her power, that’s when her surrender would be the sweetest.
The sun was directly overhead when the train chuffed into the Verde Flores station. The terrain had altered and softened. Trees flanked the river that tumbled through town, clumps of mesquite and creosote bush flowed away from the village perimeters.
An hour earlier, according to plan, they had exchanged places with a family in the last seats across the aisle so Graciela wouldn’t be framed in the window on the depot side of the train.
As soon as the train lurched to a stop, Ty glanced at Jenny who nodded grimly, then he walked down the aisle and stepped outside onto the platform between the cars. He quickly glanced across the sagging depot porch. People rushed to greet passengers getting off, others stood, gathering belongings prior to boarding. Leaning out, Ty looked up and down the length of the train, then, scowling, he returned inside and slid into the seat next to Jenny.
“Three men,” he said quietly. “One’s on the platform. One just boarded the car directly behind the locomotive. The other is checking the cars at the rear.”
She nodded. “They’ll walk through the cars, working toward each other.”
“That’s my guess.” He touched Graciela’s shoulder, gazed into her wide eyes. “We discussed this, remember?” She nodded solemnly. “If one of them gets past us, you run outside and make a hell of a noise. We’ll see you or hear you. Otherwise, stay right here. Don’t move.”
When he finished, Jenny placed her hands on Graciela’s shoulders and peered into her face. “Don’t go having any second thoughts. Don’t start thinking your cousins want to take you back to Aunt Tete. You know what they want.” Graciela bit her lips and nodded. “Say it.”
“Money,” his niece whispered. “They want to hurt me.”
“That’s right,” Jenny stated firmly. “If you get some crackbrained idea about joining up with a cousin, say this word: Snakes.” She stared into Graciela’s eyes. “We have to trust you, kid. Graciela. We’re trusting you not to run off. Tell me you won’t.”
“I won’t.”
“Your word is your bond.”
Ty touched Jenny’s shoulder. “She understands. We’re losing time.” When she stood and straightened her shoulders, he watched her gaze harden as she shifted her thoughts toward the men searching for them. “You go forward, I’ll take the back.”
He wasted another minute gazing deep into her eyes, fighting a protective urge. The straw hat and skirt made him very aware that she was a woman. It impressed him as crazy to send a female off to fight a man.
Hell, what was he thinking? He’d known men who couldn’t throw a punch as hard as she did. “How’s your arm?”
“Like new. Get moving.” She glanced at Graciela again, then turned smartly in a swirl of skirts and strode toward the door at the front of the car without a backward glance.
He frowned, watching her go. He would have felt better about this if she’d been wearing her usual trousers and shapeless poncho.
“Don’t worry,” Graciela said calmly, not a doubt in her voice or demeanor. “Jenny is very strong and very brave.”
“Yes, she is.” Leaving Graciela alone concerned him. “Don’t move.”
But she did. Before he had taken two steps, she changed seats, moving forward to sit with a Mexican family. He nodded. She was a clever kid.
Moving quickly, he walked through the next crowded passenger car, then the next. The cousins weren’t leaving anything to chance. The man he’d spotted at the tail end of the train had started with the boxcars first. Once Ty was certain the man hadn’t yet entered the passenger cars, he dropped to the ground and sprinted to the closest boxcar. The doors were open and he pulled himself inside, almost colliding with a man preparing to jump out.
Ty didn’t give the bastard a chance to collect his thoughts. Springing to his feet, he came up with an uppercut that sent the Barrancas cousin flying back among the horses and mules.
Pressing his advantage, he jumped forward and took a fist in the gut. Hammering at each other, the two of them rolled in the bedding, trying to avoid stamping hooves.
Jenny walked swiftly through the forward car, stepped onto the platform, then peered through the window into the next car. Immediately, she ducked out of sight. Chulo moved slowly down the middle aisle, scanning each face he passed.
Leaning out of the platform enclosure, she tried to judge how close they were to departure. She noticed the officials were already aboard before a cloud of steam obscured her vision. The whistle shrieked overhead, then the cars lurched and clashed together.
As the train rolled forward, she grabbed an iron handle to steady her balance, then withdrew her pistol and waited for the door to open. When it did, she let Chulo step past her and reach for the door to the next car before she moved up and jabbed him in the spine with the barrel of her pistol.
