The Gentrys: Cal. Linda Conrad
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quickly swallowed two more bites before she answered. “I will answer all your questions, but this is the first food I’ve eaten in two days. May I finish first?”
“Two days?” The woman was truly starving to death.
Cal wondered if he would be so polite and quiet if he hadn’t had anything to eat in forty-eight hours. He took a bowl of fruit off the counter. Placing the apples and bananas on the table in front of her, he sat down and waited, encouraging her to finish every last bite of sandwich.
After she’d washed down the sandwich with the coffee, Bella sighed once more. “Thank you, Cal.” She eyed the fruit, but folded her hands in her lap. “I believe it might make me sick to eat too much after such a long time. I will try a banana later…if the sandwich settles well.”
She seemed so poised and unhurried. He reached for an apple himself, suddenly feeling ravenous. Man, if it was him who hadn’t eaten in that long, he’d be grabbing and stuffing by this time. Just who was this woman, anyway?
Bella took one more sip of coffee as he bit into his apple. “There,” she said. “I think I can talk now. I appreciate your hospitality.”
He swallowed and reached for her hand with his free one. “It’s nothing, Bella. I would’ve fed you earlier if I’d known. You should’ve told me.”
She shook her head. “The baby came first. It was only right.”
Bella looked down at their joined hands. The glow of heat she’d felt when he touched her had been a surprise. She’d thought herself immune to such feelings of lust after all this time on the open range, away from temptation.
“Now then, where to begin?” She considered pulling her hand from under his, but decided to leave it where it was for the moment. “This is the first time that I have actually crossed into your country illegally. I did not realize how far into Texas we’d come.”
She knew her words had taken him aback when he quietly removed his hand and took another bite of apple. Bella wondered what he’d say when he learned she was running from such dire circumstances.
“Perhaps I should begin at the beginning and tell you why I have been working in the Mexican countryside near your borders,” she said, sighed and then continued. “Several years ago my church in Mexico decided to start a…how do you say it…‘missionary outreach.’ Is that not right? Anyway, many of our poorer countrymen take huge risks to come to your country. Unfortunately, too many of them also die for their trouble. We wanted to…I wanted to…make a difference for a few.”
“So you…did what? Went on a hunger strike?” Cal interrupted.
There was that arrogant tone again, even through the disarming grin. The man just oozed sex appeal in his trendy designer jeans and blue-striped western shirt. And his new clothes covered a broad chest narrowing down to perfect slim hips, too. But he couldn’t manage to keep his demanding, rich-man’s ways hidden for long.
Judging by the look of his expensive clothes and the smug sexual way he stared at her, he appeared to be a man used to getting his own way. She had no doubt that the women around him fawned over him, spoiling him and making him cocksure of himself where it came to the opposite sex.
She wasn’t quite sure what he was doing in this cabin that looked a little shabby around the edges, though he’d said it was temporary. But she knew he lived on a big Texas ranch and could afford a nanny for his child. Bella wondered if she should bother explaining anything to this demanding and probably extremely rich charmer.
Since he was her host, she decided to try. “No. For four years the church has sent teams to our border,” she began again. “We camp out, eventually finding small bands of migrants heading north. We take them health care and a rudimentary knowledge of how to remain safe during their journey through the wilderness.”
“Do you try to talk them out of coming here?” he asked.
Bella shook her head. “It would do no good. Poverty drives them from their homes and spurs them to seek a better way in this land of plenty. Nothing we could say would change their desperation.” She wondered whether he would listen to the whole story. “My job is to bring them a little medicine, though I cannot carry everything they need. We talk to them about sanitation, about regulating their body temperatures and staying hydrated.” Taking a last sip of coffee, she eyed the fruit bowl.
“That all sounds very noble of you,” Cal commented dryly.
She glared at him. “What we do, we do for our countrymen and their families…and for God. Not for glory.”
As annoying as his remarks might be, she was glad he’d asked. She’d sort of lost track of the point of it all. Telling him reminded her of the reasons she took this challenge in the first place—to save lives.
Cal took one last bite of apple and spoke after he swallowed. “Yes, well, that doesn’t tell me why you’re here alone in Texas. Did you decide to come across with some migrants this time?” he asked at last.
He loved the way her eyes sparked as she talked. The fire and enthusiasm for what she was doing flashed out of every pore. She had to be exhausted and near collapse, but she seemed determined to make him understand. He discovered it aroused him no end to simply listen and watch.
He’d slept with a number of women in his youth, but he’d never seen this much pure passion packed into one gorgeous body. Cal experienced a demanding desire to capture that passion. But he also badly needed her help with Kaydie. So he decided to go slow and eventually charm his way into her arms.
“I usually travel with one or two other church members,” she told him. “On this particular journey, two of us had been working with one of the bigger migrant groups…Armando with the single men, and I was with the families that had mothers and babies along.” Bella rose, refilled her glass.
“Three nights ago the dangerous men who’d promised to take the whole group across the border showed up at the camp.” She took a sip and returned to her seat. “Your U.S. law enforcement uses the term coyotes for the hombres who guide migrants across for money. The name suits most of them and certainly described these men.”
Cal began to wonder exactly what details her story might entail. A look of terror had flitted across her eyes as she spoke of the coyotes.
“You look tired, Bella.” He swallowed back the flash of anger over the treatment he’d imagined she’d suffered at the hands of the human smugglers. “Why don’t you finish telling me this tomorrow?” He wasn’t sure he could take hearing the details of what had happened to her.
She shook her head. “I will finish now, por favor.” Bella blinked once and shivered. “The men who were to act as coyotes for our band of migrants seemed particularly bad. Rough, drunken and violent. Armando and I talked the women and children into staying inside Mexico and trying to find another way to cross. The single men wanted to go ahead.
“The coyotes were displeased with Armando and me for interfering with their plans…and for warning the single men not to turn over all their money until they’d arrived safely at their destination.”
Wiping a hand across her weary eyes, Bella suddenly looked vulnerable and small. “A coyote shot Armando. Killed him instantly. One of the single migrant men hid me under a tarp in the bed of a covered truck…or I would be dead, too.”
Cal reached for her, but she shirked away from his touch. “My God, Bella. This sounds incredible. How did you survive? What did you do?”
“I kept perfectly still while the coyotes herded the rest of the migrants into the trucks. It was so hot in there and we had so little air, breathing was difficult. The first time they stopped the trucks to provide for some human comfort must’ve been nearly twelve hours later.”
Bella closed her eyes, apparently remembering the horror. “Some of the migrants feared that if the coyotes spotted me they might try to assault me and perhaps kill us all. One kind man gave me a little