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 water that he’d hidden and then helped me escape into the night.
“I had no idea how far we had come before I got away…or where I might be headed. But I was panicked that the coyotes would come looking for me. They know the Texas range…and they want me dead.” She took a breath and swallowed. “I waited until daylight and then traveled south, hoping to run into something recognizable sooner or later.”
Cal stood. He felt like punching something, but there was nothing to hit. So he pitched his apple core into the garbage can and limped to the sink. Her story had disturbed him more than he liked to think.
“How did you manage to get through the Gentry Ranch fence?” he grumbled over his shoulder.
“Well, I most certainly did not cut any wires to come here, Señor Gentry,” she retorted smartly. “The trucks stopped on a dirt road in the dark of night and out in the middle of nowhere. I have no idea how we arrived at that spot, considering that I was buried under a dozen men in the dark trying not to breathe too loudly. I saw no signs of civilization when I snuck away.
“At daybreak, I walked south. I came across cattle and sheep and took water from stock tanks, but I saw no one’s fence. The smoke from the chimney of this cabin was the first thing I saw that looked like civilization.”
Upon hearing the obvious annoyance in her words, Cal had swung to watch her face. “I didn’t mean to accuse you of trespassing, sugar.” He hoped he could take the darts from her gaze with an explanation. “But my older brother, Cinco, will have a fit when he hears of this. He prides himself on the security surrounding Gentry Ranch.”
Bella’s hand motioned around the tiny kitchen. “Your brother lives here, too? I’ve only seen one bedroom bedsides Kaydie’s little room. Where is your brother now?”
Cal chuckled. “Most of the time no one lives in this cabin. Kaydie, her nanny and I just arrived last night. The nanny left this morning.” He sighed, then continued. “Cinco and his wife live in the main ranch house, about a half hour drive from here.”
At her startled look, he explained. “The Gentry is a good-size Texas ranch, honey. If you walked south all day yesterday, you must’ve escaped the coyotes’ truck about ten or twelve miles inside our eastern fence line. The question is how and where the coyotes broke through.”
“I didn’t realize your ranch was that big. There are rich patróns in Mexico who also have such massive land holdings.” She shrugged a shoulder. “But I don’t know how we arrived on your land in the trucks. We had no windows or way to see out. I did hear the coyotes bragging to the migrants about how they’d found a new, perfectly safe way to travel north, though.”
When she finished speaking, she yawned again, and Cal instinctively wanted to cradle her in his arms and rock her until she relaxed enough to fall sleep. He was surprised at the protective feelings she’d suddenly aroused in him. They felt a lot like the fatherly urges toward Kaydie he’d been trying to ignore for the last couple of months.
He couldn’t afford to suddenly feel anything more than duty when it came to his child. Not now. And with Bella…well, with her he wanted to keep his urges running more toward the lustful side anyway.
“You need sleep,” he told her.
He noticed her studying him carefully so he explained. “I want you to stay with us…at least for tonight. Tomorrow I’ll make some calls and we’ll talk more about getting you home. You can’t just wander around on the Gentry Ranch, starving and in danger of sunstroke.”
She gestured toward his gimpy leg. “Will someone come to care for Kaydie tonight? Forgive me, Cal, but you are not in very
