The moment I stepped outside, the thick air blanketing me like an open oven, and the screams began to fade. I headed straight over to the peeling wood fence that housed the horses. The fence seemed to go on forever, dipping over a low hill and fading off into the distance.
I leaned against it, careful not to get splinters on my arms, and a breeze swept off the hills, hot but smelling of hay. A dapple grey horse grazed on tufts of dry grass, its tail swishing. I smiled despite myself. For a moment, I imagined what it would be like to hop on its back and get the hell out of here. Just me and the horse and the desert, no fear, no constraints. Just freedom.
I knew I wouldn’t get far. If I didn’t succumb to the relentless heat and the fact that my cell phone didn’t work out here and I had no idea where I was going, Javier and his men would find me in minutes.
Unless he didn’t, I told myself, and before I knew what I was doing, I was stepping through the fence. Unless he couldn’t care less where you went. Don’t be so naïve.
I picked up some hay that was gathered near a shanty at the gate and headed across the paddock, hoping I wouldn’t scare the horse. There were other horses here, spread out in small herds, maybe twenty in total, but this horse was the closest. And alone.
“You and me both,” I said under my breath as I quietly approached him.
He kept his eye on me as I came close, but only raised his head at the last minute. I held out the hay, perhaps too fast, and the horse took off, spooked.
I sighed as I watched him gallop away until he disappeared over the hill. I looked behind me at the house and clenched the hay in my hand. I had nothing better to do.
I set off after the horse, determined to win over something in my life. I went over the hill and saw the land gently slope toward a dried up riverbed where mesquite and acacia grew. The horse had paused down there, grazing on yellow flowers that grew in the sparse shade.
I headed after it, watching my feet carefully as my boots navigated the loose rocks and hard sand. Scorpions scuttled away from my shadow.
It was cool down by the wash, even with the water all dried up. The horse had his head up, watching me, but I thought I saw some kind of understanding in his large dark eyes. I decided to stay put, holding the hay at my side.
“It’s okay, boy,” I told him softly. “I won’t hurt you.”
The horse watched me then slowly resumed chewing before it lowered its head again and went back to plucking the flowers off the shrub, its lips nipping them delicately.
I didn’t know how long I stood there for, just watching the gorgeous animal. If I couldn’t hop on his back and ride off into the sunset to start a new life, maybe I could convince Javier to bring him back home with us. We had the barn that had the pigs back on our compound, and we could easily use one of the stalls for him.
I was just about to come up with a name for him — Bandito — when he slowly took a few steps toward me, head down, seeming to hone in on the hay. I carefully held out my hand and he took the hay from me.
“Aren’t you handsome?” I asked him, wondering if he’d run if I tried to pet him.
But before I had the answer, he suddenly raised his head, the whites of his eyes showing, and then turned on a dime, galloping off and leaving me in the dust again.
I coughed and turned around, wondering what had startled him.
Coming down the slope was Esteban, his eyes sharply fixed on me.
“What are you doing?” he asked, jogging the last little bit. I was having a hard time pretending not to notice that his shirt was off and slung over one shoulder. He was fit, all sculpted abs and a deep tan. I looked to his feet and saw that he had slip-on sneakers instead of flip-flops on for once.
“I was getting to know the horses,” I told him as he stopped right in front of me. He smelled liked sweat. It wasn’t a terrible smell, it was actually rather primal. His skin glistened and I looked up at his face, the brim of my hat shielding me from the intense sun.
“You shouldn’t wander too far,” he said. “The desert is no place for a woman like you.”
My brows rose. “A woman like me? And what kind of woman am I?”
“One that shouldn’t be so bold, not in places like this. There are many things out here that can kill you, hey.”
I rolled my eyes and turned, heading down to the wash, seeking the shade. “Oh please, you think I didn’t grow up with the desert in my backyard?”
“I’m sure you did,” he said, and I could hear him trailing after me. “But you’re not a little girl on the Baja anymore. You’re a queen. And you need to treat yourself like one.”
“Queen,” I muttered, and sat down on a large, wide rock beneath a tall mesquite. “I doubt a queen would have contemplated escaping on a horse across the desert.”
He sat down beside me, his arm pressing against mine. I stiffened, trying to relax with him so near but I couldn’t.
“Oh, I bet many queens try to escape. Few make it. Didn’t you ever see Roman Holiday?”
I gave him an incredulous look, trying not to smile. “With Audrey Hepburn? Badly dubbed in Spanish?”
“Yes,” he said, grinning at me. “She was a princess, and she wanted nothing more to escape. I think it’s very common.” He leaned in closer, his gaze suddenly intensifying. “I could be your Gregory Peck, hey.”
I managed a weak smile. “You’re not handsome enough,” I told him.
I thought he would have looked insulted at that, but instead he put his hand on the back of my neck, holding me there. “I may not be handsome, but I sure can fuck better than him.”