Blood in the Valencian Soil (Secrets of Spain) (16 page)

“Fixing the problem,” she replied without moving an inch. Her body stood rigid when she pointed the gun squarely at the two women in front of her. She wasn’t going to miss if she fired a shot. “I know what you are doing, Sister Rosa,” she said to the nun, who stood firm in the face of the weapon. “You can’t have this baby.”

“We want to deliver the child safely,” Nurse Blanca said.

“And give it to who?”

“You can’t stop this, Scarlett,” Sister Rosa said. “
This girl is going to pay for what she has done. A whore like Sofía doesn’t get treated like a virtuous woman. The same way you won’t when your time comes.”

The only muscle that moved in Scarlett was her index finger when she fired the first shot. Sister Rosa dropped like a stone, and the single shot to her chest barely had time to bleed before her body hit the ground.
Nurse Blanca also didn’t have a chance to move before Scarlett put a bullet in her. She fell to the cold floor with blood splattered on her white nurse’s uniform. A shot to the stomach wouldn’t bring instant death, but it would do the job.

Scarlett stepped over the nurse who was beginning to choke on her own blood, and stood at the end of the bed with Sofía again. This baby couldn’t possibly still be alive. Gloves, she needed gloves.

“What the hell have you done?” Luna cried. She clutched at Sofía’s hand so tight, but by now Sofía was barely responsive.

“I did what I had to do. I know there are
n’t any blood supplies in the hospital,” Scarlett said while she fumbled through the equipment drawer by the bed. No gloves anywhere. “We can do this on our own.”

“I can’t!” Luna stuttered. There were two bodies on the floor, neither of them dead just yet, and Sofía looked pale and lifeless. “Sofía isn’t moving!”

Scarlett stepped forward to Sofía’s side with a face full of concern. “Sofía,” she said loudly. “Sofía, can you hear me?”

Sofía opened her dark brown eyes, but
there was barely any life in them. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing more than a whisper came out.

“What’s going on?” Luna asked. Her eyes couldn’t help but go between Sofía and the two women on the floor. “She was screaming just a moment ago.”

“She has gone into shock. I don’t know what we can do.”

“What? But you said…”

“I know what I said. We need to get her out of the room.”

“How?”

“I don’t know that either, but it will make life easier if we’re not found with the nurse and the torturous witch.”

“You shot a nun!”

“Yeah, well, we do what we have to do. Besides, she was going to kill Sofía and steal the baby. She was letting her bleed out.”

“So what do we do?”

“A caesarean needs to be performed, but from the swelling, I would say she is bleeding internally. I think the pressure put on her when they were pushing on her stomach has burst her placenta. It must have become unattached prematurely. Even if I knew how to perform a hysterectomy…”

“Can’t there be a doctor somewhere?”

“There are none, that bit I believe. There are so many casualties at the moment, and this would be considered non-essential and a waste of supplies. We are on our own. If there were doctors here, they would have responded to the gunshots by now anyway.”

“Quiero ir a casa,” Sofía whispered.

“No, Sofía, we can’t go home,” Luna tried to reassure her.

“Por favor, mi bebé…”

Luna’s panic-stricken eyes looked up at Scarlett, who had gone to check the baby. “We are in a hospital, we should be able to do something!”

“They don’t care, Luna, you don’t seem to understand that. If Sofía wants to die at home…”

“She wants to live at home!”

“Luna,” Sofía whispered, and the two women stared at the poor woman. She was flat on her back and with her knees bent and her feet strapped to the bed. Her luscious black hair was wet, and it clung to her skin. “El bebé …”

“I will care for your baby, I promise,” Luna said. She looked up at Scarlett. “Scarlett, please help her.”

“I could try and pull the baby out. The odds of it surviving are very slim anyway. I just worry that if the placenta has burst it will only increase the blood loss.”

“But if she is still bleeding then isn’t the blood just building up behind the baby anyway?”

Scarlett’s eyes widened when she nodded in agreement. She looked down and kicked Nurse Blanca’s arm out of the way. She
still made a slight gurgling sound while she drowned on her blood. At least the nun was dead. “We have to get her out of here, or they will catch us. Okay, I’m going to push the baby back in and then hope I can find both feet, and pull.”

“Won’t it hurt Sofí
a?” That was when Luna realised that Sofía wasn’t holding her hand anymore. “Sofía?” She shook her limp hand, but her dear sister-in-law didn’t move. “Scarlett!”

Scarlett stepped forward and put her hand to Sofía’s throat. She looked up at Luna and hoped she would feel something. Anything. Scarlett had checked enough pulses in her time, and made the call about whether someone would live or die enough times. But this was Sofía Perez, her best friend, the only person who had befriended her when she first moved to Cuenca. Scarlett may have become a dark soul, but she would always love Sofía. There was nothing. Not even the faintest pulse. She could see the tears coming to Luna's eyes and Scarlett desperately tried to fight back her own, but it was no use. “We have to save the baby,” she managed to say, and Luna nodded as she started to cry.

14

Cuenca, España ~ septiembre de 2009

Cayetano straightened his
shirt and waited at the door to Luna’s hotel room. He hoped that she hadn’t driven back to Valencia. The tiniest strip of light shone from under the door, which raised his hopes. The door opened very slowly, she must have seen him through the peephole. A very cautious face appeared.

He held up the red rose he had in his hands. “A truce?” he offered.

Luna swung the door open, and folded her arms over her chest. She was in nothing more than a full-length pale blue silk dressing gown, which was done up very tight at the waist. Her black hair was piled high in a messy bun, and her ice-blue eyes looked brighter than ever. “Did you steal that from the garden in the courtyard?”

“Sí,
I did. But I asked if I could first.” He watched a smile creep over her face and he held it out, and she took it from him. It was as if no one had ever given her flowers. Maybe they hadn’t, but it would be hard to believe.

“I’m sorry that I freaked out at you earlier,” Luna said.

“I pulled the tiger’s tail. You did warn me that I would get bitten.”

“Still, it doesn’t give me the right to tell you how to deal with the things that you have going on in your life.”

“The truth is… I don’t know how to talk to you. You have been through something I can’t understand. If I get it wrong, then I’m sorry. It’s only because I’m lost. Even the simplest things seem new again with you.”

“Come in,” sh
e said, and opened the door for him. “But you need to be quiet; the boys are asleep.”

“Already?” Cayetano asked as Luna closed the door behind him. “It’s only nine.”

“Long day when you’re little.” He watched her cross the room, her little feet slid over the dark tiles to the bedroom door which was ajar. She peeked in, and then closed it gently. “They liked you,” she said, and the pair sat down on the couch together. “They asked if they get to see the bullfighting man again.”

“And do they?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why?”

“Do you know the expression ‘no smoke without fire?’ You hit a nerve today. In fact, you do it every time I see you. I never anticipated ever being interested in anyone after my husband was killed. Then you blow in and change everything for me, but that isn’t your fault, it happens because I like you. I don’t know what to do about it.”

“Then do nothing.
I’m not asking anything of you.”

“It’s not that simple, Cayetano. It’s opened up so many things.”

“Like?”

“I was raised by my father after my mother died. My father was wonderful, but I wanted more for my kids than I had. Two parents, a family
, like everyone else takes for granted. Their father was killed, and it made me so angry that this could happen to them. I don’t want to be a mother who brings men in and out of her kids’ lives. That isn’t who I am. I need to be careful with everything I do. My life and decisions don’t belong to me. I’m bound by the boys and their needs, and I don’t resent that at all. To choose what is good for them is the natural choice for me.”

“That leaves us stranded, doesn’t it? Because
Darren is the safe choice for them.”

“I could be happy with
Darren, if I try hard enough.”

“Love can’t be forced, Luna. The harder you try, the
further it slips away.”

“I have no room for fanciful romance. I can’t be flighty and wait for love to come along. I can’t be pulled by it. I have two kids that require me to make considered choices.”

“How would you feel if they looked back in 20 years and realised that their mother was unhappy for their benefit?”

“I hope they would be grateful. I would also hope that they didn’t understand it. I don’t want anyone to understand how I feel. I live in an awful place filled with guilt and confusion.”

“I can’t help you,” Cayetano said. “But I do know that being stuck with someone you don’t love can destroy you.”

“When I met Fabrizio, I loved him so much, from the moment I laid eyes on him. It’s so ridiculous but so true. It was mad and passionate. We would have sex until the mattress slipped off the bed.” She paused for a moment. “Oh God, I said that out loud.”

Cayetano chuckled. “I don’t mind.”

Luna couldn’t wipe the smile from her face. “I thought that he was the only one who could do that to me, love me like that I mean. Madly, passionately and completely.
Darren, I love him, and he is important to me, but that feeling doesn’t exist with him. But life isn’t about passion. It wears off.”

“Did it wear off in your marriage?”

“Yeah, it did after a while, as it does. The pressures of work and kids... but then I met you, and that feeling was back. That crazy, lustful feeling of having a connection with someone. I loved it and also hated it, because it meant the connection to Fabrizio wasn’t as special and unique as I thought.”

“Love is a cruel thing, Luna. Trust me, I know. You can’t change the past. What you had once isn’t lessened by what you do now. You can’t go through life without love.”

“I don’t want just some excitement and lust, a relationship is so much more than that. Besides, excitement wears off.”

“Not always. My parents have been together for 40 years, and they’re like lustful teenagers even now. It’s hard to watch to be honest.”

“That’s great, but it’s the exception, not the rule. So if I start a relationship with Darren without that passion, then I already know what I am headed for. No disappointments.”

“You could start a life with me and have that passion, and it could last forever.”

Luna looked up at Cayetano across from her. “Don’t ask anything of me. I have nothing to offer.”

“I want a shot with you.”

“Why? I’m an unemployed mother-of-two with multiple issues.”

Cayetano couldn’t help it, he had to laugh, and she did the same. At least it broke the ice. “I like you. You are enchanting, and interesting, and deep, and thoughtful. You are beautiful and hot-blooded as hell. I’m not some young idiot who wants to waste his time on himself. Plus I like kids. I’ve wanted them for years.”

“I have always been under the impression that no guy wants to play Papá to another man’s kids.”

“Families are not always the best just because they are traditional. Life is no fairytale.”

“No, it certainly isn’t.” She looked out the full-length windows that faced back toward the old town. In the dark, the houses along the edges of the cliff illuminated the gorge. “This place is a fairytale.”

“Once upon a time, our families lived here. Who knows what went on? We still have to find
out where your grandfather came from.”

“It would have been a hard life here 70 years ago, with or without the war. I bet they faced deaths of loved ones, and other complications to everyday life
, on a scale more serious than you or I.”

“Doesn’t make our troubles any smaller,” Cayetano said and slid forward in his seat. His leg was killing him, and couldn’t deny it anymore. All afternoon on those fucking steps had finally hit him. He shut his eyes for a moment and ran his hand over his muscles,
and the fabric of his jeans rubbed the tense limb. Bloody accident. He opened his eyes, and Luna had gone, and he looked around. “Luna?”

She came back out of the other bedroom door and was h
eld a small white bottle. His leg was forgotten. When she walked without holding her dressing gown, he could see every inch of her beautiful long legs, they just kept going up and up…

“Capsicum cream, remember?” she said. “I’ll rub it on your leg.”

“Is that wise?” he asked. Her hands on him right after she had basically told him to back off?

“I’m not doing it to be wise, I’m doing it
to be helpful. You could have rested it all day at home today, but instead you helped me out. Take your pants off.”

Cayetano stood up and undid his jeans. The moment the pants fell to the floor her eyes lit up. She hadn’t seen the wound before. “Wow,” she said and knelt down in front of him.

“They all say that,” he teased.

“Sit down on the edge of the couch, smart-ass.” She waited for him to get comfortable, and then ran her fingers very carefully over the scar on his skin. It had done its best to heal, still purple and dotted by the marks that the stitches had left behind on the flesh. “Is it just the wound that hurts or is it the whole thigh?”

“The whole damn thing,” he said, and watched her rub the cream on to her hands. “If it warms my leg to numb it, won’t it numb your hands?”

“I will wash them in a few minutes, so no problem.”

He groaned the moment she moved her warm hands on his leg. Her smooth hands ran from his knee, over the scar and right up his thigh, and it was the most relieving thing he could have ever imagined. His skin started to warm from the contact, and he almost felt dizzy. No physiotherapist appointment felt that good.

“You are good at this,” he said breathlessly. He settled into the joy that she gave him in an instant.

“I have just had a lot of practice. Let me know if I touch you too hard and it hurts,” she said without a glance up at him. She continued to knead his leg for him, and could feel the tightness in the muscle.

Cayetano could have sat with her all night. He watched her run her hands back and forward. He felt like a teenage boy the moment she reached the top of his leg. It excited him so much he could barely feel the leg at all.
He couldn’t hide how much he liked her touch. From her spot between his legs, she could see his enthusiasm. When she leaned forward, her gown would billow open a little, and he could see her breasts sway gently underneath. She had tried to hide the fact she wore nothing under there before, but had now become distracted. María always had herself on show, and even posed nude in a magazine once. Viewers cared less for her news stories and more for the assets she bestowed, all courtesy of her doctor. What Luna had under there was totally different, voluptuous but natural. God, he wanted his hands on her again.

“You okay up there?” she said and glanced up.

“Sí, why?”

“You’re moaning a lot.”

Was he? He hadn’t even noticed. “It’s the best I have felt since the accident. I can feel it numbed already.”

“Good,” she said and took her hands off him. “The cream will do the rest for you
now that it has soaked in. You will be able to sleep easy now.”

“What if I don’t want to sleep?”

“Then don’t,” she smiled. “I need to wash my hands. I like to have full feeling in them.”

“You wouldn’t want to rub the wrong thing and have ‘it’ lose feeling.” He couldn’t help himself.

“No, I wouldn’t. Some things are very sensitive and need to be handled just right.” The green flecks in his eyes were back, and she couldn’t resist. She sat up on her knees and thrust her lips onto his. It went against everything she had just said to him, but she couldn’t contain herself. She felt his hands come to her back to hold her against him, firm like the slow kiss her gave her. She wound her arms around him as the urgency in his kiss intensified. She was careful to keep her hands off him; her hands were still covered in the cream.

“I have to wash my hands,” she said, still pressed against him. “I shouldn’t be kissing you. You’re the guilty pleasure I need stay away from.”

“The problem with guilty pleasures is that if you suppress your urges, they only fight harder to make you indulge.”

“So to be
wicked is my only option?” she asked, her lips against his.

“Only after washing your hands.”

Luna pulled herself away from him; her hands had started to tingle. She hurried through her bedroom to the bathroom and ran them under hot water. She looked up at herself in the mirror. She was flushed. Bright pink cheeks. There was no shame in feeling this way. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Feelings didn’t need time to be decided on, either they existed, or they didn’t. She had finally been thrown in the path of attraction again.

Luna came out of the bathroom, to find Cayetano in the doorway to her bedroom. There was that stance again; shoulders back, chest out, every inch the man. “How is your leg?”

“I can’t even feel it.”

“Good. Then close the door behind you,” she said and crossed the room.

Cayetano wanted to slam it and grab her, but he shut it as quietly as his patience would let him. His hands went to the tie of blue silk around her waist, and pulled it as they kissed. His hands ran over her shoulders and pushed the gown from her so his hands could roam over her bare body. She let his mouth go and pulled his shirt over his head to let their hot skin touch. Luna managed to wriggle his boxers off him while they fiercely seared their affection on one another. Cayetano certainly hadn’t imagined this as the response to his apology when he knocked on the door, but it was clearly the best idea he had ever had in his life. This wasn’t like the first night they spent together, neither of them had that kind of patience. This was pure and raw desire.

No sooner than they had fallen onto the bed in a heap, Cayetano pulled her up on him. He had his hands firmly on her hips to guide her body to his. Cayetano couldn’t just lie back when she consumed him; just the quiver alone that
shot through his body was enough to shock him upright. He could hear his voice cry out, but it sounded like it was somewhere in the foggy distance while she took him to the edge and beyond. He was erotically delighted at the power she held over him, and utterly thrilled at the effect he had over her when she passionately cried out. Every kiss was a desperate, hungry clutch at each other, a search for a way to be as close as possible. Whatever invisible power that drew the two together wasn’t finished with them.