Read Online River to Cross, A by Yvonne Harris - Free Book Online Page A

She turned to Jake and nodded. “Uncle Jake says you’re boo-ful.”
    Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at Jake. “You said that? That’s so nice.”
    “Ruthie’s description of her aunt Elizabeth,” he said smoothly. “Run along, kids. Go play and let the grown-ups talk.”
    Both boys headed for the door. Jakina gave Jake a quick hug and ran after them. The door slammed behind them.
    “Those kids do anything he asks,” Maria said. “He’ll make a wonderful daddy someday.”
    “Then he better hurry up and get married if he wants a family. In his line of work, his life expectancy isn’t the greatest,” Elizabeth said.
    “Hear that, Maria? Did she just propose to me, or did I hear wrong?”
    Maria looked up, grinning. “Heard wrong, I think. By the way, what’s this story I hear about you sleeping in her bed last night?”
    Elizabeth stiffened. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. Don’t believe it, Maria. Your friend fell into my bed sack because he was too drunk to stand up.”
    Maria looked genuinely surprised. “What? When did you start drinking, Jake?”
    “Right after she bit me,” he said.
    “After she what?” Maria snapped a glance at Elizabeth. “Did you really bite him?”
    Elizabeth dropped her face in her hands and blew out a sigh. “It’s a long story.”
    Jake started for the door. Once there, he stopped and turned around. “It’s mostly true. Gus and Fred loaded my coffee with whiskey, so I was drunk. They’re all having a great time with that at my expense. Nothing happened. She was out of that bed sack like a lightning bolt.”
    He pushed the door open and jerked his head toward the yard. “Come on, Duchess. Let’s take a walk.”

 
    Elizabeth stood on a flat gray rock jutting out from the riverbank and gazed at the tranquil scene before her.
    The shallow Rio Verde, dull pea green in the sunlight, moved lazily in the gorge between two mountains. The pine trees crowded on the surrounding hillsides grew straight and tall.
    “It’s so pretty,” she said.
    Jake sat on the bank, legs outstretched. “This may be gone by this time next year. Where we’re standing could all be underwater. The river’s low now, the water controlled by the small irrigation dams upstream.”
    She noted the edge in his voice and turned to face him. For the first time, his face was tense, his eyes stormy. Surprising for a man who was usually so calm and in control.
    Jake pointed up the river toward the gorge. “If Diego doesn’t get the support he wants, rumor has it all the dams could go some night. That would turn everything around here into a big lake.”
    “What about the Romero place.”
    “Everything flooded, and the house uninhabitable.”
    She looked up at the white farmhouse. Its thick adobe walls seemed as solid and immovable as the mountains. But they weren’t. Their walls were made of sun-dried bricks of mud and straw and would collapse if underwater for any length of time.
    “Diego intimidates the local farmers, getting them to back him against Guevara. If they don’t, things happen,” Jake said. “Last month a rancher disappeared. Another had his small dam, upstream from here, fail in the middle of the night. That one little broken dam put a foot of water over hundreds of acres of corn and wheat and drowned a flock of sheep.”
    She left the rock, walked back and stood on the bank, leaning against a large willow tree. Looking out over the water, she asked, “How do they stop it?”
    “By stopping Diego.”
    She shook her head. “Him again. It’s all connected, isn’t it? Diego, the Romeros, you, me, Lloyd.”
    He gave her a sharp look.
    She pushed away from the tree and moved closer to him. “In last week’s paper,” she began, “Lloyd printed what General Diego threatened to do in this part of Chihuahua. I asked him where he got his information, but he wouldn’t tell me. He ran an inch-high headline on page one: guevara sends troops . Under that were articles on threats to the dams