Chapter 8 #3
Clary wore a look of great concern as she put a hand on his arm. Her gentle touch did something deep inside him, and Thomas managed to push his fear to the side. He tried to smile at her but couldn’t quite manage it.
She was so lovely, and now she was in danger just by being with him. All of them were. If El Aguila really did have more people in this crowd, they could all end up dead without anyone in Unity even knowing what happened.
“What did the message say?” she asked. “Is Luke okay?”
Looking around the room, Thomas noticed how some folks caught his eye.
They didn’t nod or make any gesture, but he could see in their steely stares that they were El Aguila’s people.
This meeting was a bad idea. Their enemy was all around them and they hadn’t noticed.
They were in a spider’s den and, just like the unwitting fly, were treading on dangerous ground.
“Thomas?” Clary asked, gripping his arm firmly.
The contact drew his attention to her. He looked down into her lovely face and saw the worry in her eyes.
He had developed so many feelings for her in such a short time that he felt almost overwhelmed with the intensity of it all.
He could never risk Clary, which also meant that he couldn’t tell her what the message had actually said.
El Aguila was watching through so many eyes.
He couldn’t tell anyone. Not now. Maybe later, when they were all alone and on the road.
Thomas forced a smile. “Well, it seems that Tilda is still angry with me. But it seems things are fine,” he lied. “We should go.”
They went back to the table, and Thomas suggested they leave. The others looked confused. Why would he be so eager to go?
“We’ll never get back before it’s dark,” Dorothy pointed out.
“I know, but I remembered that Ethan needs me to be back at the smelter tomorrow,” Thomas said. “We’re still behind, and you know Rossi; he’s a tyrant.”
Robert and Warren cast suspicious looks Thomas’s way, but Lucy nodded. “I think we’ve done all we can here. It’s too crowded for my taste anyway.”
That seemed to settle it, and they said goodbye to Mac.
“I’ll head back to New York in a day or two,” he said. “But I will be back.”
They nodded, wished him well, and then went to the stables to get the horses.
Robert and Warren spent a long time saying their goodbyes in the inn, and Thomas was becoming more agitated as time wore on.
He wanted to go. The sooner they got out of San Antonio and on the road, the safer they would all be.
He didn’t think that El Aguila would risk his safety now that he had him on a hook.
He wanted Thomas to do a job for him, and he wouldn’t likely want to jeopardize it with a bandit raid.
After a while, Clary and the coach came clattering up the drive. The others were forced to end their farewells and get in. Thomas rode shotgun again.
They were silent as they drove out of the town again, past the now-smoldering ruins of the two buildings. The flames had been vanquished, but the smell of smoke and the destruction remained.
Thomas began to wonder if El Aguila hadn’t set that fire to get Mac out of the saloon and into the inn where he seemed to have so many eyes and ears.
“Okay,” Clary said when they were well underway and San Antonio was behind them. “What is going on with you?”
“Nothing,” Thomas lied again, feeling horribly guilty about it.
“Nothing? One moment you’re all eager to spend the night there at the Lucky Bull, and the next you’re insisting we leave. You don’t think that complete change of heart is something?” she asked. “Not to mention how pale you got when you read the telegram. It wasn’t good news, was it?”
Thomas had to think quickly. She was right, of course, and he should tell her. He opened his mouth and tried to find the words.
Something flew into his open mouth, and he choked. He coughed and spluttered, banging his chest with his fist.
“Thomas!” Clary cried, hovering beside him. “Thomas, are you okay?”
“Swallowed a bug or something,” he said.
Quickly, Clary pulled a water skin from under the seat and handed it to him. He opened it and took a few sips.
“How are you feeling now?” Clary asked.
“Okay,” he said. “I’m okay.” He was breathing hard.
“Good. Why don’t you tell me the truth now?” she asked pointedly.
Thomas considered her. “Clary. I … the news isn’t good. There is trouble with Luke,” he said, not knowing how to tell her everything. It just seemed like a mountain that he couldn’t even begin to scale.
“Oh no, what kind of trouble? Is there something we can do?” she asked earnestly, taking his hand. “I’m here for you, Thomas. You know that, right?”
He shook his head. “It’s something I have to work out on my own. But thank you so much for being here.”
Clary wrinkled her nose. “Okay then. But if you need me …”
“I’ll come find you,” he said. What Thomas needed was time to think. There had to be a way to wriggle out of this stranglehold that El Aguila had on him. He would have to think of something clever that could save himself, his brother, and his friends.