Raven's Prey

proper amount for the eggs, the coins disappearing into the child’s grubby little hand.
    “My mother wants to know if you’ll be needing more eggs now that your man has found you?” Paco asked gravely, peering unabashedly around the corner to see if he could catch sight of the stranger who had taken the [_gringa _]out of the cantina last night.
    “Tell your mother that I’ll let her know” Honor told him dryly. In a small town like this the arrival of Judd Raven was hardly likely to go unnoticed.
    “Do you think your man will give me a ride in his airplane?” Paco asked hurriedly.
    Honor didn’t catch every word but she got the gist of the question. “You’ll have to ask him,” she said smiling, and in the back of her mind a glimmering of an idea began to take shape. The airplane was the means ,by which Judd Raven eventually planned to get her out of the country. He would never let her near the Cessna unescorted but he was going to have a hard time keeping all the curious village children from hanging around the exotic machine. If worse came to worst and Raven refused to pay any heed to her explanation, those children might offer her a possible way of sabotaging that damned plane.
    “Ask me what?” Judd’s voice cut across her thoughts as he emerged from the bathroom behind her, wiping his neck with a small towel he’d found. The dark shadow of his beard, which had been evident last night, was gone temporarily, but in the bright morning light he reminded her just as much of a black-winged bird of prey as he had the night before.
    Honor took in the brilliant midnight eyes, the emotionless expression on his bronzed face and the hard lines of his body in jeans and a fresh, dark shirt. Her spirits sank.
    “Paco here wants to know if he can have a ride in the Cessna,” she explained quietly.
    Judd arched one brow and looked solemnly down at the young boy. He said something in rapid, expert Spanish and Paco’s face fell in disappointment. Honor realized Judd must have refused the ride. But the conversation went on for a few more minutes, the language too rapid for her to understand completely. In the end Paco left with an expectant grin on his dark features.
    “What did you tell him?” Honor asked as she shut the door behind her small visitor.
    Judd shrugged. “That I didn’t have enough fuel to take all the kids in the village joyriding and that if I did it for Paco I’d have to do it for the others. He understood and we compromised.”
    “Compromised?” Honor made her way across the small room to where the electric hot plate sat on a shelf.
    “I agreed to let him and the other kids take turns sitting in the pilot’s seat this afternoon. He’s gone off to tell the others.”
    Honor smiled with sudden, unexpected gratitude. “Oh, Judd, that’s very nice of you. Thank you. The kids will love that.”
    He eyed her mouth, not quite knowing what to make of the smile. “It’s no big deal. I don’t mind since it looks like I’m going to be stuck here for two wasted days anyway.” He could have kicked himself as soon as the words were out of his mouth. The dazzling, apparently genuine smile she was giving him disappeared instantly and the warmth that had momentarily lit her eyes was gone as if it had never been. It was replaced by the now-familiar wariness.
    “Yes,” she agreed in a grim little voice. “You will be stuck here for two wasted days, won’t you?”
    There was a small silence while she began heating a tiny skillet over the hot plate. Honor sensed that he was searching for another topic of conversation and the fact that he was temporarily at a loss for words was unaccountably satisfying.
    “Paco seemed to like you,” Judd finally remarked. He swung around one of the two straight-backed wooden chairs in the room and straddled it backward, his arms resting on the top.
    Honor lifted one shoulder dismissingly. “I pay an outrageous sum for fresh eggs. I also pay well for fresh tortillas and fresh vegetables. Nothing like having money in a poor town to make one popular!”
    “Or very unpopular,” he retorted wryly. There as another pause and then he remarked laconically, “Everyone I’ve talked to for the past week who remembered you seemed to like you. They all spoke enthusiastically of the polite lady with the beautiful smile.”
    “I guess I have the bulk of the Mexican population fooled, haven’t I?” she retorted bleakly, concentrating on the eggs while she heated two