“I do not think you are stupid.”
She looked toward the spring.
“So what do you know?”
Silas stared.
Then something changed in him.
Not anger.
Calculation.
“Be careful, Rosa.”
“Of what?”
“Men who arrive with convenient kindness.”
Her stomach tightened.
Silas saw it.
The smile returned.
“Ah.”
He knew.
“Gabriel Moreno.”
Rosa said nothing.
“Interesting.”
Silas glanced toward the roof.
“Did he repair that?”
Silence.
“He owns sixteen thousand acres and somehow finds time for a widow’s roof.”
Rosa’s hands curled.
Silas stepped closer.
“He wants the same thing I do.”
“You just admitted you want something.”
“I never pretended otherwise.”
At least that was true.
“He will.”
Silas nodded toward the mountains.
“Moreno is smarter than me in one way.”
“What way?”
“He knows women prefer being rescued before they are robbed.”
Rosa slapped him.
The sound cracked through the yard.
His nephew froze.
The third rider straightened.
Silas slowly turned his face back toward her.
A red mark appeared across his cheek.
Rosa’s hand trembled.
Not from regret.
From fear.
Silas touched his cheek.
Then smiled.
“Your husband had the same temper.”
Rosa went cold.
“What did you say?”
Silas lowered his hand.
“Nothing.”
“You knew Julián well enough to know his temper?”
“We did business.”
“No.”
Rosa stepped closer.
“You argued.”
Silas’s smile disappeared.
“Everyone argues.”
“About the spring?”
His eyes narrowed.
That was answer enough.
Rosa’s heart hammered.
“What happened the week he died?”
Silas laughed softly.
“Your husband fell from a horse.”
“I know how he died.”
“Then why ask?”
“Because now I wonder who he saw before he rode home.”
Silas’s nephew looked toward his uncle.
That too mattered.
Silas spoke slowly.
“Grief can make people suspicious.”
“Get off my property.”
“Rosa—”
“Now.”
For one second she thought he might refuse.
Then hoofbeats came from the road.
Everyone turned.
Gabriel Moreno rode into view.
He was alone.
Silas’s expression changed instantly.
Rosa hated the relief that moved through her.
She did not need rescuing.
But she was glad he was there.
Both could be true.