Read Catalina's Caress for Free Online

you."
    He kissed her hand again, then turned to leave. Catalina watched him walk away. This was the only chance she had to keep her brother's mistake from becoming a tragedy, yet she couldn't fight the idea that she was making a mistake that might be hard to walk away from.
    ❧
    Travis did give Catalina a black carpetbag containing the money late that same afternoon, and she spent the balance of the day in her room, steeling her nerves for the night's confrontation.
    Late that evening, thinking that Catalina was, at that very moment, with Marc Copeland, Travis sat in a darkened corner of a tavern with two unsavory characters.
    "You know what he looks like?" Travis questioned.
    "That we do, mate. We've seen the gent around for a while," one replied.
    "You know where the Belle is berthed?"
    "We know that too. What we wants to know is where the money is?" the second man growled.
    Travis reached into his breast pocket and withdrew a thick envelope. He tossed it onto the table, and the man snatched it eagerly.
    "I want him taken care of at your first opportunity," Travis declared quietly. "But make sure he's not on his boat. He'll have too much help there. I'd rather he just disappeared."
    "Don't ya worry, we'll take care of him. He won't even know what happened."
    "But remember to be careful. He's no fool, and don't think he'll be easy. If you strike and don't succeed, he'll make you wish you'd never been born."
    Both men nodded, smiled grim determined smiles, and then left the table. Travis finished his drink with satisfaction, and he soon left the tavern.
    In good time, he thought, I will have access to what I have wanted for a long time, a place in the circle of the wealthy. I will move in the midst of the Carringtons and their friends. I will have Catalina ... the boats ... and everything I want.
    There was much about Travis's past that no one knew. He had struggled against severe poverty, in a small town on the muddy banks of the Mississippi. The road to where he now stood had been a long and very difficult one.
    He had used whatever means were necessary to travel it—brute force and deception and theft. Inside him burned twin fires: one for Catalina herself and the other for her wealth. He was determined to have both and he wasn't going to let her stupid brother or Marc Copeland stand between him and his goals. He would rid himself of any threat as he had before. He would simply eliminate it
    Travis left the tavern and walked to his carriage. He ordered the driver to head for the docks, and in a short while he was looking at the graceful beauty of the Southern Belle and wondering what was happening in the captain's quarters at that moment.
    ❧
    Seth was wretched. The longer he was inactive and frightened, the closer he began to look at himself and his wasted life.
    He had enjoyed the wealth and prestige of his family without realizing he had a moral obligation to those who had given him so much. He realized now the effect his slide toward debauchery had had on his relationships with the people who loved him and consistently made excuses for him. He thought of Catalina and his misery worsened. Again he had let her take command and try to right his wrongs.
    It had taken this final blow to scrape away Seth's veneer, to make him search for a strength he hadn't known he had.
    After several hours of waiting and worrying Seth made a decision. First he was going to go to Catalina and tell her that this time he would be responsible for what he had done. Then he would tell his father the whole sordid truth and accept his punishment. After that, he would begin to build his life again. Maybe, he thought hopefully, in time his family would look at him with pride again. And maybe after a while he could begin to look upon himself without shame.
    Seth sent for his horse and left Rosepoint, determined to talk to his family. But it was not to work out the way he had planned. When he reached Belle Haven, he found that Catalina was gone and