Guadalupe's Tears by Angelique Videaul Read Free Book Online

street. The people screamed and fled the church courtyard. Lee tossed more sticks, striking buildings which exploded with abandon. The former slaves cheered. Livvy watched him, again biting her knuckle as she did so, and the town collapsed quickly. Lee stood on the roof of the mission and shouted at the mountains, where the red whore and her minions hid.
    “I’m coming for all of you!”

    ****

    Lee destroyed the livery and the Paragon hotel in quick order. A dress shop and the mercantile leaned against each other as if in comfort. He blew the steeple off the Baptist church, the roof collapsing into the building, taking burning shingles down with it, causing the clap board structure to burst into flames. Parishioners fled the building, screaming out into the night. By the time Lee used his last stick of dynamite, the only building left undisturbed was the mission, which Lee, Livvy and her two companions currently occupied.
    “They’ll be coming for us,” Lee said noncommittally as he rested in the shadows behind the altar. “And they’ll hang you by your pretty little neck, Livvy, dear, once they get to us.” Lee inhaled deep on his cigar, the glowing eye of the coal the only thing shining out from the dark recesses behind the altar.
    “What are we gonna do?”
    “We ain’t gonna do nothing. You, ‘Lijah and Michael here,” he emphasized by pointing his cigar at the men, “are gonna get out of town. Hide in the mountains until sundown and then head north. Let the North Star guide you. You’ll all be free once you get up into the northern territories.” He paused, pulled another drag on the cigar, the room filling with the pungent aroma of Kentucky cured tobacco. “I’m thinking Wyoming, or the Montana territories. Get up close to the Canadian border so you can slip across in case anyone gets any bright ideas about sending you back down South.”
    ‘Lijah and Michael murmured in agreement.
    “’Lijah and Michael can go, but I’m staying with you,” Livvy said.
    “No, you ain’t. You head on up to free country and get on with your life.” He pointed at ‘Lijah with his cigar. “Jump the broom with good old ‘Lijah here. Have a passel of babies. Forget about me.”
    “I ain’t and you can’t make me.” Her expression was set, her eyes blazing.
    Lee paused, took a thoughtful drag off his smoke and said, “Now I see why your massa beat you. You can’t do as you’re told, even if it’s for your own good.”
    Livvy stepped into the darkness with him, her expressive eyes vicious as she glared down at Lee. “Neither of my past massas did anything for my own good. And you ain’t my massa either so don’t be getting no uppity ideas ‘bout telling me what to do,” she snapped, kicking him in the side with her booted toe. Lee ignored it.
    “You’re a free woman now; go someplace where you can stay that way,” Lee said after a lengthy pause.
    “If you says I’m a free woman, then I can do as I please. I’m coming up with you.”
    “They’ll kill you, pretty Livvy,” he said, touching her hair as she knelt before him. “And I can’t watch over you and send Phaedra back to hell at the same time.” He paused and smiled down at her and said, “You’ve had enough bad things happen in your life, and if I can keep one more bad thing from happening to you I’ll do it. Now you go on with ‘Lijah and Michael and forget all about this mess.”
    “Mister Lee is right, Livvy,” ‘Lijah said in his deep baritone voice. “This might be our only chance.”
    Grumbling to herself, Livvy stepped away from him and disappeared into an alcove behind a decapitated statue of the Virgin Mary. Lee could hear scraping sounds and then the thumping of something that sounded like wood and heavy plaster being dragged across the floor.
    Lee sat with his knees up as he rested against the back of the altar, flicking off cigar ash between his feet as he watched Livvy drag a statue out of the alcove. She carried a