Tip of the Spear (40 page)

He
glanced at Thais’s belly, wondering when she’d grow round with his young. He
loved the idea of her teaching their child to fight and remain strong in the
face of adversity. They hadn’t talked about it much, but she still encouraged
him to spend inside her every time they made love.  He couldn’t wait to get her
alone again.  

“…so
though the name Bartel isn’t netting me much, the names Amery Nore and David
Fergusson are striking chords,” Kitty was saying. “They both meet the
description of a stout man with pale blue eyes and dirty hair that’s sometimes
yellow, sometimes brown. Mean tempered, arrogant, and real unpleasant.”

Thais
nodded. “I knew of Amery Nore. David Fergusson is a new one. Thanks. What about
last seen locations? The Lost Territory, I’d heard.”

“Yeah,
one sighting there. A few in Big Sky and Four Corners. Hell, even one in Cali a
few months ago. I swear, the man’s everywhere at once. Then again, it might not
be him at all.”

Thais
sighed.

“Something
else. Rumor has it this man has a son, a young man about your age. Just as mean
as his daddy.”

Terrific,
another monster in the world. They thanked Kitty and stood.

“So
what’s next for you two?” the madam asked as she walked them outside.

Hinto
shared a smile with Thais. “We’re going home to Shine. I’m done hunting,
Kitty.”

“About
time. Sorry to say, Hinto, but you keep that up, you’re gonna get yourself
killed. Lotta folks not real happy with you bringing friends of theirs to
justice.”

“Well
said,” Thais agreed. “Once Hinto and I find the man I’m after, we’re going to
live in Shine with his family.”

Kitty
beamed. “Good on ya. Make sure to visit, now and again. I can’t wait to see the
child you two bring into the world. Be the prettiest thing in the territory.”

Thais
and Hinto left with a final wave. As they walked down the street to where
they’d left Beast and Ainippe, Hinto asked, “Did you mean it? You’ll stay with
me after we find Bartel and the crown?”

“Your
father was right. It’s time for me to stop living in the past. Once we find
that crown, and we will, you and I will make sure it gets back to the Amazon,
where it belongs. Then we have plans to make.”

He
kissed her in the middle of the crowded street, ignoring the wolf-whistles and
catcalls around them.

She
licked her lips, a pretty flush on her cheeks. “Was that necessary?” She glared
at several men leering at her.

Hinto
laughed, snagged his arm around her shoulders, and steered her toward their
mounts. “Just staking a claim. Now tell me about these plans of yours.”

“You’re
very attentive,” she grumbled.

“And?”

“And
at the rate you’re going, you’ll be giving me a baby soon. We’ll need to make
training tools so our child will be prepared.”

“Prepared?”
His heart raced at thoughts of a baby with the woman he loved.

“To
train as an Amazon. I’m even willing to make an exception if he’s a boy.” She
smiled at him, her eyes vibrant with joy. “I’ll never give him away, Hinto. Not
when he’ll come into this world as a result of the love between us.”

He
had to clear his throat before he could speak. “That’s good to know, honey.”

“Another
thing. I’d like my sisters to be welcome at the ranch.” She frowned. “I’ve been
thinking that they might not want to live in the place where so much was lost. If
they need a home, I’d like to share ours.”

Ours.
He loved the sound of that. “Well, if you think they can live with us and not
kill my brothers, I’m all for it.”

She
laughed. “Good. Besides, I think Yara might be a real help for your father. She’s
a healer. She’ll know things to try for him that I don’t.”

“Then
let’s hope they find more information about Bartel than we have. We need to get
him out of the way so you and I can practice.”

“Practice
what?” she asked as they reached Beast.

He
whispered in her ear what he intended to start
practicing
just as soon
as they bunked down for the night.

“Hinto.
Can we really do that?” She sounded excited and awed.

“Hell,
yes.”

When
they settled in for the night, he proceeded to show her.

***

Four
Corners Territory, the city of Rainbow

“Son
of a bitch.” Chase Chatrell rattled the cage into which he’d been thrown. “You
gotta be kiddin’ me, Sanchez!  No way in hell I touched that woman, and
everyone at the bar knows it.”

Sanchez
downed a large mug of gut-rot. “Harley says different.” He belched and wiped
his grimy fingers over a stained vest barely containing his belly.

“Harley’s
a piece of shit.” Chase swore again, ignoring the drunk snoring on the lone cot
in the rat-hole of a cell. Rainbow was about as colorful a town as the name
implied. A perfect place to lay low among a bevy of citizens with secrets to
sell. Petty thieves, murderers, cutthroats and pirates walked alongside
politicians, bankers, merchants and common folk. One of the most interesting
places he’d ever been, and one he’d planned to stay in for a while. The coastal
aspect of the community provided an alternate escape route should he need to
disappear in a hurry.

In
an effort to catch his breath after a week of nonstop running, he’d contented
himself with a few drinks and the prospect of a good whore. Instead he’d found
the wrong end of a card game, a gambler’s flirty protectorate wife, and her
three husbands bent on taking back what he’d rightfully won.

He
fucking
hated
respectable women.

The
door to the marshal’s office burst open and a man garbed in head-to-toe black,
from his boots to his hat, and covered in trail dust, entered.

Sanchez
glared at the intruder. “Shit. Didn’t I tell you to forget about—”

A
round-house kick knocked Sanchez back, but the subsequent blow to his face laid
him out cold.

As
he fell, he lost his grip on the key ring, which landed close enough for Chase
to grab. Not wasting any time, Chase opened the cell and hurried to shut the
front door. He could only hope the sun’s glare and the bars on the window
hampered a view of their actions from anyone happening by.

To
his shock, the intruder had lost the hat shielding
her
features. A woman
dressed in man’s clothing?  

“Fuck
me,” he whispered, unable to look away from narrowed gray eyes, a trim nose,
and full lips pursed in annoyance.

She
glanced at him and the braid of her golden brown hair swung past her hip. “Fuck
you?” She snorted. “Not in your dreams.” Her voice was smoky and rich, not what
he would have expected coming out of a young woman with the face of an angel. Her
accent wasn’t one he could place either, which said something considering how
much of the Territories he’d covered in his twenty-nine years.

Her
attitude left a lot to be desired, but she had kicked the crap out of Sanchez.

“Mind
if I ask what you’re lookin’ for?”

A
snore interrupted them, and the woman smiled with ill intent.

“There
you are.” She stormed into the cell, hauled the drunk off the cot, and dropped
him.

Chase
flinched as the man’s thick head struck the stone floor. The drunk landed hard
but didn’t wake. She bent over to dig into his pockets, and the fit of her trousers
reminded him of how long he’d been without a woman.

Too
damn long.

He
grimaced and tried to adjust himself as he turned away to stare out the window.
Not the best time to get a hard-on, he told himself.

In
control of his libido once more, he turned back and saw her take something from
the drunk’s pocket that she stuck in her own.

“Thanks
for punching Sanchez.”

“I
didn’t do it for you.”

“Whatever.
Lady, you’re one scary piece of work.”
And a waste of a fine piece of ass.
He shrugged and headed for the back door when it opened and two marshals
entered dragging Wilder Jones between them.

One
of them pulled a gun. “Don’t move, either of you.”

Chase
and the woman froze. The drunk in the cell moaned.

The
marshal with Wilder hurried to check on Sanchez. “Alive but unconscious.” He
glared at them and stood, again taking Wilder by the arm.

“Wilder,
what the hell?” A friend of his, the con artist had no limits when it came to
bilking the rich and devious out of their currency.

Wilder
grinned. His glassy eyes and the stench of liquor on his breath indicated that
he, at least, had drunk himself stupid. Chase hadn’t even managed that.

His
friend raised his hands, showing wrists cuffed together, and waved. “Chase. Man,
how you doin’?” Wilder tried to wink and ended up blinking when he stumbled out
of the marshal’s hold. He nearly knocked into the woman, who shoved him back. He
leered at her. “Sexy, and such a pretty face. Damn, Chase, you sure can pick
‘em.”

She
sneered, showing her teeth.

“Chatrell,
you and your partner are in for a world of hurt.” The marshal with the gun tossed
a set of irons at him. “Molesting a good woman of Rainbow? What the hell’s
wrong with you? You get randy, use your whore.”

“I’m
no whore.” The woman dressed in men’s clothing scowled. “And I’m not his
partner.”

“Sure
looks to me like you freed him.” This from the marshal holding Wilder.

“I
don’t have time for this,” she said with disgust.

“Me
neither,” Chase agreed, not if he planned to stay one step ahead of Colter. The
UT after him was harder to shake than a damned tick.

“Put
them on.” The marshal waved his gun at the irons and Chatrell moved to comply.
“No, one on you, the other on her. Be a mite more difficult to escape that
way.”

Chase
swore again. On his own he’d take off without a problem. But tied to a woman? One
who ate angry for breakfast?

“One,
two…”

Chase
cursed and snapped the iron over his left wrist, leaving his right hand free. He
turned to her and snarled when she attempted to back away. “Not my choice. Gimme
your goddamn arm before he shoots me.”

“Fine
with me.”

He
yanked her to him and snapped the cuff over her right wrist. “I like my skin. Now
shut up and let me think of a way out of this.”

“Okay,
you two. Into the cell with Wilder.”

“No.”
The woman refused to budge. “I’m not a whore. I’m not his partner. And I won’t
be treated this way.”

To
Chase’s horror, big, fat tears leaked down her cheeks, startling a curious
melting sensation in the vicinity of his heart. Such hurt in those big gray
eyes of hers, innocence tarnished because of something
he’d
done…

The
marshal immediately lowered his gun while the one holding Wilder shoved him
toward the cell, ordered him not to move, and rejoined them. “Mike, let her
go.”

“But
Jack, she’s with him. I know it.” But Mike didn’t sound so sure.

The
minute Mike got within a hand span of the woman, her tears dried up and she nailed
him in the throat with the edge of her hand. He fell gasping to the ground.

Chase
followed her lead. He punched hard enough to knock Jack out. “Wilder, move out,
now.”

Wilder
wobbled out of the way as Chase, with the woman’s help, dragged first one
marshal, then the other, into the cell. They needed Wilder’s assistance to lump
Sanchez in with the others.

That
done, Chase searched one marshal, then the other, but couldn’t find the goddamn
key to the shackles.

“Shit.”

“What?”
the woman asked, her eyes narrowed.

“Nothing
to do about it now.” They were running out of time. He left the cell with her, locked
the door, and pocketed the key.

“Kinda
small for them, huh?” Wilder said with a dopey grin and passed out.

Chase
wanted to help him but couldn’t afford to get caught, not with Colter on his
ass. It wouldn’t take long before the marshals regained their bearing and called
for help.

He
glanced at his shackled “partner.” She had helped him without him having to say
a word. He sensed intelligence and strength in her character. An intriguing
combination in a female.

She
glared at him and yanked their shackled wrists up to his face.

He
added
fury
to his assessment. The woman had anger issues.

“Now
how do we get out of these?” she snapped.

Noise
outside drew his attention. “Dammit.” He dragged her to the barred window to
see a major fight in the street in broad daylight. When no one left the marshal’s
office to help, someone would definitely come looking.

“Come
on, Blondie. We have to get outta here.”