Dark Warrior: To Tame a Wild Hawk (Dark Cloth) (20 page)

“Hawk doesn’t know,” Mandy warned her. “And if he ever finds out, there’ll be hell to pay.”

Kat grinned at her. “Then, I guess he’d better never find out.” She looked behind her. “By the way, I already made sure he didn’t follow you tonight.” She looked back at Mandy with meaning.

Mandy choked on a laugh. “How?”

Kat gave her a conspiratorial smile. “I just made sure he would be busy for awhile with some calf troubles. Us women gotta stick together.”

“Have
to stick together,” Mandy automatically corrected. Kat had asked her to help her speak better, since she had her cap set on Kid.

Kat’s smile shone like pearls in the moonlight.
“Have
to stick together,” she repeated. “I’m going to speak like a real lady in no time.” She reined her horse around. “But I sure don’t know about
acting
like one.” She grinned.

Mandy’s own smile flashed in the moonlight but an eerie shiver crawled up her spine when she thought about Hawk. She sure hoped Kat was right, and whatever she’d done to keep him busy kept him there till well after they got back.

She tossed Kat a dark hood out of her saddlebags.

“Here. Put this on.” She mounted her horse and reined her around. “Come on, I’ll explain on the way.”

Mandy stood behind the curtain and Kat behind some furniture in the corner while Ashley finally did the thing for which Mandy had been waiting for over three months, and approached his safe.

With bated breath, she watched as he twirled the dial to unlock the door. Slowly, inch by painful inch, she moved up behind him. As the door swung open, she raised her Colt, butt-first, and swung at his head.

Surprise caused her to drop the gun when he suddenly whirled to face her. The sound of her gun clattering to the floor dismayed her. He moved easily behind her, his arm going around her throat, cutting off her air in a painful grip.

“Finally,” he snarled in her ear, “we’re going to find out who our little nightly visitor is. I’ve been waiting patiently for you to make your move all week.”

Despite her desperate hunger for air, Mandy couldn’t help feeling elated. She hadn’t been a complete ninny. A ninny, yes; but she had fooled him for a little while. It seemed
everybody
had figured her out.

He reached up to yank the hood off her head. Mandy cringed, knowing the time was at hand. It was over. She had lost.

She heard a sickening thud, felt his arm go slack, and she was free. She turned and grinned at Kat. “Guess it’s a good thing you spotted me tonight.”

Kat looked stupefied. “Well, if I hadn’t been here, looks as though she was,” and she nodded at the woman behind Mandy.

Mandy swung around, quickly realizing who had knocked Ashley out. She knew how Kat felt. She’d had much the same reaction the first night she had met her. Star Flower was, by far, the most exotic woman she’d ever seen.

“Hurry,” Star Flower told them, moving to bind Ashley’s hands and feet with a length of cord in her hand. “Get what you came for.”

Kat looked from Mandy to the young woman who’d just saved Mandy from Ashley’s sure, murderous rage. “Who are you?”

“Oh, sorry,” Mandy whispered. “Kat, meet Star Flower, Ashley’s sister. Star Flower, this is Kat.” She looked at the bewilderment on Kat’s face. “Star Flower found me on my third night here. She’s been covering my tracks ever since—even doing some searching of her own. Ashley would have noticed something was going on here a long time ago if it were not for her help. She’s saved my hide more than once.”

Kat smiled at this. “You’re Indian? But your eyes . . . .”

“Are my pa’s spring-green.”

Mandy frowned at that, but didn’t have time to examine it any more closely at the moment. She moved quickly. “He’ll kill you for what you’ve just done,” she told Star Flower. “And he’s going to be in a rage from what we’re about to do.” Taking out her bags, Mandy handed one to Kat, and they started loading them with the contents of the safe.

“He’d never believe we would cross him. He’s cruel, and we’re all terrified of him.”

“Obviously not all,” Kat retorted.

“But he must never know that or all is lost.” Star Flower stuffed a rag in his mouth, then bound it with a handkerchief around his head

“Hurry,” she urged. “I must leave, in case he wakes.”

She started for the door but came back to the safe to whisper, “Be sure and take the papers.” She pointed them out. “They’re all the deeds he holds to those poor people’s lands, and the notes he waves over their heads.”

Elated, they grabbed them all. “I must talk to you,” Mandy told their ally. “Where can we meet you? Can you sneak away?”

“I’ll let you know the time and place,” Star Flower replied. Helping Mandy to fix her disguise, she told her again, “I must go. He mustn’t wake and find me here.”

Mandy nodded and hugged her. “Be careful. You live with a demented man. You should come with me. You’d be safer with us.”

Star Flower shook her head. “I’ll be of more help here.”

“But he’s dangerous!” Kat exclaimed in a heated whisper. “He’ll kill you if he finds out you’ve betrayed him.”

“I can’t give up now,” Star Flower replied firmly. “I’ve come too far to let go. It’s good that you finally got what you were seeking.”

Hugging her again, Mandy watched their friend leave. Kat nudged Ashley, hard, with the toe of her boot. His moan told them he was still pretty much out. Then, as quietly as they’d come, they picked up their hard-won treasure and made their escape.

Two hours later, they sat on Mandy’s bed, staring in surprise at the papers they’d recovered. Mandy giggled softly, and threw the papers into the air in barely suppressed glee.

Oh sweet, sweet revenge. She had finally got a lethal swing in on Ashley McCandle. “This is going to hurt him where it counts,” she told Kat. “This will put a dent in Ashley’s pocketbook that will have him reeling.” She held in her hands all the deeds for the lands he had captured along the railroad. More importantly, to her anyway, she held every note he had against her friends and neighbors. She sobered when she realized the killing fury this would send Ashley into when he awoke. She sent a silent prayer up above for Star Flower. “Maybe we should warn Hawk.” She frowned at the thought. How would she ever explain this to him—and all she had done in the past?

“But I see that you won’t.”

Mandy shook her head. “He’d be impossible to deal with . . . seeing this . . . realizing . . . .” It was with a heavy heart that Mandy hid her hard-won treasure in the safe in the library. Her heart beat a heavy tempo of dread. In all her planning, she had never contemplated Ashley’s reaction if and when she’d succeeded.

Now—well, this would probably force Ashley’s hand—and his resulting fury.

And if he killed Star Flower . . . or Hawk . . . . She had to warn White Wolf. He was in the gravest danger of all. She had to get him to stop—at least for a while.

She put her hand on Kat’s shoulder. “I have to go back out,” she told her friend. “And this time, you cannot go with me.”

Kat’s eyes narrowed on her. “It’s too dangerous for you to go alone.”

“I’ve been doing it for some time now, Kat. I’ll be fine. You must trust me on this.”

Kat shrugged. “If you must, but if you don’t return soon, I’ll be coming after you. So you might as well tell me how long and which direction. It’ll save me a lot of time.”

Mandy smiled at her friend and told her what she wanted to know. For the second time that night, she stole out of the house, and off the ranch.

The night was still and eerie. Mandy’s heart beat like a drum, every muscle in her body telling her that bad times lay ahead. And lately, she could swear she was being watched, maybe even followed.

She knew where Ashley was on those nights.

That only left a certain . . . White Indian.

The moonlight shone on the path in front of her, her horse’s hooves ringing out on the road beneath its feet. She winced. She could really do with an unshod pony right now. Her Henry lay over her lap, and her Colts were in their holster on her hips.

She was taking no chances.

There was a time when she had visited her friend and cohort without hesitation. But now, thanks to Ashley, she had to ride as though armed for war.

When she reached the cabin in the woods, she whistled softly so she wouldn’t get her head blown off.

He let her in and closed the door behind her. “Why do you only come out here in the middle of the night?”

“It’s no longer safe to meet you during the day,” she answered. She looked at her childhood friend. “I have hired
the Hawk
.”

He went still, then nodded. “This is good.”

“You know him?” she asked.

He nodded again. “I know him.”

“What about you?” she asked. “Now that we’re not stealing the McCandles’ cattle?”

“I will join my people.”

She took his hands into hers. “It is very dangerous times for the Tsistsistas, right now.”

“A time when I belong with my people; now more than ever.”

She lowered her head. “I will miss you, my friend.”

“You love
the Hawk
.”

Her eyes flew wide, meeting his. “What told you that? Is it written all over my face?”

“It is written in your eyes.” He took hold of her shoulders. “May your love be long and full. I will miss you, too.”

She told him everything that had happened with Hawk and McCandle recently. Then, with tears in her eyes, she left.

She was half way home when she became aware she was being followed again.

Like a dark thunder cloud, he rode out of the night. Before she could kick her horse into a full run, he was beside her, sweeping her off her horse. She fought like a wild cat, until she heard his low growl. “Be still, Mandy, or I swear I’ll paddle you, right here, right now.”

She went completely still. “Hawk?”

“You put yourself in danger,” his tone was far too calm.

She lifted her chin. “I can take care of myself.” Hawk growled, and Mandy jumped. “However,” she got out, “I never have to sneak out again.”

“Out here, with no one to protect you!” His arm tightened with threatening intent.

“Look how well armed I was.”

“Why were you out here?”

“I was saying goodbye to my friend,” she told him.

“In the middle of the night,” he eyed her in disbelief, “without anyone with you?”

“Think what you will. I was saying goodbye to my friend,” she reiterated.

They had reached the barn by then and Hawk ordered the horses put up. He walked her to their bedroom door. “Remember what I said would happen if you placed yourself in danger? If you risked your life? Do you remember that I said I would not be held responsible for what I did to your pretty little backside then?”

Mandy winced and nodded.

Hawk turned and walked away.

She sagged against the door. He was really angry. Imagine how angry he’d have been if he had caught her the first time she’d rode out, breaking into McCandle’s house.

Hawk stood in the night, every muscle of his body tense, a reflection of how angry he really was.

If he hadn’t walked away from her when he did—he really would have paddled her backside, all right, and as angry as he was, he might have hurt her in the process.

He’d had to walk away.

It took him until dawn to feel calm.

Chapter Twenty-Two

M
andy bolted upright on the bed. Throwing off the covers, she hurried into her robe. Hawk was already in the hall, buttoning his pants. Another bellow, and the sound of glass breaking, had them racing for the stairs.

“Stop it, Wild-Cat!” Kid growled from behind the kitchen door. Opening it a crack, he jumped behind it as a plate sailed though and crashed against the wall on the far side, shattering into a thousand tiny pieces from the force.

“You fish-eyed, yellow-bellied son of a whore,” Kat screeched.

Spotting Tommy, Kid waved him over. “Pretend you’re me and keep her busy. I’m gonna sneak in the back way.”

Grinning, Tommy opened the door, staying fully behind it. He watched as a plate sailed through and thudded at Jake’s feet. Tommy slammed the door shut and heard another dish slam against it. Holding his breath, he tried to gauge Jake’s mood, but could read nothing in those cold, steel-gray eyes.

They both looked back at the door when Kat’s screeching became two-fold.

“Put me down, damn you.” This, followed by a loud crash, took both man and boy through the kitchen door. Hawk came through the doorway on the other side, followed by Mandy, who was pulling the belt tight on her robe.

Hawk met Jake’s eyes over the couple sprawled on the floor and grinned.

“You little spitting fire-cat,” Kid huffed. He grabbed both of her arms and pinned them to either side of her head.