Dark Warrior: To Tame a Wild Hawk (Dark Cloth) (22 page)

“It’s too dangerous!”

“I’ve been there since I was five years old,” she said in a quiet voice.

Hawk shook with the magnitude of his emotions. First, there had been nothing inside him but a burning need for vengeance. Then, a slip of a woman had brought him to his knees with the depth of his love for her. Now, he’d found he still had family—he would claim, that is—and his beautiful sister, whom he’d only just found, was telling him he had to let her walk back into dangerous territory, and making him feel damn ridiculous because he wanted to protect her from the very family with whom she’d spent her entire life.

“Mandy knew you were there.” It wasn’t a question. “She left you in danger, without telling me.”

“I insisted on staying. And,” she quietly reminded him, “she doesn’t know I’m your sister, does she, Hawk? Because she doesn’t know Jason’s—your father?”

“How old are you?” Hawk asked, amazed.

“I thought so.” She smiled.

“At first, I was too full of hate to share it.” He swallowed. “Then, I was too afraid she wouldn’t understand. Afraid she’d never let me near her if she knew who she was trying to hire for a gun. That she was hiring the son of the very man she’d been trying to keep
away
from her ranch.”

He laughed harshly. “Can you beat the irony? She was being forced to marry Ashley. So to save her ranch, she unwittingly marries none other than his brother.” He turned to the window and slapped his hands on either side of it. “She’ll never forgive me when she learns what I’ve done.”

“You have to tell her, Hawk. She has to hear it from you before it’s taken out of your hands by circumstance, by Ashley.” She touched his back, and he turned and hugged her.

“Tell her,” she whispered, “before it’s too late.”

“Mandy, how did you get these?” Kid asked in order to sidetrack her when she looked toward the door for the fifth time in the past ten minutes. He held up his hand. “And I know you stole them, so no sarcasm, please,” he teased.

Mandy looked at what was left of the papers. “What do you think Ashley will do?”

He raised his brows in perfect imitation of Hawk, telling her he was having none of it. “Things will just tighten up around here. Maybe it’ll be the thing that blows this whole business wide open.”

Kat smiled. “Purrrrfect,” she said, in great imitation of her name’s sake.

Mandy couldn’t help but grin.

“Women.” Kid threw up his hands. “Do you realize that the two of you, and now Star Flower,” he added pointedly, “have managed to stir up more trouble than all the cattle rustling combined?” Kat jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow. “Dang it, Kat,” he bellowed. “You’re gonna crack every rib I’ve got.”

Mandy grinned again. There was never a dull moment with these two. As a matter of fact, there was never a dull moment with this war—but she could really use an end to the war.

Kid sobered and pinned Mandy with a look, by far too unnerving for a man his age. “How did you get these, Mandy?”

Mandy sighed. She really was going to have to a find better way of keeping these men off-balance. “I broke into Ashley’s place. I’ve been breaking in, methodically looking for his safe combination, for the past several weeks. Star Flower has been searching too and covering my tracks.”

“She found me the third time I broke in, and she wanted to help,” Mandy smiled, despite her fears. “She’d noticed the door kept getting unlocked, and things seemed different to her, I guess.” She sighed. “Looks as if she wasn’t the only one to notice.”

“Looks like,” Kid frowned.

“Either that, or he recognized my face before Star Flower knocked him out,” she mused to herself, not even aware that she’d spoken out-loud.

“Mandy!”

She jumped when three voices yelled her name simultaneously.

The only one she focused on was Hawk’s. Damn the man. How did he always manage to do it? Once again, she found him coming straight for her, with lethal grace. And, once again, she found herself backing away. His growl sounded like a cougar as he strode towards her. She jumped and placed a chair between them. With lithe ease, he threw the chair out of the way. She raced behind the desk. “Kat,” she yelled. But when she glanced up, Kat was leaving the room, upside-down, over Kid’s shoulder.

She took a cue from Kat’s battles and hurled her first missile at Hawk’s head. He ducked. And she actually breathed a sigh of relief when it crashed harmlessly against the door. In the next instant, he was upon her. “Oh, you arrogant, pig-headed—” Mandy screeched when Hawk grabbed her. She found another missile and flung it at him.

He blocked her arm, and it crashed to the floor. He threw her over his shoulder and strolled to their room. When he reached the upper landing, he strolled into the room and tossed her onto the bed.

Mandy scrambled to the other side, watching him warily when he took his bandanna from around his neck. He then grabbed her wrists and bound them above her head. “Damn you, Hawk.”

He rolled her to her side and delivered a stinging slap to her backside.

She growled her temper in a long, infuriating snarl.

He reached up her dress. And she sucked in her breath. He pulled one of her stockings down her leg and off her foot. And then, he tied her feet to the foot of the bed.

“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”

He rolled her to the side and delivered a second stinging slap to her bottom.

“What,” she gritted through her teeth, “are you doing?”

“I’m saving your beautiful backside.”

“You can’t keep me tied up here forever,” she yelled in fury.

“No. But I can sure keep you tied up here until we’re done dealing with McCandle,” he stated this with infuriating calm.

“All right!”

A dark brow shot up.

She glared at him, a mutinous look on her face.

He turned for the door.

“I’ll behave,” she yelled in alarm.

He stopped. “Not good enough.”

“I’ll—” she breathed through her anger. “I’ll—do what I’m told.”

He raised both of those damn brows of his.

“What else do you want?” she screamed.

“I want the truth,” his voice dropped low in anger. “No more lies. No sneaking out of here. No more secrets. Agreed?”

Her chin lifted in rebellion.

He turned to leave.

“All right!”

He slowly turned around. His golden eyes searched hers for the truth.

“I promise,” she breathed, her heart picking up now with a familiar flutter.

He waited.

She sighed. “No more sneaking.”

Still, he waited.

“No more lies,” she promised.

He didn’t blink.

She sighed. “No more secrets.”

And still he waited.

“Well?” She pulled at her bonds. “Let me up.”

He grinned at her. Then, he turned and left, shutting the door firmly behind him.

“Damn you, Hawk!” She screamed every word she could lay hand to. She yelled until her voice gave out and still he did not come. Finally, in total exhaustion, she fell asleep.

When she woke, sometime later, it was dark. Although she couldn’t see him, she could feel him watching her.

“Don’t ever risk your life like that again.” His voice was subdued and slightly slurred.

Her eyes fought to see him in the dark. “I won’t,” she said, just above a whisper.

He pulled his hand across his face. It still scared the hell out of him. She had been breaking into McCandle’s. And while he’d known she was up to something, he’d never dreamed she would do something so dangerous.

“I’m sorry, Hawk,” Mandy whispered, tears slipping down her face.

He heard the tears in her voice, and with a groan, he stumbled from his chair and freed her bonds. Then he hauled her into his arms. “How long?” was all he could get out.

She stroked his face, searching his features with her fingers, reveling in the feel of his embrace—the fulfillment his arms brought to her.

Before I met you,” she finally answered, “I stole his cattle.” Hawk growled, and she gave a nervous grin. “Then, one day, I realized I’d never ruin him that way. I had to do more, so I started breaking in and looking for the combination to his safe.”

The thought of her in such danger made him physically sick. He held her so tightly she protested, and he had to let up. Again, he made her swear to him.

“I swear,” she said, softly. Then, she frowned.

“Why isn’t Lydia up here raising cane?”

“Because after your latest escape, she’s decided you’re safer in my hands. She said she never dreamed you were doing something so dangerous.”

She should take exception to that—really, she should—but it was too hard to do so when he was holding her like this.

And he held her long into the night.

Chapter Twenty-four

T
he day Hawk finally relented and let Jake and Charlie escort the women to town was cause for celebration. Mandy and Kat chatted excitedly and made plans throughout the ride. Mandy hadn’t seen Meg for days, and she had so much to tell her.

They left their mounts at the livery, and she led Kat to her friend’s house. Meg smiled in happiness at seeing Mandy standing at the door, and she gave her an enthusiastic hug, pulling both her and Kat into the house. “So how’s married life? As if I didn’t know.” She rolled her eyes, laughing.

Mandy grinned. “Kid and Kat are getting married. You will attend their wedding, won’t you?”

“I wouldn’t miss it. Come in, we’ll have tea and you can tell me everything.” She ushered them to the parlor. “Don’t you dare leave anything out.”

They spent the next hour filling Meg in. Some of it had her laughing till the tears rolled down her face—the sad parts had her in tears.

“Ashley’s really angry,” Meg warned. “Your marriage to Hawk has put him over the edge. And now whatever you did may have ruined him. The whole town’s talking about it. He’ll do anything to get to you.”

“Just don’t give him any excuses to come after you to get to me.” Mandy ruefully shook her head. “It’s because he knows my ranch is lost to him. That everything is now lost to him. He won’t stop until he kills each and every one of us—or we kill him.”

“I’m thinking you’re right, Mandy,” Kat agreed. “That man’s crazy, and noth’n will stop him ‘till he’s dead.”

While waiting for the women, Jake and Charlie had laid in supplies. Finding they still had time on their hands, they went into the saloon and ordered drinks. At first, Charlie took his and went to a table, but seeing Jake was staying at the bar, Charlie grabbed his bottle and glass, and made his way back across the barroom floor.

As he crossed through the sunlight from the saloon door, suddenly Jake grabbed his gun and shot past Charlie’s shoulder. Behind him, Charlie heard the soft thud of a bullet hitting flesh, and a man’s yelp before he hit the floor.

“Only had two drinks,” he muttered.

“Sorry about that, old timer,” Jake replied.

“Dagnabbit.” Charlie turned on him. “You’re gonna go and punch holes in every one of the yarns I spin, ain’t ya?”

Surprised, Jake stood, unmoving.

“I was just gonna give ya a hard way to go about being a greenhorn and hold’n your drink with your gun-hand.” He set down the bottle and glass. “Then, you go and draw like that with your left.”

Jake relaxed. “Is that what this is all about? That’s just a little trick I use to catch men who are gunning for me unawares.”

Charlie gave him a look of pure disgust, then turned and shuffled his way to the dead man lying in the doorway just as Mandy and Kat came running up the boarded walk.

“Where’s Jake?” Mandy said, out of breath, relieved to see Charlie was all right.

“Inside,” Charlie muttered. “Only had two drinks. Boy was drink’n with his gun-hand, then all a sudden he goes and draws like greased lightning with his left.”

Mandy smothered a smile with her hand at Charlie’s grouching. Looking up as Jake approached, she searched for signs of injury. Finding none, she smiled openly.

“I’m
supposed to
tell people
you can draw
like that
. You ain’t actually supposed to
be able
to draw that leghorn
that fast.”

“Well,” Jake growled. “I can do better with my right, if that’s what’s bugging you.”

Charlie squinted up at him, unblinking. “Was that supposed to make me feel better?”

“What’s your problem, old timer?” Jake growled.

Kat laughed. “Seems to me, you can draw faster than some of the gunfighters Charlie likes to spin yarns about.”

Jake grinned. “And here I thought you had a problem with my gun-play. Well, hell, Charlie,” he couldn’t resist. “I guess you never saw Hawk . . . .”

Charlie rounded on him. “Don’t even know if this is someone Ashley hired, or someone gun’n for you just to prove who’s faster. Now, you’re gonna go and tell me the man protecting my little girl is faster’n that?”