A Mating of Hawks (33 page)

The heck with it!
Tracy thought.
I'm not half as scared of real things as of just the darkness, being out here alone. But I can make a fire
.

Wary of stinging things and snakes, she collected anything that would burn and scrambled down the rocks to the tank. She scooped out a fire hole, selected a place for her blanket and hobbled around the arroyo gathering fallen limbs and decaying stumps washed out by wind and downpours.

She had plenty of dry grass and small twigs to start the fire. It flared at the first match. She added larger sticks, and when those were blazing, edged in a fair-sized stump. It looked solid enough to hold fire through the night, be a reassuring glow in the loneliness.

Settling back on the folded blanket, she enjoyed the light and warmth. The sense of having done something to improve her situation made her feel less helpless and consequently less afraid.

She thought of Shea. He'd walk for hours yet. The road wasn't much, but it skirted a line of hills and it didn't seem likely he'd lose the way. Her stupid ankle! If only she were walking beside him! The sound of a far-off motor, which almost had to be an airplane, made her feel even more isolated.

It swept over Tracy in a rush, the malevolence of people who could leave others in this desert without water. What if someone just as evil came along and found her here?

Shivering, she realized that the fire that cheered her might be a beacon for prowlers like that blond thug who'd kidnapped her. Much as she hated to, she'd better deaden the flames. Easier to handle imaginary terrors than real ones.

Scooping up a double handful of sand, she was about to toss it in the fire when a voice said behind her, “Don't do that.”

Spinning as she knelt, Tracy stared up at Judd. The fire cast a towering shadow behind him. Her first wild hope that he was a rescuer died at the triumph on his broad handsome face. His eyes glinted yellow in the light as he took her wrists and drew her up.

Trapped in those cruel hands, Tracy felt like dead weight, a heavy molten image stripped of spirit. It took the pitiless searing of his lips on hers to shock her into resistance. Trying to writhe away, she brought her heel down on his instep as hard as she could. He swore and swept her off her feet. “It's time you learned to behave, baby doll. I'm going to teach you right damn now!”

Tearing at her clothes, he sank down with her on the blanket. Panic flared blindingly in her. She tried to escape. Time and place dissolved in terror, she was back in the thick Houston night while a man battered at her; only this one was not impotent. She screamed in pain and outrage.

There was no one to hear.

XXIII

She roused from the near stupor into which she had retreated, as he carried her up the side of the arroyo and across the scrub-grown plain to where his RV was parked in a shallow wash. Dully, she realized it must have been the motor she'd heard. As Judd opened the back and dumped her on the thickly carpeted floor, she scrambled to a sitting position.

“You stole the pickup!” she accused.

“Sure did,” he answered jauntily. “Wish I could have seen my baby brother's face when he saw it was gone.”

Fresh dread gripped her. “Is he all right? You haven't—”

“He's just fine, though doubtless a bit footsore. No use interrupting such a nice healthful hike.” Judd chuckled. “We'll all sleep tonight, sweetheart. Time enough tomorrow to head Shea off at the pass.”

Terror blocked her throat like jagged ice. She had to swallow and clench her hands tight before she could speak. “Shea—what do you mean to do about him?”

In the darkness she shrank as Judd's hand slid over her breasts. “Don't you wonder what I'm going to do with you?” he asked softly.

Suffocated with fear, she fought to keep her voice steady. “I suppose you'll have to kill me. But Shea—you could let him go. Let him walk out. He'd never have to know what happened to me.”

Judd laughed.

Tracy caught his hands. “Please! Your father loved you both. For his sake, don't hurt Shea.”

“My father didn't sire that crazy bastard,” Judd growled. “He's got no claim on the land he's ruining and I'm not letting him ruin me! Some of his bones may be found sometime, but what Mexican cop's going to care about a gringo who probably got shot in some drug ripoff?”

The nightmare shame and hurt of Judd's brutalization had crushed Tracy's will to live, but at the threat to Shea a cold determination strengthened her. If Judd didn't kill her at once, she'd find some way to destroy or disable him.

One hand lightly on her throat but spread in a way that suggested strangling, Judd's voice dropped to a whisper. “How about you, cousin?”

“How about me?”

“If you're nice to me, I can let you live. I'd even marry you when the sad news of your widowhood came out.”

“You must be out of your mind!” That wasn't smart. She should have played along till she had her chance.

The hand tightened ever so slightly, but even with her own and Shea's life in the balance, she couldn't bring herself to make such a promise. Judd's amused tone was edged with admiration. “You've got guts, cousin, for all your sweet look. That must be why you're the only woman who's ever mattered to me.”

He gave a soft reminiscent laugh. “I thought Cele might be a winner, but once I got her she turned weepy and all full of guilt over Shea. I was damned glad when she took off. And Vashti—hell! She's hotter than a cheap pistol but she got the notion she owned me. Would you believe the stupid female thought I'd marry her after Dad died?”

Dazed, Tracy shook her head. “Your brother's and father's wives—”

“They weren't worth the hassle.” His voice sank to a husky murmur. “But you are. Did you really think I'd kill you?”

Involuntary relief washed through her followed by bewilderment. “You mean to kill Shea. You can't think I'd keep quiet about that!”

“No one listens to a crazy woman.”

“What?”

He caressed her shoulder, testing her flesh with the balls of his fingers as if she were a ripening fruit. “When my younger brother and his bride don't return from their honeymoon, naturally I go looking for them. I find my brother, killed by who knows who, and finally track down his wife who's half-dead of dehydration. Of course, the poor girl has delusions about what happened. Of course, she says wild things. And I'm thought to be a wonderfully kind man to take care of her at home rather than put her in an institution.”

It could work.

Stunned disbelief gave way to icy conviction that he could bring it off. He was her nearest living relative. No one would question him except—Mary would! And Geronimo might not swallow that story. As that hope flowered, Judd trampled it.

“With you deranged, I'm sure to be named to handle Shea's affairs. I'll fire those Apache friends of yours while you're locked up for treatment at a private hospital I know of. When I bring you home, the amount of freedom you have depends on you.” His voice deepened. “If you ever got back your sanity, I could marry you.”

She didn't answer. There was the sure consolation that he couldn't, for long, keep her alive. If escape proved absolutely hopeless, she believed she'd rather be dead than doomed to be his plunder. But the important thing now was to keep him from killing Shea.

She shuddered as Judd climbed up beside her. This time, through all he did, she absented herself from her body and held the image of Shea in her mind, repeating his name like a silent prayer. She had to endure. She had to find a way to save him.

Judd had tied her feet and hands. Everything came back in a rush as she stirred against her bonds in the gray dawning. Along with that consciousness, a strange dream faded, one so real that she would have sworn a beautiful dark-haired young woman in a torn old-fashioned dress had been smoothing her hair and talking to her.

I was ravished and lost in this desert, the girl had said in a gentle voice. But I lived, and found my love. So will you, Teresita.

The infinitely tender smile lingered, a comforting presence in the back of Tracy's mind as, tensing, she felt Judd stir. He embraced her, tossing back the blankets to watch and touch her body, but to her great relief, he glanced at his watch and sat up, hauling on his clothes.

“Time to meet Pardo.”

“Pardo?”

He had come to the wedding. She knew he was a sort of friend of Shea's and felt a slight rise of hope.

“Yeah. He's stashing the pickup after keeping an eye on Shea to be sure some unexpected woodcutter or wandering archaeologist doesn't happen along to give him a lift.”

“What if one does?”

Judd shrugged. “Pardo has orders to shoot if it looks like Shea might be crawling out of it.”

Tracy's brief that Pardo might help them faded. He must have come on the expedition knowing its aim. He was a man who killed for money. There would be money in this kill.

Judd untied Tracy so she could dress. He let her go into the bushes, tied her hands again before he boiled water for instant coffee and peeled an orange for her. Tracy awkwardly ate it and a breakfast roll. She'd need her strength today.

“Why didn't you just kill Shea last night?” she asked.

Pouring them both more coffee, Judd grinned. “Wouldn't be much sport in that.”

“Sport!”

“Sure.” Judd's eyes glittered. “This is going to be the most exciting hunt I ever had. I've never stalked a man before.”

“He doesn't have a gun!”

“That's his problem. When we catch up with him, I'll explain the ground rules and give him a head start.” Judd patted her hand. “I'll leave you with Pardo and the RV. Cheer up, doll. Maybe Shea'll kill me with a rock.”

“You'll never let him get that close.”

“Not if I know it. But that's what makes it interesting.”

“To make it really interesting, why don't you give him a gun?”

“It's more poetic this way. Man as pure quarry with only his brain for help.”

“It's not your brain that'll kill Shea. It's your gun.”

He laughed. “Well, that's what happens when people think they don't need a weapon.” Making her get into the RV, he tied her ankles securely. “Just so you won't kick.” His hand lingered along her thigh. He lowered his head and nipped her through her trousers, letting his warm breath heat her flesh. “What is it about you, cousin? I already want you again. But it'll have to wait.”

As they jolted back to the road, Tracy felt physically sick, not only at the horror of his plan, but from the merciless way he'd used her. Aching and nauseated, she leaned forward and vomited.

Swearing, Judd braked to a halt. Roughly, he scrubbed her face, but he untied her to make her clean up the mess on the floor. This made her sick again.

“If this is your way of buying time for that bastard, forget it,” Judd grated. “Pardo's to follow and kill him if we don't meet him at the old ranch by eight.” He handed her a canteen. “Rinse your mouth and let's go.”

Back on the road with its broad strip of weeds grown up between the tracks except where they passed over rock or gravel, they drove across the rolling expanse toward the mountains that marked the ranch and the way in. The moment the sun came over the mountains, it was instantly hot. Judd had on the air conditioner. Tracy thought of Shea, who had probably been walking for several hours by now.

When he saw them coming, he'd think it meant rescue. Tracy groaned silently before she said bitterly to Judd, “Shea's been walking while you've been riding. He hasn't had any real food since yesterday. Apart from guns, you're a long way from starting even.”

Judd only chuckled. “When I'm after a deer, babe, I don't know—or care—when it drank or had its belly full.”

Tracy's mind doubled back and forth, desperately searching some way to thwart the man beside her. Hurl herself against him? Even if she caused a wreck that disabled him, Pardo had orders to kill Shea.

A sudden thought sent a thrill of hope through her. If Pardo would kill for money, why wouldn't he spare a life for it? Though his training might allow him to murder Shea, he must have some liking for him.

I'll offer him double whatever Judd has
, Tracy thought.
Why shouldn't he take it?

It was possible, of course, that some perverted mercenary's honor would keep him bought once he'd made a bargain. Still, it was the only hope Tracy could see. In spite of the oppressive throbbing in her head, the bruised aching between her legs, she felt better than she had since the ordeal started.

Trees and brush grew thick around the deserted ranch. Tracy relaxed slightly when she saw the pickup waiting in the sandy wash below the corrals. Pardo was there, not trailing Shea.

Dressed in camouflage, holster at his hip, the tall wiry black came out of the trees as Judd stopped the RV. “See you found your brother's wife,” Pardo greeted, flipping his hand upward at Tracy.

Judd scowled at the words but asked impatiently, “How far ahead is he?”

“Seven miles, maybe eight. He only slept a couple of hours.”

With a nod of satisfaction, Judd moved to the back of the car. “You drive, Pardo. Give me the Magnum.”

Pardo handed over the lethal black gun. “Want I should drive right up to your brother?”

“He's not my brother, he's a bastard!”

“Ain't we all?” Pardo grinned. He slid under the wheel.

“Drive up beside him,” Judd ordered. “I'll tell him how it's going to be and give him a start.”

Pardo's ironic grin twisted his sparse beard sideways. “It'd be a lot more interesting if you didn't have a gun either.”

“I'm not doing this to entertain you,” Judd said curtly. “All you have to do is wait with the girl.”

“Yassuh, boss,” gibed Pardo.