Dark Warrior: To Tame a Wild Hawk (Dark Cloth) (23 page)

“He saved my life because he’s that fast, Charlie,” Mandy chided, softly.

All the wind seemed to go out of the old timer. “Been alive all these years. Ain’t never seen noth’n like that.” A small trace of pride tinged his voice. “You should’a seen it. He drew faster’n a rattler can strike.” He shook his head and started shuffling down the boarded walk. “Tommy won’t even believe me when I tell him.”

Stepping off the boarded walk out into the sunlight, Jake slowly looked around. Standing next to him, Kat felt him tense. “What is it?”

“Hawk was right, Ashley’s hired himself some killers.”

“Man’s got a sixth sense.” Mandy’s eyes narrowed on the gunfighters before looking away. “Guess it’s all out in the open now.”

Jake nodded. “How long before you’re ready to leave?”

“Can we have a half an hour?”

“Yeah. I’ll meet you at the store. We’re going to need some extra supplies for the ride home.” He indicated the men down the street with a nod of his head. “First, I’ll see the sheriff.”

Mandy hadn’t drawn attention to the Colts strapped to her narrow waist when she rode out with Jake. She’d waited until they were away from the house to dig them out.

Kid would have turned around and hauled her straight home, but Jake hadn’t said a word. Now, she wished she hadn’t taken them off when they reached town. The folks in town already tended towards gossiping about her—without her wearing her Colts into town. But the risk was too great not to be well-armed at all times now.

She wasn’t used to having such hardheaded males around. She wondered if Jake had guessed at how well she could use them—and doubted he’d have let her keep them if he hadn’t. Jake unnerved her. His steel-gray eyes didn’t seem to miss anything, always seeming to assess everyone’s secrets like there wasn’t anything they could hide.

Mandy hoped he couldn’t see all of hers.

The women quickly picked out all the items they were going to need for the upcoming wedding. The gunmen outside lay like a wet blanket on their earlier laughter.

“How do you know Hawk?” Mandy finally got up the nerve to ask about halfway into their ride home.

“We were kids together.”

Mandy frowned. “But he left when he was six. How could you two still be such good friends after all these years? Besides, you know how to fight together.”

Jake glanced at her, brows raised.

Mandy shrugged. “I can tell by the plans you two lay. And the way you fought on the roundup.”

Jake went back to scouting their surroundings. “He came back to the South. We fought for the North together.”

“And when his sister and nephew died—were you there?”

Jake’s eyes snapped back to her with a killer’s lethal flame, and Mandy froze. The dangerous but calm man she’d come to know had suddenly become a blazing inferno.

“Oh, Jake!” she whispered. “Not your wife?”

The fire went out of his eyes. His face once more became impassive. “I told Hawk you’re too sharp. You’re good for him, you know. Not some fancy lady who can’t get dirty.”

Mandy thought about taking exception to that. “Thank you . . . I think,” she muttered the last. His next words stopped her.

“But a lady who sure looks fine in a dress.”

She blushed and looked away. “I’m sorry, Jake,” she said after a moment.

He shrugged.

“Why didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t Hawk? Charlie wouldn’t have been ribbing you like that, would you, Charlie?”

“Women,” Jake hissed between his teeth.

“I think he’s been so cold so long, he’s forgotten that side,” Charlie mumbled.

“Charlie!”

“No, Mandy,” Jake broke in, “he’s right. I haven’t known anything but an unrelenting hatred since I came home that day.”

Mandy blinked; so many words from Jake at one time, and with feeling, too. An improvement. Maybe he had been cold and full of hatred, but she suspected time was healing those wounds. And when his shell of hatred came off, the true pain and healing would begin.

That’s if the ice wall around his heart melted before it turned to a permanent fixture of stone.

“Get down!”

Mandy was snapped out of her thoughts by Jake’s barked order. Instinct took over, and she obeyed without hesitation. The four of them were on the ground and scrambling for shelter when the first shot kicked up the dirt next to Kat.

Kat, of course, immediately returned fire, along with a few choice words. Within seconds, they were surrounded by gunfire and returning some of their own.

“I swear, I’m going to shoot that no-account Ashley McCandle right in the butt the very next time I see him,” Mandy bit out, reloading her gun.

Kat laughed. “Then one toe, then another . . . .”

“And another, ‘til he can’t walk.”

“Then, we can start in with his fingers . . . .”

By that time Jake was looking at the two women as if they’d grown horns. “Next, the two of you will be burying him up to his head in an ant hill.”

“Not a bad idea,” Kat quipped.

“You’d think you’d both been raised by Indians.”

Eyebrows raised, the two women looked at each other.

“As a matter of fact—” Kat started.

Jake raised his hand. “I don’t want to hear it.”

Kat looked at Mandy, smiling, and shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

“See anything from your position, Charlie?” Jake called out, softly.

“Nope. But them snakes out there are just wait’n for us to raise our heads, so’s they can blow ‘em off.”

Jake grunted and reloaded his Winchester. “What about you, Mandy?”

“I think if the one I’ve got lined in my sight pops up just one more time . . . .” She pulled the trigger and heard a yelp. “Stop whining, it was only a shoulder wound,” she called out. “If I had wanted you dead, you’d be dead. Now, go home and tell McCandle to leave my ranch alone, or the next time I shoot you, believe me, you won’t be crying about it.”

A bullet splattered the rock next to her face, the fragments hitting her cheek.

“Well, it was worth a try.”

“Next time you shoot,” Jake growled. “Shoot to kill. Or you’ll be the dead one. That’s the unforgiving code of the west.”

Duly reprimanded, Mandy watched for the next shooter.

Two hours later, they hadn’t heard a shot for some time. “Do you think they’re gone?” Kat called softly.

“Nope,” Jake hissed. “They’re just waiting us out.”

“Damn this heat,” Charlie complained.

“Yep, that’s what they’re counting on.” Jake checked his surroundings yet again.

Mandy shifted to a more comfortable position. “Do you think Hawk will be coming?” she directed at Jake.

“Not for a while,” Jake answered. “He won’t notice till we don’t come in for several more hours. Then, he’ll head right out.”

“How do you know?” Kat questioned.

“Because, that’s how we operate. That’s how we know something’s gone wrong, without wasting precious time deciding.”

“Should’a known,” Charlie grumbled.

“I said to keep your head down.” Jake frowned in Charlie’s direction, then went back to watching their surroundings.

“Come on out,” one man yelled. “And we’ll take ya in to talk to the boss.”

“Yeah, over a saddle,” Mandy snapped.

“Sell your land, and we’ll leave ya alone.”

“Over my dead body,” Mandy yelled.

“That can be arranged.”

“Where have I heard that before?” Mandy bit out.

“We can sit here,” Ashley’s man called back, “until you change your mind, or you’re all dead; your choice, ladies and gentlemen.”

“You’ve only got one problem,” Jake called back.

“What’s that?” someone answered.

“Nobody’s mistook me for a gentleman—in a long, long time.”

“So?”

“I don’t live by no one’s rules.”

Mandy’s brows shot up.

“I make them.”

“Big talk. Big man. Let’s see how you’re talk’n in a few more hours.”

Jake turned and got comfortable against the rock.

“And now?” Kat asked.

“We wait.”

“Do you think we could get near the water canteens?” Mandy asked almost an hour later. “My tongue feels like old, shriveled-up wool.”

Jake squinted at the sun.

“Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea. By the time Hawk realizes we’re late, then rides here, we’ll still have about a two- or three-hour wait.”

Without further urging, Kat jumped up. Dodging from rock to rock, she went around the other side of the closest horse, led them to a safer spot and grabbed two canteens. Heading back, dirt kicked up around her feet as she slid safely around a rock. She tossed one to Mandy, who took a grateful drink and tossed it to Jake.

Back-handing the moisture off her face, Kat threw hers to Charlie. “Let me sneak around ‘em,” she told Jake.

“No,” he grated out. “Nobody’s going to play hero when a little patience will bring us all what we need.”

Kat made a face and kept her sights on a hat that kept popping up. “If you say so.”

“I say so.”

By the time, Jake had figured Hawk would show, Charlie was shooting at anything that moved. “Set on us, will ya!” He shot again. “Well, come on out and get us.”

“Easy, old timer,” Jake soothed. “You’re wasting ammunition.”

“Hee hee hee. Shooting at McCandle’s men,” he said as he racked his Winchester, “ain’t never a waste.” He shot again and was rewarded when someone swore viciously.

The sound of several horses riding up held them all in suspense for a moment, until the new arrivals started shooting at McCandle’s men, which caused Mandy and Kat to hoot, and rendered more vicious swearing from the opposition. They dodged bullets and mounted up, one catching a bullet in the leg. Another pitched off his horse on their flight out.

Hawk rode right up to Mandy and dismounted. Before she could say a word, he pulled her up into his muscular embrace. “I was afraid I wouldn’t get to you all in time,” he whispered into her hair.

“You came,” she whispered back. “And, pretty much, right when Jake thought you would.”

Hawk chuckled. “Military tactics.” He led her over and set her on his horse. She just shook her head. She was getting used to his high-handed methods. A girl could get really used to having a man like Hawk around. And she didn’t want to let that thought go too far.

Or she’d also have to think about the day he’d be gone.

Chapter Twenty-Five

J
ason McCandle rode in slowly, careful not to make any sudden moves. He kept his hands in plain view and prayed Hawk’s men were not the trigger-happy sort. His weathered brow was furrowed in deep concentration.

What was Hawk doing here, anyway? Why was he fighting for the Kanes?

When Jason had come home this morning, he’d been visibly shaken to learn Hawk was nearby. So much so, he’d sent Ashley into a rage.

He raised his eyebrows at the number of guards he’d seen posted the past five miles. There had been one every mile. What the hell was going on?

He rode straight up to the porch.

Hawk was coming across the yard when he spotted him. Seeing the visitor, Mandy had come out on the porch

But Jason’s eyes were riveted on Hawk.

Something on Hawk’s face made the hairs stand up on the back of Mandy’s neck. Her gut clenched. She didn’t know why, but she felt sick.

“Hello, son,” Jason said in a rough whisper.

Hawk didn’t answer, he merely stood there—casually, some would say. But Mandy sensed the underlying rage beneath the complacent façade.

And, she’d swear, she sensed pain, too. But that couldn’t be right. Hawk didn’t even know Jason. Or did he? Was this part of Hawk’s personal reasons for entering this war? Mandy didn’t know why, but she felt tingly and—afraid.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to shatter her world.

Jason’s eyes hadn’t left Hawk’s. He seemed bone weary, as though the whole world pressed down on his shoulders. “You did it, son. You gained the ranch. I couldn’t be prouder. I was wrong, you know—wrong to reject you when you found me,” he sighed, “when you finally left them savages. But you gotta understand, son. You looked so much like ‘em. I just couldn’t stand how they’d changed you—your long hair—your buckskins. Hell, you couldn’t even speak English anymore
. . . .”
his voice trailed off, his eyes seeing the past.

Mandy was no longer looking at Jason.

She was staring at Hawk.

And when Hawk finally looked at her, the pain in her eyes nearly doubled him over. For a moment she just stood there, still and pristine, like priceless china, shattered—and then, she turned and ran.

Hawk’s eyes glittered like cold steel. “I didn’t get this ranch for you, old man. I came here to keep it out of your hands!” his voice was sharp and deadly, like a
razor. “Get off my land. Or—the next time I see you—I’ll kill you.” He turned, and without another word, went
after Mandy.