Mercenary's Woman (4 page)

28

MERCENARY'S WOMAN

DIANA PALMER

blew out a cloud of smoke. "I'm not sure
that I wanted
you to know."

"Secrets are dangerous."

He glanced down at
her, brooding. "More dangerous
than you realize. I've kept mine for a long
time, like your
aunt."

"I had no idea what she did for a
living, either." She
glared up at him.
"Thanks to the two of you, now I know
how a mushroom feels, sitting in the dark."

He chuckled. "She
wanted it that way. She felt you'd
be safer if she kept you uninvolved."

She wanted to ask
him about what Jessica had told her,
that he'd phoned her about Sally before the painful move
to Houston. But she didn't quite know how. She
was shy
with him.

He looked down at her
again, his eyes intent on her
softly flushed cheeks, her swollen mouth, her bright
eyes.
She
lifted his heart. Just the sight of her made him feel
welcome, comforted,
cared for. He'd missed that. In all his
life. Sally had been the first and only person
who could
thwart
his black moods. She made him feel as if he be
longed somewhere after a life of
wandering. Even during
the time she was in Houston, he kept in touch with
Jessica,
to
get news of Sally, of where she was, what she was
doing, of her plans.
He'd always expected that she'd come
back to him one day, or that he'd go to her,
despite the
way they'd parted. Love, if it existed, was surely a pow
erful force, immune
to harsh words and distance. And
time.

Sally's face was
watchful, her eyes brimming over with
excitement. She couldn't hide what she was
feeling, and
he loved being able to see it. Her hero worship had first
irritated and then
elated him. Women had wanted him since his teens, although some loved him for
the danger

that clung to him. One had rejected
him because of it and
savaged his pride. But, even so, it was Sally who made
him ache inside.

He touched her soft
mouth with his fingers, liking the
faint swell where he'd kissed it so
thoroughly. "We'll
have
to practice more," he murmured wickedly.

She opened her mouth to protest that
assumption when
a laughing Stevie came
running out the door like a little
blond
whirlwind, only to be caught up abruptly in Ebe-
nezer's hard arms and
lifted.

"Uncle Eb!"
he cried, laughing delightedly, making
Sally realize that if she hadn't been around
Ebenezer since
their move from Houston, Jessica and Stevie certainly had.

"Hello,
tiger," came the deep, pleasant reply. He put
the boy back down on his feet. "Want
to go to my place
with Sally and learn
karate?"

"Like the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' in the mov
ies? Radical!" he exclaimed.

"Karate?" Sally asked, hesitating.

"Just a few moves, and only for
self-defense," he as
sured her.
"You'll enjoy it. It's necessary," he added
when she seemed to
hesitate.

"Okay," she capitulated.

He led the way back
into the house to where Jessica was
sitting in the living room, listening to the
news on the
television.

"All this mess in
the Balkans," she said sadly. "Just
when we think we've got peace,
everything erupts all over
again.
Those poor people!"

"Fortunes of
war," Eb said with a smile. "How's it
going, Jess?"

"I can't
complain, I guess, except that they won't let
me drive anymore," she said, tongue-in-cheek.

MERCENARY'S
WOMAN

"Wait until they
get that virtual reality vision per
fected," he said easily. "You'll be
able to do anything."

"Optimist," she said, grinning.

"Always. I'm taking these two over to
the ranch for a
little course in elementary
self-defense," he added quietly.

"Good idea," Jessica said at once.

"I don't like
leaving you here alone," Sally ventured,
remembering what she'd been told about the danger.

"She won't
be," Eb replied. He looked at Jessica and
one eye narrowed before he added, "I'm sending Dallas
Kirk over to keep her company."

"No!"
Jessica said
furiously. She actually stood up, vi
brating. "No, Eb! I don't want him
within a mile of me!
I'd rather be shot to pieces!"

"This isn't
multiple choice," came a deep, drawling
voice from the general direction of
the hall.

As Sally turned from
Jessica's white face, a slender
blond man with dark eyes came into the room.
He walked with the help of a fancy-looking cane. He was dressed like Eb, in
casual clothes, khaki slacks and a bush jacket. He
looked like
something right out of Africa.

"This is Dallas
Kirk," Eb introduced him to Sally. "He
was born in Texas. His real name is
Jon, but we've always
called him Dallas. This is Sally Johnson," he told
the
blond
man.

Dallas nodded. "Nice to meet you," he said formally.

"You know Jess," Eb added.

"Yes. I...know
her," he said with the faintest emphasis
in that lazy Western drawl, during
which Jess's face went
from
white to scarlet and she averted her eyes.

"Surely you can
get along for an hour," Eb said im
patiently. "I really can't leave you
here by yourself, Jess."

Dallas glared at
her. "Mind telling me why?" he asked
Eb. "She's a better shot than I
am."

DIANA PALMER
                                      
31

Jessica stood rigidly by her chair.
"He doesn't know?"
she asked Eb.

Eb's face was rigid.
"He wouldn't talk about you, and
the subject didn't come up until he was away
on assign
ment.
No. He doesn't know."

"Know what?" Dallas demanded.

Jessica's chin
lifted. "I'm blind," she said matter-of-factly, almost with
satisfaction, as if she knew it would
hurt him.

The look on the
newcomer's face was a revelation. Sally
only wished she knew of what. He shifted as
if he'd sus
tained a physical blow. He walked slowly up to her and
waved a hand in front
of her face.

"Blind!" he said huskily. "For how long?"

"Six
months," she said, feeling for the arms of the
chair. She sat back
down a little clumsily. "I was in a
wreck. An accident," she added abruptly.

"It was no
accident," Eb countered coldly. "She was
run off the road by
two of Lopez's men. They got away
before the police came."

Sally gasped. This was a new explanation.
She'd just
heard about the wreck—not about
the cause of it. Dallas's
hand on
the cane went white from the pressure he was
exerting on it "What about Stevie?" he asked coldly. "Is
he all right? Was he injured?"

"He wasn't with
me at the time. And he's fine. Sally
lives with us and helps take care of
him," Jess replied, her
voice
unusually tense. "We share the chores. She's my
niece," she added abruptly, almost as if to warn him of
something.

Dallas looked
preoccupied. But when Stevie came running back into the room, he turned
abruptly and his eyes
widened
as he stared at the little boy.

"I'm ready!" Stevie announced, holding out his arms

MERCENARY'S
WOMAN

to show the gray sweats he was wearing. His
dark eyes
were
shimmering with joy. "This is how they look on
television when they
practice. Is it okay?"

"It's fine," Eb replied with a smile,

"Who's he?"
Stevie asked, big-eyed, as he looked at
the blond man with the cane who was staring at
him, as
if
mesmerized.

"That's Dallas," Eb said easily. "He works for me."

"Hi,"
Stevie said, naturally outgoing. He stared at the
cane. "I guess you're from Texas with
a name like that,
huh? I'm sorry about your
leg, Mr. Dallas. Does it hurt
much?"

Dallas took a slow
breath before he answered. "When
it rains."

"My mama's hip
hurts when it rains, too," he said.
"Are you coming with us to learn
karate?"

"He's already
forgotten more than I know," Eb said in a dry tone. "No, he's going
to take care of your mother
while we're gone."

"Why?" Stevie asked, frowning.

"Because her hip
hurts," Sally lied through her teeth.
"Ready to go?"

"Sure! Bye, Mom." He ran to kiss
her cheek and be
hugged warmly. He moved
back, smiling up at the blond
man who
hadn't cracked a smile yet. "See you."

Dallas nodded.

Sally was staggered
by the resemblance of the boy to
the man, and almost remarked on it. But
before she could,
Eb caught her eyes. There was a look in them that she
couldn't decipher,
but it stopped her at once.

"We'd better
go," he said. He took Sally by the arm.
"Come on, Stevie. We won't be
long, Jess," he called
back.

DIANA PALMER

"I'll count the
seconds," she said under her breath as
they left the room.

Dallas didn't say anything, and it was
just as well that
she couldn't see the look
in his eyes.

It was impossible to
talk in front of Stevie as they drove
through the massive electronic gates at the
Scott ranch. He,
like Sally, was fascinated by the layout, which included a
helipad, a landing strip with a hangar, a
swimming pool
and a ranch house that looked
capable of sleeping thirty people. There were also target ranges and guest
cabins and
a formidable
state-of-the-art gym housed in what looked
like a gigantic Quonset hut like those used during the Second World War
in the Pacific theater. There were several satellite dishes as well, and
security cameras seemingly on every available edifice.

"This is
incredible," Sally said as they got out of the truck and went with him
toward the gym.

"Maintaining it
is incredible," Eb said with a chuckle.
"You wouldn't believe the level
of technology required to
keep it all functioning."

Stevie had found the
thick blue plastic-covered mat on the wood floor and was already rolling around
on it and trying the punching bag suspended from one of the steel
beams that supported other training
equipment.

"Stevie
looks like that man, Dallas," she said abruptly.

He grimaced. "Haven't you and Jess ever talked?"

"I didn't know
anything about Dallas and my aunt until
you told me," she said simply.

"This is
something she needs to tell you, in her own good time."

She studied the
youngster having fun on the mat. "He
isn't my uncle's child, is he?"