by Marie Harte
At that, she smiled, disconcerting him.
“What?”
“You are a strange man, Hinto.”
“You’re calling me strange?” He snorted. “You claim to be an Amazon. You’re after a woman with a flower painted on her cheek. You threw down with the Nolan brothers and won. And what really screws with my head: you kiss like a virgin but have no problem milking my cock.”
She flushed, and he felt like an ass. For a moment when she’d smiled, she’d looked as if she actually liked him.
“Sorry. I can’t… It’s early.” And I want you again. He worried that when he finally did take her, once wouldn’t be enough.
“Your father concerns you. I understand.”
She rose from her position under the blanket and stood. Her long brown hair, usually pulled back in a severe braid, hung loose and framed her face, making her look softer, sexier. She stretched and uttered a small moan.
A burst of lust speared straight through his groin. Much better. Don’t think about Dad, now. Think about sex. Nothing more to this thing with Thais than unruly hormones.
He couldn’t look away when she bent over to look into her saddle bags. By the Mother, what he wanted to do to that fine ass…
“Hinto?” She straightened, saw where he’d been focused, and shook her head. “What is it with men and sex? You are forever thinking about it.”
“Hell, yeah. I’m human, I’m male, and you’re—you.”
“That is a compliment, yes?”
He rolled his eyes, pleased when she smiled again, the warmth back in her gaze.
“You said your father’s…lungs…are the problem?” She stumbled over the word “lungs.”
“Yeah, the organ in his chest he uses to breathe. His lungs.” He tapped his chest.
Thais nodded, reached back into her bag, and straightened. She held out something in her hand. “I don’t know how much this might help, but take it. Carefully.”
“What’s this?” he asked, as she dumped several seeds in his palm.
“Something that might actually help your father.”
“What is it?” A kernel of hope underscored the lust ruling his mind.
“The seeds of the nucca plant. They grow plentiful if tended in a warm environment. At home, we used the nucca plant to heal most everything. The root, when ground, makes a salve, a paste that cures most infections. The leaves can be boiled and drunk as a tea.”
“He has a lung problem.”
“So boil the leaves and make him lean over the pot to inhale the steam.”
He couldn’t stop himself from envisioning his father hale and whole. “Thais, if this works…”
“Then you will be in my debt, I know.” She looked smug. “But I do not know if they will help him. In any case, the person to thank is Yara. She insisted we take plenty of herbs and seeds on our journey.” Her joy faded. “It seems so long ago when we left our village.”
“Yara?” He quieted, wanting to know more. She’d mentioned her village a few times, but nothing more than the names of those she hunted. He still didn’t, for one minute, believe she came from Temeco. But to consider she might be a warrior woman from a mythic tribe? He just didn’t know.
Thais studied him before she spoke. “Yara, Isadora and Luiza. My best friends, my sisters. We are joined by grief, by love, and by a common purpose.”
“To find the woman with the flower and Bartel. To find justice.”
She hesitated. “Yes.”
“So what’s the deal with the flower? I thought only whores painted themselves. But I get the feeling the woman you’re hunting isn’t one for pleasure.”
The cold look in Thais’s eyes told him as much. “She’s not. Pilar is very much the opposite, in fact.” Thais sat down and crossed her ankles. “What I tell you, not many know.”
“Who do you think I’m gonna tell?” he asked wryly. “It’s just you and me out here. And I rarely get by to see my family.”
“And Dee?”
He was surprised she remembered Dee’s name. “Ah, DeeDee and I don’t talk much when we get together.” He grinned at her scowl. “’Course, I see her maybe once, twice a season if she’s lucky.”
“Arrogant male.”
“Honey, you know it’s true. Hell, you ought to consider yourself lucky. Most women would kill to be this close to me at any given time.”
She muttered something under her breath, but he could tell he’d amused her.
“Come on, Thais. Tell me. I only want to help.”
She exhaled loudly, as if coming to some decision. “Where I’m from, most of us aren’t used to men at all. Before I’d come to—ah, to settle in Temeco, I’d seen very few of your kind. And those I’d met did not speak well for your sex.”
He had a feeling he knew where this headed.
“Men came into my village. They raped my friends, my family. They slaughtered old and young alike. Babes, girls. Even our animals. They left few alive, and all suffered at the hands of Aaron Bartel and his men.”
“Except for you,” he said slowly, trying to reason out this puzzle.
“Except for me,” she whispered, her eyes haunted. But she didn’t look away.
He wanted to ask exactly what had happened. The pain in her gaze stopped him. “And Pilar?”
“Pilar helped him. Against her own sisters, she and her friends betrayed us all with that man.”
“So you want revenge. I get it.” He had more in common with her than she knew.
“Not revenge. Justice. And something Bartel stole that does not belong to him.”
They regarded each other in silence.
He wanted to slay her demons. To do for her what he’d never been able to do for his family. Unlike his situation, with Thais, they had a lead. Pilar. Bartel.
Holding out a hand to help her stand, he waited.
It seemed like forever, but she finally reached out and placed her hand in his. He gripped it tight. “Partners?”
This time she didn’t hesitate. “Partners.”
Thais did her best not to look at Hinto again as they bargained with one of the whores behind the filthy bar. It was early enough that only one man had staggered along the empty street when they walked through town. The mare and Beast waited on the outskirts, to attract as little attention as possible.
As Hinto spoke with Annie, Thais studied him, trying to find the answer to a puzzling question. Why had she told him so much this morning? Granted, she hadn’t given many details, but an accounting of the tragedy had ripped open the scarred wounds deep inside her. They hadn’t healed after almost four years and probably never would. Hinto had to have seen her pain.
Instead of trying to exploit her in any way, he’d given her his hand. His trust.
She still didn’t know what to make of him.
Never had she wanted to believe in a man so much. Even with Chow Yen, full of fatherly advice and ancient wisdom, a man who’d saved their lives and taught them about the Territories, she hadn’t given her full confidence.
Yet with Hinto, she continued to see more of his strengths and less of his flaws.
He prized the precious seeds she’d given him, surprising her that he’d actually recognized the value of her gift. And he said nothing of what they’d done last night. He’d kept to his word and taken the pleasure then left her alone, except to hug her. Such comfort. Had he known how much she treasured their embrace? Did he feel the same wonder in sharing with another? Or was it all just a huge, jumbled mess in her mind?
“Come on, Annie,” he murmured and glanced around them. “We’re alone. Help us. You know what an ass Gregor is. We just need a little information, and maybe a chance to distract him away from his friends. Think Thais could borrow something to wear Gregor might like? I swear, if you help us, he’ll never bother you again.”
“Until his brother finds out.” Annie bit her lower lip. The dark circles under her eyes and the faint bruises on her cheeks made her look fragile, despite her sturdy frame. “You d
on’t get it. Gregor’s brutal, but he don’t try to kill everyone he beds. Butch… He sees into you. Finds your weaknesses and plays on ‘em.” She faced Thais. “Gregor’ll beat on you some, and he’s rough when he take you. But that’s it. Butch’ll beat you bloody—to the bone—when you can’t give him what he needs. If you’re lucky, you might live through it.” She rubbed her left shoulder, her thoughts far away.
“And what does he need?” Thais asked quietly.
“I don’t know. Hell, I don’t know if he knows.”
Hinto cleared his throat. “Butch won’t be an issue. We’re after Gregor. By the time we’re through, Butch won’t know what the hell happened. Now how about you find us something he can’t track to any of you girls in particular. Hell, just make a fuss about somebody stealing your clothes, if you have to. By now he’s already suspicious of Thais anyway. She clocked Freddy and Cedric yesterday.”
Annie brightened. “That’s right. I heard about that. So you really think you can kill Gregor?”
“Yes.”
“Hell. If you’re so sure, who am I to stop you? Hold on a minute.” She disappeared and reappeared moments later with a swath of sheer, white fabric. “Try this out. But like I said, I don’t want nobody saying I helped you.”
Hinto kissed her on the cheek.
To Thais’s amazement, the woman blushed.
“You’re a good woman, Annie McCabe.” He placed a gold nugget in her hand.
“Get out of here,” Annie said in a gruff voice. “I probably got customers waitin’.” She smacked Hinto on the ass before she turned and left.
Hinto held up the thin dress and clenched his jaw. “Shit. This is gonna wreck me for sure.” Before she could say anything, he stilled and looked all around him.
She immediately went on alert. “What—”
“Shh.” He cocked his head and his eyes seemed to glow, no longer blue, but an incandescent white filled with power. “Four coming from the church, three from the east, and another two from where we left Beast and your horse.”
“But how can you know?” She had no doubt he knew.
“We need to move.”
She followed him away from the bar without question, though the logical place to make a stand would have been against the cover of the building. Thais didn’t want to risk anyone inside getting hurt because of her. Apparently, Hinto felt the same. They raced to take cover against a cluster of thick trees standing beyond the bar.
“Soon as we leave here, the pair by Beast is going to see us,” he whispered and tugged her to crouch behind him.
She glanced over her shoulder and saw the four men he’d mentioned walking down the street like they owned it. They hadn’t spotted her and Hinto yet, but it was a matter of a few paces at most.
“Stay with me, Thais. We’ll take on the ones guarding our horses. Our best chance is to outrun them.” He held tight to Annie’s white dress as they raced for Beast.
Shouts rang out behind them. The sound of gunfire. Hinto swore and stumbled, and just as quickly leapt to his feet and pushed her in front of him.
She reached Beast before he did and came face to face with the wrong end of a pistol.
Not thinking, she reacted. Knocking the gun away, she drove the flat of her palm up and into her opponent’s nose, shoving shards of bone into his brain. Hinto took care of the other man, who dropped like a stone.
“Fuck me,” Hinto swore and threw himself on top of her as gunshot preceded more unwanted guests. He flinched above her, and she wondered if he’d been hit.
Beast rose up on his back legs and struck one man down.
“Dammit, you stupid vore, take off,” Hinto shouted.
The vore screamed and galloped away. The mare followed, leaving them unprotected.
Surrounded.
“Sorry, I didn’t sense the others ‘til it was too late,” he whispered in her ear. “The minute you see an opportunity, get clear. I mean it.”
Hinto had nothing to apologize for, but she didn’t get the chance to tell him. They dragged him to his feet and smacked the butt of a rifle into his forehead. He dropped to the ground, unconscious as she quickly rose.
She managed to kick one male between his legs, strike another in the throat and had almost wrestled a third man’s gun away when pain exploded in her head.
Thais didn’t feel herself fall as darkness overtook her.
Chapter Nine
The past overwhelmed her with a vengeance. In the wake of such tragedy, Thais spent the next weeks with the others, cleaning up the village and nursing the few remaining Amazons to health. The princess had taken a turn for the worse, succumbing to a fever that only the Goddess could ease, for even Yara’s healing hands had done no good.
Despite the hard work Thais poured into salvaging what remained of their tribe, she knew it would never be enough. She’d burned her mother’s body that first night back. Aliane was the last to fall. She couldn’t stop envisioning her mother outnumbered and wounded, still fighting, still doing her duty to protect and defend. All alone.
Thais closed her hand around a broken piece of black rock, what remained of her mother’s spear, a chip off the tip. The shard cut into her palm, and she squeezed harder.
A glance around the village told her what she needed to know. She could do no more here. She’d been given a task by the new queen, to bring back the Amazon crown. And she’d do it, or die trying.
Thais packed up what meager belongings she still possessed, those she would need for a trip to hunt down the demons that had brought such chaos. She left her bundle in her hut and sought the queen.
Princess—Queen—Estefina lay as still as death, the heavy rattle of her breathing all that filled the silence. Thais would have cried if she’d had any tears left to spend.
She knelt and bowed her head. “I will do as you’ve bid, my queen. By my oath, you will have your crown.”
“And the head of the man who stole it,” Luiza added from the doorway.
Rather than argue in the queen’s presence, Thais lifted her fist to her heart and prayed to the Goddess to heal the tribe’s heart—their queen. She stood and left the building, Luiza in trace. When she stopped to confront the younger hunter, Isador joined them with two packs, her bow, and a quiver of arrows.
“We’re going with you.” Luiza frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. Isadora nodded next to her.
“And I’m going, too.” Yara met them, her pack and a medical bag in hand. “Don’t think to deny any of us our due, Thais. Guardian you may be, but we all shrugged our duty. The queen tasked us all.”
“She tasked me.” Thais felt the burden. The leader of their small group, she should have known better than to shirk her duty. She should have listened to her instincts.
Luiza shook her head, her blonde braid flying. “No. Estefina spoke to us all. We all heard her. And we’re all going. We are Amazons; we will do our duty by our queen.”
“Or die trying,” Isadora said.
“Or die trying,” Yara repeated.
Thais had known they would insist on coming. But she hadn’t been prepared for the surge of relief that filled her, that she wouldn’t have to go alone. “Or die trying,” she agreed. “No matter how long it takes, we will find the queen’s crown. And when we are finished, the Territory men will be no more.”
Thais groaned as a throbbing pain woke her from an all too familiar nightmare. With a shaky hand, she felt the bandage wrapped around her temple. Gingerly rolling and sitting up, she took stock in her surroundings. The thick bed she lay on had a red coverlet made of a fabric so soft and fine, she’d never before seen its like. Two draped windows sat on either side of the spacious room, the walls of which were made of stacked logs, so tightly bound and packed, she knew that the house’s owner possessed a great deal of wealth.
Finely-wrought furniture: a card table and two chairs, a small buffet with a crystal decanter and glasses, three massive armoires, a wash stand and mirror, and a stone firepla
ce completed the room’s furnishings. Candlelight and precious oil lamps illuminated the room, making her shadow loom large against the headboard behind her.
She pushed away from the headboard and stopped when she grew dizzy. It was then she noticed that the slide of fabric against her legs felt wrong. She no longer wore her clothing, but the dress Annie had given her. Even the tie holding back her braid had disappeared.
After yanking off the bandage around her head, she ran a hand through her hair and frowned. No tangles, soft strands, as if it had been combed until it crackled. Very strange.
Thais didn’t waste any more time. She forced herself to her feet and took a deep breath. The queasiness left her, enough to take a quick survey of the room. To her relief, she found her knife in the drawer of a small table next to the bed. The comforting weight of tempered metal eased her mind, until the doorknob turned and the door opened.
“Ah, beauty wakes.”
He shut the door behind him and walked into the middle of the room. Taller than Thais and much more broad, the man intimidated by simply breathing. His dark brown eyes seemed to miss nothing as he let her look her fill. Light blond hair reminded her of Bartel, but where Bartel’s eyes had looked lifeless, this male’s gaze burned. Full of fire, of passion. A manic need sat just beneath his air of civilized calm.
Scared but not allowing herself to show any sign of weakness, Thais lifted her chin and stared him in the eye. She held her knife ready, eager to find Hinto and leave…which gave her pause. Where the hell was Hinto?
“Nervous?” the stranger asked in a smooth voice.
An Amazon shows only strength. We fear nothing. We are to be feared. Her mother’s guidance echoed in memory.
“Of you?” Thais scoffed. She didn’t react when he stepped closer.
He smiled. “I think you and I will get on quite well together. What’s your name?”
She lifted a brow. “What’s yours?”
He had the nerve to laugh. “Shit, you’ve got bigger balls than half my own men.”
Butch McKenzie. Somehow, she’d been expecting a man who looked like the monster she knew him to be. This Butch looked clean, well-groomed, and moved with an easy grace.
