Over Wendy’s head, Miranda mouthed a thank-you.
“You told me we couldn’t be scaredy-cats.”
All the weight of the world settled into Miranda’s expression. “When it comes to real things that scare you, it’s not being a scaredy-cat.”
“Mr. Cole says only fools aren’t afraid.”
Miranda looked at him, her expression a mixture of anxiety and—hell, he didn’t know what the “and” was. But it made something he didn’t recognize inside him curl in pleasure and the weary stiffness of the night disappear in a heartbeat.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“He also says you can’t kill something just because you’re afraid,” Wendy continued.
Miranda didn’t have anything to say to that. Cole ruffled Wendy’s hair.
“If you’re all set here, I’m going to see what all the hubbub’s about over there.” With a jerk of his chin he indicated the direction of the noise.
Miranda’s gaze went past him down to the end of the village where he could hear raised male voices.
“You’re not seriously thinking of joining the practice, are you?”
Maybe. “Practice?”
“Training,” she corrected hastily. “They train.”
He’d like to see that. “I might. It’s been a while since I had a good tussle.”
“It’s only pretend fights,” Wendy piped up.
Miranda shook her head. “Pretend fights in which bones get broken.”
Her concern was touching.
“Remember me? The man who took down four Reapers?”
“You said you got lucky.”
“Well, there was some skill involved.”
It ruffled his pride that she thought he was no match for a Reaper. They were, after all, just men with good reflexes.
“They’re not, you know,” she said, stepping back so Wendy could go into the house.
That snapped him straight. He knew damn well he hadn’t said that aloud.
“What?”
“Everybody thinks that, but it’s not true,” she explained, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
“Thinks what?”
“That Reapers are just humans with better skills.”
So he was realizing. Apparently some of them could read minds. “What are they?”
“I don’t know, but they’re more than that.”
How could so many people be something and not know a thing about it? “Maybe it’s time someone found out.”
“Isaiah won’t be able to protect you.”
Son of a bitch, did she think he was a boy in short pants?
“Who asked him to?”
She bit her lip, and this time he had no trouble reading the fullness of her expression. Terror. She was terrified for him. The knowledge soothed some of his earlier irritation.
“Don’t go.”
He brushed her hair back from her cheek. “Are you really worried about me getting hurt, or are you worried I’m going to start talking to some people and figuring some stuff out?”
“There’s no mystery here.”
The woman was full of mystery, full of fear, full of passion. And she wasn’t pulling away from his touch. He wondered if she realized that as much as he wondered if she knew she’d read his mind.
“China doll, there’s nothing but mystery here.”
Her eyes searched his. “Why do you call me that?”
“I’m guessing for the same reason you’re not backing away from my touch.”
She closed her eyes slowly and shook her head. “Then we’re both fools.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
She did step away from him then. “I’m sure. And by better people than me.”
He took in her sleep-tumbled disarray. The softness of her mouth, the sweet tension of her energy. He’d like nothing better than to push her back into that house, lay her down on that bed, and slip his cock into her hot pussy with slow and easy strokes as he woke her up with kisses just as slow and easy. “No. I don’t think so.”
With a shake of her head she grabbed the door. Before she closed it, she muttered with a complete lack of heat, “Go get yourself killed already.”
He smiled and shook his head. Nothing was ever that easy.
* * *
Cole tipped his hat to a couple of women working outside as he passed. They lowered their eyes and ducked into their houses as if just acknowledging the gesture could get them killed. There weren’t that many women here. He’d expect them to be valued, but each one, with the exception of Addy, looked scared as shit. Addy didn’t look scared at all. Just another thing that needed explaining.
When he reached Addy’s house, the door was open, letting in the fresh morning air. There was a fire out front with a coffeepot sitting on it. He walked up to the door and rapped on the doorjamb.
“Addy girl, you in there?”
There was a rustling and then, “Coming!”
Addy came to the door, a piece of cloth and needle and thread in her hand. The stitches were uneven. She’d never been much of a sewer.
“I see your skills haven’t improved.”
She blew her hair off her forehead. “Well, they’re going to have to. There’s no money for store-bought clothes, and Wendy needs a new outfit.”
“Why not have her mother make it?”
“That’s a proud woman.”
He couldn’t argue with that.
“Too proud to accept help?”
She sighed. “Miranda didn’t come to us under the best of circumstances, and her position now is rather tenuous.”
“Her position is fucking dangerous.”
“Watch your language.”
“I’ll do that just as soon as I don’t feel like I’m sitting on top of a keg of dynamite and everybody around me has a sulfur.”
She sighed. “Cole, you’re not one of us.”
“Us? What the hell is that? Did marrying that Reaper suddenly put you outside of our family?”
“No, but it brought up complications.”
She pointed to the pot. “Pour yourself some coffee.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re always testy until you’ve had some, and I’m going to answer your questions.”
“Trust me, coffee isn’t going to help my mood as much as answers.”
But he poured himself a cup anyway and took a seat on the log bench. Addy sat beside him with a sigh.
“There are things you don’t know, don’t understand.” She pushed her hair off her forehead. “Things even I don’t understand that affect all of us.”
There was only one thing he wanted to know. “Are you in danger, Addy?”
“You know I am.”
“From other Reapers.”
He didn’t make it a question, and she didn’t pretend it should be. “Yes.”
“Because you married Isaiah.”
There was the barest of hesitations before she responded, “Yes.”
The same kind of hesitation Miranda had given him.
“We promised no secrets between us, Addy.”
Her hand over his was warm and familiar, but not comforting. “I know. I just don’t know where to start.”
And as he sat there, the pieces of the puzzle started to scramble in his mind with the chaos of leaves strewn in the wind, but then they began to settle. He focused on one fact at a time, and from that, order took shape. Addy had grown up human; he knew that as well as he knew the back of his hand. She claimed now to be Reaper. Something Isaiah had done to her had brought that about, but it stood to reason that if Addy could be turned into a Reaper, then so could Miranda.
“Maybe I can help. Miranda wasn’t born Reaper, was she?”
; She shook her head.
“No one’s born Reaper.”
“So no Reaper was ever born.”
“As far as we know.”
“Seems like you don’t know much.”
She stood, dropping her hand to her hip and taking up that hip-shot stance that always meant she was out of patience.
“I’m betraying my husband by telling you this, Cole, so listen up, because if you’re going to stay here, there are some things you do need to know.”
He took a sip of coffee. “I’m listening.”
“Not all Reapers are cut from the same cloth, just like all men aren’t cut from the same cloth, but what they all have is a tremendous amount of power, a certain amount of madness, and no understanding of their capabilities.”
“Explain.”
“I want to.” Her hands wrung together before the right one reached into her pocket. Looking for the worry stone she thought she’d lost. The one he held.
“Just spit it out, Addy.”
She bit her lip. Took a breath. The stone in his pocket weighed heavier than it should. There was a time when he would have given it to her without hesitation, but now . . . Now everything was different. Addy was different. Just how much he wasn’t sure. Just another piece of the puzzle to be put together. He waited for one minute. Two. Finally she sighed and straightened her skirts.
“Not everybody can be converted to Reaper. If an attempt is made—”
“How is someone made?”
“Through bites.”
“Bites.” An image of Isaiah sinking his teeth into Addy’s fair skin turned Cole’s stomach. “You let that son of a bitch bite you?”
She shrugged and blushed, her gaze skirting his. “I didn’t mind at the time.”
At the time—his mind revolved around that and then recoiled as the meaning sunk in.
“Son of a bitch, he bit you then?”
She blushed deeper but didn’t deny it.
He took his hat off and ran his hand through his hair before shoving it back on his head.
“I’ll kill him.”
“No, you won’t.” She folded her arms across her chest and leveled him with that superior look that worked so well for her. “You had to suspect some of this.”
He had. But not that. It was going to take some getting used to. “Fine. I won’t kill him.” Yet. He motioned her on. “Keep talking.”
“Reaper passion is very violent, much more so than humans. All their drives—a Reaper is stronger physically and mentally, his passions are stronger. Human women don’t tend to do well with that.”
“Meaning?”
“They get hurt, or they die, or they get bit and become mad.”
“So you’re telling me Reapers have a hard time finding a sexual companion.”
She nodded. “It’s forbidden for Reapers to associate with human women.”
“So Isaiah told me. Under penalty of death. And yet he’s still alive.”
“Blade had a lot to do with that.”
“Who’s Blade?”
She sighed and sat back down. Her posture was proper as always. It was good to see she hadn’t changed completely. “No one’s really sure of that, either, except everyone knows he’s a very powerful Reaper.”
“Figures.”
She eyed him sternly. “He saved my life.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” He finished his cup of coffee in one long pull. Taking the cup from his hand, she refilled it.
The pot rattled as she set it back on the coals.
“There are some that believe Reapers and humans should never mix. And others . . .”
Taking the cup from his hand, she took a sip, fanning her mouth when the hot liquid scalded her.
“Careful, it’s hot.”
She glared at him. He smiled back and prompted, “And others?”
“They believe that if a woman can be converted and mated, then she can breed Reaper children.”
Hearing the word “breed” coming from his cousin’s mouth in regard to herself and other women just didn’t set well.
“So you’re telling me that you, Miranda, and the other women here are targets for a bunch of locos that want to have babies with you?”
“Just Miranda, Cindy, and I. The other women haven’t been converted.”
“Lovely. And Jenny?”
“Clark says she was born Reaper.”
“Says?”
“There’s some doubt to that but others are willing to believe it’s true so they are willing to bend the mating law.”
Which explained why Clark felt he was entitled to two women.
“Isaiah’s downright open-minded.”
Addy shook her head. “It’s not Isaiah but the council. Isaiah doesn’t believe the laws are well thought out.”
“No. I don’t suppose he would, seeing as obeying them means he would lose you.” He got a glare for the observation. “Just what is this council?”
“Every pack has a group of men who make decisions and interpret the laws handed down by the national council.”
“A Reaper court, in essence.”
She nodded. “Clark has influence with the council.”
“The same council Isaiah asked what to do about me?”
She nodded. “They’re leaving you to Isaiah’s discretion, by the way.”
“Counting on the hostility between us to settle things?”
Addy smiled slightly. “Probably.”
He could work with that. “So why the hard shove for Reaper children?”
“Some feel the children will be superior.”
“And what do they intend to do with these ‘superior children’?” He had an idea, but he wanted to hear it.
“I don’t know. I assume they think it will give them an advantage and that they’ll be able to gather some power. I mean it’s what men always want—power. It’s what the people that kidnapped me wanted. It’s what the men that converted Isaiah wanted—power. Everything’s all about power.”
“And what do you want, Addy?”
“I want peace and quiet and time to enjoy the man I love.”
“That ship sailed.”
She nodded. “I know.”
Leaning against him, she hugged him. Regret permeated her energy.
“You shouldn’t have come after me, Cole.”
“You knew I would.”
She sighed. “I’d hoped you wouldn’t.”
“I promised you that you’d never be taken again, Addy.”
“And I wasn’t taken this time. I walked away.”
“With him.”
He glanced down the street to where he heard Isaiah’s voice raised above the others.
“Yes”
“Even knowing what he is, what being with him could cost you?”
“Yes.”
“He’s really worth all that to you?”
She nodded. “And more. He lives for me. He’d die for me, and he makes me happy.”
And she’d do the same for Jones. Cole could read it in her face, feel it in her energy, An energy that used to be a lot weaker.
Reapers. He cocked an eyebrow at her.
“Did you become stronger when you converted, Addy?”
Had he really asked his cousin that, as if being converted was a normal thing?
She licked her lips and took a step back. “I became a lot of things, but yes, I am stronger.”
“You don’t need your worry stone anymore.”
She shook her head. “I’ve got Isaiah.”
She really did love him. Reese was right.
“You’re being foolish, you know. You’d be safer back at the ranch.”
She shook her head again. “No, I wouldn’t. That’s still in Reaper terri
tory, and the rumors are out. They would look for me there, and they’d kill everybody to get to me. You, Reese, and Ryan. And I’d be in a worse position than I am now.”
“Do you really believe that?”
“I really believe that you would die trying to protect me from something of which you have no comprehension.”
“How much comprehension do I need?”
“Close your eyes and think back to when you were very, very young and there were bumps in the night and monsters under your bed and gargoyles in the closet, multiply your fear by ten, and then you might just have an inkling of what you’d be up against.”
“Shit, Addy, and you’re one of them?”
“Not them. Not the crazies. But yeah, I’m Reaper, and I love my husband, and I’m going to make a life with him even if it’s hard.”
“How about if it’s impossible?”
“Nothing is impossible. You taught me that.”
He slapped his hand against his thigh, his fingers rubbing up and down the holster of his revolver.
“I might have steered you a bit wrong there.”
“No, you didn’t. I knew you were going to come for me, Cole. The whole time when I was captured by the Indians, I knew you were going to come for me, and I did just what you said. I stayed alive, and I believed. And when those other men kidnapped me, I did everything you said. I remembered their faces. I did what I had to do to stay alive, and I came home. Nobody’s ever given anyone a better gift than that faith you gave me.”
Threading her fingers through his, she brought his hand to her cheek. He wanted to yank it away before she could say what she was going to say. He’d been taking care of Addy for twenty years. To the point she was more daughter than cousin. He knew her like the back of his hand, which meant he knew all the wishing in the world couldn’t stop a determined Addy. But he tried anyway.
“Don’t say it.”
Tears moistened her eyes as her gaze met his. “It’s time for you to let me go, Cole. Time for you to stop worrying about me and start making your own life.”
“I’ve got a life.”
She patted his arm. “You’re thirty-five years old, Cole. You’re famous as a bounty hunter and rancher. You’ve created so much from so little, but you’ve got nothing for yourself. You have no woman, no wife. Your house looks like a barn without a single nicety.”
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