Warrior's Embrace

by Peggy Webb

  He waited while the minutes crawled by. At ten-thirty he skirted the edge of her yard, staying in the cover of the trees. When he was behind her house, he ducked low and zigzagged a course toward her back door, using the cover of large bushes that had only recently lost their summer blooms.

  Steel was no expert on breaking and entering, but he was not without skill. It didn’t take him long to get inside Elizabeth’s house. He stood in the kitchen, tense, waiting and watching. There was no sound.

  Drawing his knife from his belt, he began a stealthy exploration. It took him fifteen minutes to discover the truth: Elizabeth was not there. She had spotted him and had made her escape.

  He didn’t know which he feared most: Elizabeth’s peril or the Hawk’s wrath. There was only one thing he could do. He re-sheathed his knife, got his car, and went to inform his brother.

  Elizabeth hurried through the tunnel. After she had spotted the man in the woods, she hadn’t even bothered to put her hair up. She had dressed and called in sick, which happened to be true. She had been dragging lately, and this morning she had felt especially exhausted.

  There was no doubt in her mind who the man hiding in the woods was. He looked too much like Hawk for her to be mistaken.

  She was absolutely furious. How dare Hawk try to run her life. Especially now. She was so mad, she hadn’t even taken the time to get her gun. The danger was passed now. There had been no violence since that day at the barricade. The city had settled in to wait for the advent of the U.S. Secretary of Native American Affairs.

  Elizabeth would be glad when it was all over. Then everything would settle back to normal. Everything except her own life. It would never be the same.

  She stepped from the tunnel and brushed the dirt and twigs off her skirt. It was the same butternut suede she had worn to seduce Hawk. She figured some bit of perverseness had caused her to wear it. She wanted him to want her as badly as she wanted him—to want her and not be able to have her.

  “Elizabeth McCade,” she said aloud as she walked through the woods toward Hawk’s cabin, “you have sunk to the lowest of lows.”

  There was no need to hurry. What she was going to say to him was best done in a cold, calm rage. She didn’t want to be out of breath and practically fainting on her feet when she faced Hawk.

  “Well, well, well. Looka here.”

  Elizabeth whirled at the sound of the voice. The man appeared out of nowhere and stood in her path, blocking her way to Hawk’s cabin. He was short and barrel-chested, with bloodshot eyes and several-days growth of scraggly beard covering the lower half of his face. There was a strong smell of whiskey on his breath.

  She pressed her hands over her stomach to still the sudden attack of nausea. She had to remain calm.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “Who am I? Who am I?” He spat onto the ground near her feet. Elizabeth forced herself not to cringe.

  “Black Hawk’s slut wants to know who I am.” His laughter sent shivers through Elizabeth.

  The man came toward her, his eyes wild and evil looking. “I ain’t no Indian lover. That’s for sure.”

  Elizabeth cursed herself for being unarmed. Hawk had warned her of the danger. Repeatedly.

  And he had been right. She had made a fatal mistake in thinking that she was out of danger.

  She would have to keep her wits about her. That was all.

  “I have no quarrel with you.” Elizabeth held her hand out, palm up, in a gesture of supplication. “Every man is entitled to his own views, and if ours differ that doesn’t mean that we are enemies.”

  “Enemies? Enemies!” The man’s wild laughter echoed through the woods. “We ain’t enemies.” He began to move toward her then, talking as he came. Elizabeth forced herself to stand still. Perhaps if she didn’t show fear, he would turn and walk away. “I’m the avenger. Yessir, that’s what I am. I’m the avenger, and you’re the victim.”

  She almost fainted. Even if she were well, she would be no match for this man. She turned and ran.

  He lunged for her and caught her leg. She went down, screaming. Immediately she felt his dirty hand clamp over her mouth. Elizabeth struggled, kicking and scratching and biting. If she was going to be the victim, she would not be an easy one.

  “Be still, slut.” She sank her teeth into his hand and hung on. “I’m going to teach you a lesson or two.”

  The first blow landed in her stomach. Elizabeth fought and struggled until she was too weak to move. Gradually the forest faded and the sun got dim. She was vaguely conscious of her attacker standing over her, feet planted on either side of her body.

  “What a tidy little present for that troublemaker.”

  Elizabeth groaned as he picked her up. There didn’t seem to be a spot on her body that he had missed. He carried her for what seemed like agonizing hours. She had no idea where he was taking her. Finally, as the pain got worse, she no longer cared.

  Suddenly he dropped her. The hard ground jarred her body and rattled her teeth. Just before she blacked out, she heard her attacker yell, “She’s all yours, Black Hawk.”

  Eight

  Hawk was in his north pasture, supervising the loading of cattle for the market when he saw his brother coming. He shaded his eyes against the morning sun. Steel parked the car under an oak, bailed out, and started running.

  It took Hawk about two seconds to read the alarming body language. He bent over his stallion and urged it into a gallop. When he was even with his brother, he wheeled in tight and leaned down low, shouting.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s Elizabeth. I’ve lost her.”

  Hawk vaulted off his horse and caught Steel’s shoulders. “What do you mean, you’ve lost her?”

  “I think she spotted me this morning in the woods. When she didn’t leave for work, I got worried. She’s always so prompt.”

  Steel stopped talking, and Hawk realized he was gripping his brother’s shoulders so hard that his own knuckles were pale. He released his brother. “Go on.”

  “I broke into the house a little while ago to check on her. She’s not there. Her car is in the garage, but she’s gone.... I’m sorry, Hawk.”

  “It’s not your fault.” Hawk forced himself to remain calm. Nothing had happened in days. There was no reason to believe anything had happened now. “Elizabeth is very strong willed. She probably spotted you, then called one of her friends to pick her up somewhere. She’s probably at work right now, laughing about fooling both of us.”

  He wished he believed what he was saying, but he didn’t. From the moment Steel had appeared, Hawk had known something was terribly wrong. He felt it. It was almost as if he heard Elizabeth calling his name.

  He vaulted onto his stallion. “Call the bank, Steel. See if she’s there. Then meet me at my cabin.”

  “Where are you going, Hawk?”

  “I know a place....” The wind caught his words and carried them away as he galloped across his pasture and into the forest.

  Elizabeth would have come through the tunnel. That’s where he would start looking.

  He rode hard and fast, and within fifteen minutes he was at the entrance to the tunnel. There were signs of her everywhere—footprints, broken twigs, even a strand of her long black hair caught in the low-hanging branches of a tree.

  “Elizabeth.” He didn’t realize he had spoken her name aloud until he heard the mournful echo in the silent forest.

  He tracked quickly, following the signs. When he saw the other signs, he vaulted from his stallion and knelt on the ground. A man, a large one, had been in the forest this morning. He had been sloppy and careless. Cigarette butts littered the forest floor, and three empty whiskey bottles lay at the base of a pine tree.

  A glacial cold descended over Hawk, and a rigid control took hold of him. As he followed the parallel signs of Elizabeth and the man, Hawk was as forbidding and deadly as a stalking grizzly.

  He was almost within sight of his cabin when the signs me
rged. His heart froze, and his breathing threatened to shut down. The signs were so clear, he could almost see the struggle. He knelt and came up with blood on his hands.

  He lifted his face to the morning sky. “If this blood is Elizabeth’s, I swear that there will be no hiding place for the man who did this.”

  Hawk saw her the minute he entered the clearing. Elizabeth was piled on his doorstep, one leg angled under her body, and her black hair spread across the dirt.

  “Elizabeth!” He drew his knife and ran toward her in a zigzag pattern. If the man who had done this to her was still watching, Hawk wouldn’t be an easy target.

  When he reached her, he knelt down and cradled her in his arms. “Elizabeth... Elizabeth.” She was dirty and bruised and bloody. His hands searched her body as he called her name, over and over. He felt a pulse. It was weak, but it was there.

  “Hawk!” Steel called as he got out of his car and ran toward him.

  “I did this to her, Steel.”

  “No.”

  “Yes. It might as well have been me.” Hawk buried his face in her dark hair. “I couldn’t stay away from her.”

  “It’s not your fault.” Steel spotted the note lying underneath Elizabeth’s hip. “Here. Let’s get her into the car. We’ve got to get her to the hospital.” Under the guise of helping with Elizabeth, he palmed the note and stuffed it into his pocket. His brother didn’t need anything else to worry about.

  Steel drove like a maniac while Hawk held Elizabeth. His brother looked as if he had been carved from marble. God help the man who had done this to Elizabeth, Steel thought.

  o0o

  Hawk didn’t want to leave her side, even when the emergency room nurses insisted.

  Steel put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “There’s nothing we can do now except wait.”

  It seemed like hours before the doctor came back to them.

  “Which one of you is her husband?”

  “Her husband?” Steel asked.

  Hawk stepped forward. “Elizabeth belongs to me.” The question he most wanted to ask was stuck in his throat.

  “You’re her next of kin?” The doctor turned his keen gaze on Hawk.

  “She has no kin. She has only me.” Hawk took a step closer. His control was beginning to snap. He wanted to grab the doctor’s lapels and yell in his face, Is she alive? “I am responsible for her.”

  “She has a concussion, severe contusions, no broken bones, no internal bleeding.”

  “Was she...”

  “Sexually molested? No. Thank God.” The doctor played with his stethoscope as he faced Hawk. “She’s had a very severe beating, but I don’t think she will lose the baby.”

  “The baby?”

  “You didn’t know?”

  “No. I didn’t know.”

  “We’ll monitor her carefully, of course. But at this point I think both mother and baby will be fine.”

  “When can I see her?”

  “It will be hours before she wakes up, but you can go in now.”

  The doctor left, and Steel put his hand on Hawk’s shoulder.

  “Thank you for standing by me. Steel.”

  “That’s what brothers are for.”

  “You can go home now.”

  “What about you?”

  “I’ll be here until Elizabeth awakens, and then I’ll find the man who did this to her.”

  Steel squeezed his brother’s shoulder and left the hospital. But he didn’t go home, he went to see Sheriff Wayne Blodgett. If Steel had anything to do with it, the Hawk would never get his hands on the man who had attacked Elizabeth.

  After his brother had gone, Hawk went directly to Elizabeth’s room. She lay on the bed with tubes running out her arm. Her hair was spread upon the pillow, framing a face that looked unnaturally pale and still.

  Hawk sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand. Elizabeth never stirred.

  “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me about the baby?”

  He thought of all the ways they had loved, of all the times they had come together in order to produce the miracle that lay inside Elizabeth’s womb. Joy and pride and love welled up inside him, and his spirit left the drab hospital room and soared like the hawk for which he was named. And then a great sense of sadness descended on him. How Elizabeth must have suffered, knowing she carried his child and believing he would not want it. He thought of her courage and her strength.

  Had she known about the baby when he brought Steel to be her bodyguard? She must have.

  “You have no rights,” she had said. “You gave them up in the cellar.”

  And he had told her that he had given up his claim to her. He pressed her hand against his lips.

  “I never gave up my claim to you, Elizabeth. Never.” He leaned close and studied her. Sleeping, she looked so fragile, so vulnerable. It was hard to believe that the woman who lay on the hospital bed was the same one who had threatened him with a .44 Magnum.

  “I have always loved you, Elizabeth McCade... and I always will.”

  Hawk held her hand between his and pressed them to his forehead, then he bowed his head in prayer. He didn’t know how long he prayed, how long he stayed by her bedside, holding on to her hand. Time was no longer measured for him in minutes and hours but in the rise and fall of Elizabeth’s breathing.

  “Hawk?” Her voice was soft and weak as she tried to lift her head.

  “Shhh. Don’t move. I’m here.”

  She squeezed his hand. “Don’t leave me.”

  “I won’t.”

  Her eyes closed, and she was asleep once more. Hawk left her bedside and paced the room. Soon... soon Elizabeth would be fully awake, and he would find the man who had done this to her.

  o0o

  Sheriff Blodgett wasted no time after Steel came to him with the note and the story of the attack on Elizabeth McCade. “Black Hawk, nothing of yours is safe from me” the crude note had said.

  “It’s the same handwriting as the note we found the night his house burned,” Wayne told Steel as he stooped in the woods, gathering evidence. He bagged and labeled the whiskey bottles, the cigarette butts, and minuscule bits of thread and cloth. “I’ll lay you odds it’s the same man.”

  “What about the one already in jail?”

  “He’s not the one who burned Hawk’s house. And he’s certainly not the one who did this.” Wayne straightened up and rubbed the small of his back. “I’m getting too old and fat for this job. “

  Steel laughed. “No, you’re not. You’re still the best criminal investigator in this country.” He became serious. “Can you find this man before the Hawk does?”

  “Not if Blackie gets a head start on me... but I’ll try.”

  “I intend to see that he doesn’t.”

  “Sounds like you are two peas in a pod.”

  “I’ve never thought so before, but maybe we are.” Steel grinned. “I wouldn’t mind that. The Hawk has always been a hero of mine.”

  “Mine too. But don’t tell him I said that.”

  o0o

  Elizabeth didn’t awaken again until morning. Hawk was sitting beside her bed, holding her hand, when she stirred.

  “Hawk?” Her voice was stronger.

  “I’m here, Elizabeth.”

  She stared at him for a long time without speaking. He couldn’t read her face, but he saw the pain in her dark eyes.

  “Why are you here?” She pulled her hand out of his, and her voice was cool and distant.

  “You asked me to stay.”

  “Now I’m asking you to go.”

  “Elizabeth

  “Please... just go. I don’t want to see you.”

  Hawk was torn between obeying her and arguing with her. In the end he decided it was best to obey, at least for the time being. Elizabeth was in no condition to be upset.

  “I’ll go, Elizabeth, but I’ll be back.”

  He walked quietly out of the room, then stood outside her door, leaning on the door f
rame. He looked up when Steel approached.

  “How is she?”

  “Much better.”

  “You look beat. Why don’t you go home and get some rest?”

  “I don’t have time to rest.”

  Steel put a hand on his brother’s arm. “Don’t do it, Hawk.”

  “Don’t try to talk me out of it.”

  “Let the law handle this.”

  “I will avenge Elizabeth.”

  “Hasn’t there been enough violence already, Hawk? Won’t you be sinking to their level if you go after this man in your present frame of mind?”

  “There are some things a man must do.” He put his hands on Steel’s shoulders. “Don’t worry, little brother. Everything will be fine.”

  “Let me go with you.”

  “No. I need you to stay here and watch over Elizabeth. Don’t let anyone in this room who doesn’t belong here.”

  “I guess you told her I’d be doing this.”

  “No. And don’t let her see you. Elizabeth is a proud and stubborn woman.”

  “Sounds as if you’ve met your match.” Steel grinned.

  “Just give me your keys, Steel. I’m taking your car back to the ranch.”

  Steel knew he had lost. He handed the keys to his brother. There was no stopping the Hawk now.

  He found a chair and brought it back to Elizabeth’s door, then he sat down and began his vigil.

  o0o

  Hawk found his quarry by nightfall. The trail hadn’t been hard to follow. The man had been careless and foolhardy—and now he would pay.

  Hawk sat atop his stallion in the long shadows of the hills and watched the man making a campfire. From the way he moved, Hawk decided he was drunk.

  Rage blinded Hawk for a second, and he felt himself getting out of control. Never had he been out of control when he fought a battle. He made himself sit quietly until he could gain his composure. When he faced this enemy, he wanted to be as cold and deadly as the razor edge of a sword.

  He waited until the man was squatting beside his fire, far away from his Winchester, then he rode boldly into the circle of firelight.