He felt her stiffen beside him. “There’s that anger directed at me again. Damnit, Hunter, you’re the one being selfish. Don’t let your ancient hate for me cost Tara her life. That attitude isn’t coming from the person I thought I knew years ago. Have you changed so much?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He ground out the words. “I don’t hate you. Far from it. But what you’re asking would be foolish. I’m a lawman now. I have to consider every move responsibly.
“I’ve thought of what’s best for the baby,” he added. “But I have to do what’s best for everyone. They won’t hurt her. She’s worth something special to them. Do as I say—”
His thought was interrupted by shouts coming from far below them. Apparently the kidnappers had discovered Bailey was missing, and were not particularly amused.
“The goony brothers are awake,” he told her, letting the familiar grin color his tone. “I’m going to climb down and eavesdrop to see if they intend to search for you. Stay put and rest a few more minutes.”
“But…”
“It has to be my way. Rest up. It’s a long way back.”
Hunter slipped off into the darkness. He’d need all that time to process the changes in Bailey.
Because every damn second he was with her seemed to be throwing him further and further out of balance.
4
By the time Hunter crept close enough to catch the words of the two kidnappers, they were packing up to leave. He crouched beside a boulder and used the infrared glasses to study them as they argued with each other.
“Damned bitch!” the least crazy of the two growled at the other. “I hope she dies a slow miserable death. What kind of mother would leave her own kid?”
“You’re only pissed ’cause you won’t get a piece of that candy. Shut up and get the pack. Forget her. We’re outta here.”
“In the dark?”
Whining didn’t seem to be getting the man too far. His insane buddy totally ignored him and reached for the baby carrier. But as he jerked it up off the ground, the surprised child awoke and shrieked in terror.
“Quiet!” the guy screamed at the baby. Roughly shaking the carrier, he put his hand over the baby’s mouth to muffle her cries.
Hunter was on his feet in an instant. He picked up the carbine and tried to get a bead on the man’s head. One decent shot, that’s all he needed.
But without the binoculars, he couldn’t see well enough in the dark to pull it off. He might kill the child. Frustrated as hell, Hunter put down the rifle and counted to ten. But the goon’s time on earth was running short. Daylight was only an hour or two away, and when Hunter caught up to him, the creep’s existence in this world would be ended.
“Don’t screw up the deal,” the first man shouted at the insane one. “Give the kid another swig of those meds. Don’t kill her.”
Cussing under his breath, the man with the baby carrier reached for the pack and withdrew a bottle. He shoved it into the baby’s mouth and let her take some of the liquid. In seconds, the child settled down. Then the man handed the bottle over to his comrade, jammed the baby’s carrier onto his back and stalked out of the clearing.
“Wait up, damn it. I can’t see you. It’s dark as hell.” The other man wasted little time following his buddy.
Hunter took a couple deep breaths. His plans had now changed. There was no way he would leave the child with those two creeps.
So, Miss Selfish Bailey Howard, get ready. You are about to have it your way.
Bailey came awake with a jolt. “Hunter?” He was leaning over her, and she could see his face clearly in the starlight. “You’re back. Please, listen. Let me beg you one more time for—”
“Skip it,” he told her with one of his too charming grins. “We’re going after them at daybreak.”
She sat straight up with her back against the wall. “What made you change your mind?”
Hunter knelt close and leaned on his heels. “Let’s say I’ve decided to see how strong you really are. But you’d better not hold me back. And I don’t want to hear a word of complaint about how much it hurts.”
Nodding her head with a sharp promise, she agreed. “I swear. I won’t say a word. Can we go now?”
“We need the light to follow their tracks. And we can use the next hour to get your feet ready to travel.”
“My…?”
He leaned over and pulled off her shoes. “Your feet.”
“Ouch.” She hadn’t realized how much it would hurt when the shoes were removed. How would she ever manage to put them back on?
She reached out to rub her toes but the skin hurt too much to touch. “Give me a second.”
“You have to be able to walk to keep up with me. This was your idea. But if you can’t…”
“My feet will be fine. I’m tougher than I look.”
“Sure you are. Right.”
“Look, bring it on. I am woman. I can walk ten miles in the city in stilettos. A few minor blisters aren’t going to slow me down.”
“Can you stand on them at all?”
“Maybe.”
“Try it now.” He stood, crossed his arms and waited.
Holding on to the solid rock behind her, Bailey put her stocking-clad feet under her and inched her way to a standing position. She grimaced at the shooting pains, but kept her mouth firmly closed.
“Okay, good enough,” he said. “I’m going to carry you down to the water hole. I saw a couple of things there that will help.” He swung her up in his arms and headed off, moving slowly down the jagged cliffs.
For a second she was stunned speechless. The flashing burn of heat as his body came in contact with hers made all the hairs on her skin stand up and crackle.
“Put me on my own feet,” she said through gritted teeth. “I can go by myself. I said I wouldn’t hold you back.”
“Quiet,” he whispered roughly. “The goons aren’t too far away yet. Voices carry out here. Stay still. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
This time, the flash of heat was pure, unadulterated anger. Damn him, anyway. Who did he think he was?
The answer came, loud and clear. The man who is saving your life and helping to rescue Tara, you idiot.
Yes, well…
Bailey clamped her mouth and her eyes shut. Everything was exactly the way she remembered it from those distant summers. Hunter did whatever he wanted and said very little in the meantime. In the past, he’d always gotten his way with a smile and fast moves, and apparently he still did.
It was more frustrating than ever. She wasn’t about to take whatever he cared to dish out now that she was an adult and had been through the hell of rehab.
The image made her open her eyes with a jolt of realization. She quickly amended the thought. Okay, so the rehab center had been sort of spalike, really. Even though at the time it had seemed so difficult. But she’d simply lain back and gotten through it.
Now she knew about hell only too well. The last couple of days, she truly had been there in horrible, living color. And lying back had not been possible.
Still, she had found something important in this disaster. Baby Tara, who was left in that hell. Bailey was determined to do whatever it took to get her out of there.
Including letting Hunter Long have his way. Temporarily. But when this was over and they were all safe, he would be sorry he’d ever treated her like this. She would find a way to make him see she deserved better.
“Jeez, that’s cold,” she gasped.
“Shush,” he admonished as he scooped another handful of water over her feet. “This will help loosen the nylons. They have to come off so I can treat your blisters.”
Bailey began to shake. “I…I can take them off.” She stuttered through the shivers. “Or we can cut them away. They’re snagged to bits anyhow.”
She shook so badly that Hunter felt sure she would never be able to pull the hose off her own feet. Her weakened condition was worrisome.
; Maybe it had been a mistake to even suggest taking her along. But there was nothing to do now except treat the wounds the best he could so they could be on their way.
“Lean back,” he grumbled. “The material’s attached to the dried blood on your skin. Plus, the nylon itself is too useful to waste. I’ll get them off you.”
Bailey crossed her arms over her waist and leaned against a flat rock. But her lips were a tight, straight line of frozen disapproval.
Too bad for her. He couldn’t stop the smile from spreading over his face, which only succeeded in making her narrow her eyes at him.
Without thinking things all the way through, Hunter reached both hands up under what was left of her skirt. His fingers came in contact with the inside of her thigh, directly above her right knee. He stopped, frozen himself at the sudden reality of what he was touching.
Ah, hell.
This was going to take more willpower than he figured he had. Sighing deeply, he clenched his teeth and steeled his resolve. He was a good enough man to get through this without accosting her.
He wasn’t anything like his dad.
A horrid image from long-ago, of his father abusing his mother, cooled Hunter’s lustful thoughts in a New York minute. He was definitely a better man than that.
As gently as he dared, he let his fingers crawl up the silken skin of Bailey’s thigh. Until his fingertips touched a wide band of elastic near her hip.
Despite the cool temperatures, sweat was rolling down his temples. But he managed to squeeze his big fingers under the elastic and begin lowering the nylon.
Wishing she were a perfect stranger, and that he had never before felt—or tasted—the tender skin beneath his knuckles, Hunter pulled the stocking past her knee and down to her ankle. As he reached the worst of the blisters on her heel, the hose came to a halt.
The flimsy material had glued itself to the skin with Bailey’s dried blood. If he kept going he would reopen her wounds. Open, bleeding sores were dangerous in the remote desert.
This was going to take more than simple willpower—for both of them. He stopped tugging and reached for the medicine bag at his waist.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Did you know I became a full-fledged hataalii since we last saw each other?” he asked, deflecting her question as he reached for his pack and the white headband he wore for ceremonies.
“No. I knew you had taken some classes to become a medicine man with one of your uncles, back in high school after your dad died, but I didn’t realize you had finished the course.”
“I’m still learning,” he said as he fitted the sash around his forehead. “It’s a lifelong vocation. But I have mastered a couple of things, and I know something about traditional cures. Your mind and body are not in harmony. That way leads to sickness. I will temporarily—”
“Not in harmony? I was kidnapped and abused. Whatever would make you think my harmony might be screwed up?” She was being sarcastic, but he knew she was frightened and hurt.
“Bailey,” he murmured as gently as possible. “For years you have been ignoring your grandmother’s Navajo teachings. Somewhere deep inside, you feel guilty about it. Your out-of-balance condition contributed to your problems with addiction. You’ve angered the yei and things will continue to go wrong until you eventually make that right.
“I’m afraid we don’t have time for offerings or for full ceremonial sings,” he continued when she only stared at him. “Once both you and the baby are safe, one of the other medicine men can work with you on regaining harmony. In the meantime, I’m going to do a pollen blessing over you and then apply a healing medicine to your wounds. Okay?”
“Uh, whatever. I guess.”
Bailey’s mind was swirling. Hunter suddenly seemed so different from the charming rogue she remembered from her childhood.
“Good.” He took a piece of stone from his pouch. “Hold this sliver of turquoise in your hand and concentrate on its warmth.”
“Sure.”
Hunter closed his eyes and began to chant. It was a song she remembered, one that praised the four sacred mountains. As his voice grew stronger, the words and melody became so vibrant that the air fairly shimmered around her.
Spellbound, she was mesmerized by every word. Each syllable seemed to lighten her spirit. How could this man, who seemed so ethereal, be the same earthy, lusty Hunter Long she thought she’d known so well?
At last the song was over and he reached inside his bag for a handful of what looked like pollen. He touched the yellow granules to the tip of his tongue, then to the top of his head. Finally, he threw the rest of the pollen in the air above them both.
As pollen slowly rained down all over her, she felt different. Almost light-headed and giddy. Bailey blinked back tears. Her body aches had nearly disappeared.
“What just happened? Magic? Who have you become, Hunter?”
He opened his eyes and grinned that same old teenage-boy smile. “In order to heal the body, traditional Navajo healers believe it’s important to heal the spirit first.”
Coming up on his toes to crouch next to her, Hunter took her hand. “I have a salve I will use on your feet now, and then I want to work on your shoes. Still with me, beauty?”
She nodded, too confused to speak.
“Good.” He reached into his backpack and withdrew a small, black plastic vial. “Mostly this balm consists of bracken fern and yarrow. But my cousin Ben’s wife made it up for me and she added a touch of antibiotic, to be on the safe side.”
Rubbing the salve over her feet, Hunter quietly hummed as he worked. Bailey had no idea who his cousin or his cousin’s wife might be, but at this point she had placed her fate into all of their hands.
And Hunter’s hands were certainly tender as he soothed and rubbed her toes and ankles. Before she knew it, the nylons were off and her feet felt better than ever before. It was incredible.
“I’m going to pop the heels off your shoes,” he told her. He picked the left one up and gave it a twist. “If I’m lucky…”
The narrow heel snapped off neatly in his hand. “How about that? Good workmanship. I’ll be able to fit a piece of tanned leather to the bottom with no trouble. That should help you get traction on the rocks.”
Bailey watched in amazement as he pulled a thin piece of hide from his pack and set to work. The shoes would look more like moccasins by the time he was finished. But she still worried about having to put her feet back inside the tight leather.
“One more thing,” Hunter said as he inspected his workmanship. “I spotted a small bush with powerful leaves over by those rocks. Hold on a second.”
Fascinated, she watched him break off a handful and crush them in his palm. “These leaves are called ‘pie-plant medicine’ by the children.”
He sifted them from his palm into her shoes. “Crushed, they’re soothing to the skin. Like baby powder. See how it feels now.”
“O-kay. If you say so.” She slipped her foot into the shoe he held out, thinking of Cinderella. “It feels…great. Perfect. That’s amazing.”
“Good.” He did the same to the other, then reached out a hand to help her stand. “Up you go, then. It’s daybreak. Time to be on our way.”
She stood up, glanced around and realized gray shadows had begun to replace the darkness. Hunter bent to fill his canteen in the spring while she stretched out the kinks in her legs.
They were in an arid valley, surrounded by cottonwoods, with the sandstone cliffs beyond them. It would be beautiful if her memories of the creepy kidnappers weren’t so strong.
But she didn’t have the time or energy to linger and appreciate the view. Not when Tara needed them.
And not while her feelings about Hunter had suddenly become so conflicted. Lord, what would her shrink back at rehab have to say about all this?
A couple of hours later, Bailey was more worried about the sunburned condition of her nose than about what her shrink would say. But her feet didn’t hurt,
not a bit.
She guessed her body must be running on adrenaline, because she wasn’t tired, either. Hunter was making it easy for her. He moved like his name implied, a hunter stalking his prey in ever tightening circles. But he always made sure Bailey stayed within sight.
And what a sight that was. Whew. His chest had filled out since their college days. He had stormy eyes. And, oh, man. Those long, dark eyelashes and that chestnut hair, tied back from his face with a leather thong, were breathtaking. It wasn’t fair. How dare he look even better at thirty than he had at twenty-two?
For the sixth time since they’d begun, Hunter raised his hand and silently brought them to a stop. This time their resting place was under a scrawny tree. But it provided a little shade and the cool shadows felt good on her face.
“Drink another few sips of water while I scout ahead for a minute.” Hunter put the canteen to his lips for a second and then handed it over. “Remember, not too much all at once. We have to make this last.”
She did as he said and then sat down on a flat piece of limestone to wait. When he came back, Bailey was gingerly peeling the first layer of skin off her nose.
“Stop picking at that. You’ll only make it worse. You need some salve,” he said as he flung his pack to the ground. “Maybe we should have an MRE now, too. We’re going to be climbing in a few minutes and we won’t be able to stop for a while.”
“Are they very far ahead? They can’t climb very fast with the baby, can they?”
“They’re not far.” He shook his head and dabbed salve on her nose. “You need a hat.”
“I didn’t think Navajos were supposed to have the kind of skin that would burn,” she complained.
“You’re only half Navajo. But once we get that first layer of bilagaana off you, the good Navajo skin underneath will protect you.”
She looked up at him. His face was a mask, sober and focused, but his eyes…those startling gray eyes were full of laughter.
“That’s a joke, right?”
“Perhaps.” He handed her an MRE. “The kidnappers are following an old sheep trail. It leads along the base of the Rabbit Ears Mesa. If we go up and over the notch, we can catch them before they reach the northern edge.”
Books by Linda Conrad Page 60
