Shelby rolled, her eyes. “Forget it, okay?” She shrugged her shoulders to ease the strain on them. “I should have realized you wouldn’t have cable TV this high up.”
“We’re goin’!” Chris shouted.
Andy looked over his shoulder. “Maybe we should let her have a drink of water.”
“All she needs is a good beatin’ to show her who’s boss. We’re goin’ now!”
“Terrific. Not only refugees from a bad movie, but from the Cro-Magnon period as well,” she muttered.
She felt uneasy when Chris advanced on her. “You think I don’t know you’re insultin’ us with some of those big words you’re usin’?” he told her in a low voice that fairly rumbled with fury. His sour breath made her wrinkle her nose in distaste. “You think we’re all dumb hicks, doncha? Let me tell ya, we’re not. We may not know all the words you use or have fancy houses, but we know things up here that could get a body killed if they’re not careful.”
Shelby wanted nothing more than to plop down on the ground and cower under his fury. She felt so afraid inside that she was positive her insides had turned to jelly, but she couldn’t allow him to see how frightened she was and fought back the only way she knew how—with words. “You know, a good dose of dental hygiene would do wonders for you,” she said glibly. “Unless, of course, you prefer to kill people with your breath.”
This time he didn’t strike her across the face, but used one leg to sweep hers out from under her. She landed on her bruised spine again.
“Chris!” Andy cried.
Chris pushed his face close to Shelby’s. “You better learn some manners real fast, little girl,” he warned her. “Cuz Uncle Eric don’t have the patience I do and he’s a lot meaner than I am.” He suddenly began staring over her head.
Shelby looked uneasy. “What?” She suddenly wished she hadn’t asked that question.
“That hair’s too bright and could be seen a long ways off. If a ’copter flies overhead, they’ll find her just cuz of that hair.” He pulled his billed cap off his head and slapped it on hers. “This should hide it.”
Shelby cringed at the thought of Chris’s dirty cap covering her head. “I hope you don’t have lice,” she muttered.
She stood her ground when he lifted his hand. She was positive that if he hit her, he’d probably break a bone. She was prepared not to cry out. She wouldn’t allow him the satisfaction. And when she got a chance she was going to make sure he suffered great pain for what he was doing to her. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do yet, but she knew it would be horrible.
Only Andy tugging on his brother’s arm saved Shelby’s face from damage. She exhaled a silent sigh of relief when the younger man was able to pull Chris away.
“We gotta move,” Andy told him. “Uncle Eric’s waitin’ for us.” He shot a quick glance at Shelby. “We ain’t got all that far to go now. And we don’t want to make him mad.”
Chris shot Shelby a glare that promised punishment big-time if she dared open her mouth again. At that moment, she fervently vowed not to say another word.
There has to be someone coming after me, she thought as she trudged upward, every step causing more pain. Dad would have hired someone to find me. I know he would.
The thought of her father was the only thing keeping her going. Shelby silently prayed Warren wasn’t worrying too much about her. She prayed he was remembering to take his blood-pressure medication. The last thing he needed was to get sick because he was worrying about her.
Then Jed came to mind. She knew he had to be back by now. He wouldn’t leave the older man’s side.
He would assure him Shelby would be all right.
Jed found the signs fairly easy to read. He could see that the higher they climbed, the less the men bothered to hide their tracks. Were they that positive they weren’t being followed? Or did they think no one would bother going any farther? After meeting the town’s sorry excuse for a sheriff, Jed could well understand their arrogance. He squatted down, examining the faint drag marks in the dry earth. He was grateful there hadn’t been any rain recently to ruin the trail for him. Judging from the signs, he hazarded a guess that Shelby was tied and one of the men was pulling on a rope, sometimes dragging her. After a while he noticed the marks had changed, as if her stride had altered. Her steps must be causing her pain now. He exhaled a sharp breath.
“Bastards don’t have any idea what’s coming after them,” he muttered. “Hang on, Shelby.” By sheer force of will, he kept a mental picture of her in his mind. He was feeling the effects of long hours in the air, little sleep, even less food. He doubted he’d have a chance to sleep until he had Shelby in his arms again. He prayed that, with luck, it wouldn’t take long.
Ordinarily, Jed would have relished a climb like this. He always enjoyed the outdoors and physical exercise, and this would have been a wonderful challenge for a weekend, when he could relax enough to enjoy the crisp air, the rock-littered trail and the vibrant nature all around him. Now his challenge was finding the men climbing ahead of him.
Since there weren’t any signs of a third man, Jed guessed they’d be meeting up with him soon. Jed only hoped he could snatch Shelby back before then. The odds didn’t bother him, but he knew the moment he snatched Shelby back those two men would be hot on their heels, so he and Shelby would have to move as fast as possible.
Naturally, that would depend on what condition he found Shelby in. If he didn’t like what he saw, they’d ‘be lucky if they weren’t left scattered in pieces across the mountain.
Jed prided himself on his unlimited patience. He believed in keeping his emotions in check. He hadn’t always done so. His dad hadn’t bothered to stick around to see him born, and his mother hadn’t wanted him. He’d grown up in a series of foster homes because his grandparents decided they couldn’t deal with an angry kid who vented his rage on whatever dared cross his path.
If it hadn’t been for the time he was caught boosting a car, ironically owned by a DEA agent, Jed probably would have secured his higher education from the state’s prison system. But the agent saw what was really inside the angry teen and kicked his butt when it was needed. If it hadn’t been for him, Jed might have been dead before he turned twenty-one.
Instead of ending up on the wrong side of the law, he wore fine clothes, was invited into socially correct households and traveled to the world’s hot spots whenever his special skills were needed.
The man who always appeared so calm to the outside world was highly proficient in the silent kill, whether it be via knife or his hands. He knew enough about explosives to blow up whatever needed destroying and he could slip in and out of countries like a ghost.
Now, Jed found his temper rising rapidly, a raw and bitter feeling. He had found it difficult to contain his anger as he dealt with the local law agency and had chafed at the delays. He was sure Sheriff Rainey and his colleagues questioned why Warren Carlisle had sent Jed out here. After all, he wasn’t familiar with the country and didn’t give the appearance of a man who lived in the wild. Yet Warren had known that if anyone could find his daughter, it would be Jed Hawkins.
Jed stopped at a bush that had had several branches broken off it fairly recently. He was catching up to them.
He looked up when he heard an eagle’s shriek overhead. He swore under his breath when he heard a rifle shot ring out.
“Damn you,” he muttered. His features darkened with a fury he didn’t bother to tamp down even when he saw that the marksman had missed and the eagle had flown off to safety. Jed would nurture his anger and use it when the time was right.
“What are you doing?” Shelby shrieked at Chris, who had his rifle braced against his shoulder. Since his first shot at the eagle had missed, he was going to try again. She pushed against him, forcing him off-balance.
He spun around, about to strike at her with the stock of his rifle when Andy grasped his arm.
“What the hell you doin’?” the younger man shouted.
> “I’m sick and tired of her mouth!” Chris shouted back. “And don’t start in yammerin’ about Uncle Eric again, you hear? I only plan to take some skin off her. Then she won’t be so high and mighty. And she’ll still be good for somethin’.”
“Fine, boy, why don’t you tell me why Andy’s so upset about what I might learn?”
At the sound of a man’s raspy voice, the threesome turned around and looked upward.
The moment Shelby saw the man standing on the boulder above them, her hopes of either escape or rescue sank like a stone.
Legs widespread, shoulders back, he was dressed in camouflage fatigues and hiking boots, with a heavy-duty rifle slung over his shoulder. It wasn’t just his appearance that destroyed her peace of mind, it was the feral expression on his narrow face as he looked down on her. His body was whipcord lean, with skin the dark bronze of someone who lived outdoors. A nasty-looking scar angled down his right cheek. She wasn’t sure, but she judged him to be in his midforties. Sandy brown hair was cut so short she imagined she could see his scalp. His sleeves were rolled up to his biceps, revealing corded muscle and a coiled serpent tattooed with the name and number of a marine division under its deadly looking fangs. She thought “Uncle Eric” might be a little cleaner than his nephews, but not all that much.
She had no doubt she was looking at a man who had no scruples, didn’t own anything close to a conscience. She forced herself not to shiver in fright or give any kind of reaction to his stare because she sensed that was what he wanted from her—he wanted to feed off her fear. His washed-out, hazel eyes held no expression whatsoever. The man she looked at was the embodiment of her worst fear: a man with no soul.
He was the kind of creature who would think. nothing of eating his young.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see Chris’s expression waver between pure fear and an eagerness to please as he faced his uncle.
“Look what we found for ya, Uncle Eric.” He gave Shelby such a hard push between her shoulder blades that she stumbled and fell forward.
She mentally added a couple of skinned knees to her list of aches and pains. A tiny voice inside her head warned her not to say anything that would get her in any more trouble. But she wasn’t about to start listening to that voice.
“Honestly, Uncle Eric, can’t you teach your boys any manners?” she drawled, sitting back on her heels, then rising to her feet in one graceful motion. “It’s bad enough they dragged me out of a comfortable bed in the middle of the night. Then they couldn’t even be bothered to find me shoes that fit.” She lifted one leg. Faint streaks of blood showed on top of her foot, which was jammed in a loafer that was obviously too small. “I must say this trip hasn’t been one of my most memorable.”
Eric’s face darkened with fury as he turned on his nephews. “What the hell is she talking about?”
Chris looked uneasy. “We knew Ellen wasn’t doin’ too well and that you’d need someone new to replace her real soon,” he explained. “This pretty lady and a friend were in the cabin we broke into. We would have brought them both, but the friend fought back, so I hit her and she fell against a piece of furniture. Don’t worry, I made sure she wouldn’t tell anybody about us,” he hastily assured the older man.
Shelby’s heart dropped all the way to her ankles. His statement had to mean Meredith was dead. Still, after what Shelby had been hearing, her friend might be better off than she was. She dreaded to think what good ol’ Uncle Eric might need her for. Something told her it wouldn’t be purely for her cooking and cleaning skills. The idea of his touching her sent disgust roiling through her veins.
Eric climbed down the rocks with the agility of a mountain goat. He jumped the final distance and landed squarely on his feet. He walked over to Chris and, before any of them could blink, backhanded the younger man. Chris staggered from the blow. He wiped his nose with his hand, which came away bloody.
“You took somebody who lived down there?” Eric’s quiet voice whipped across the younger man like a laser. “You know we never bother with anyone who lives down there. We don’t want any more trouble than we already have.”
“No one’s gonna tell the cops,” the younger man argued back. “No one ever has before.”
“That’s because we always picked up women who didn’t matter. Hitchhikers with no family are one thing—the cops never care about what happens to them as long as no one asks about them. A woman like her is something else,” Eric stated coldly. “Look at her, you idiots. That’s not discount-store clothing she’s wearing.” He walked over to Shelby and roughly pulled off Chris’s cap. “Someone’s going to be coming up here hunting for her! And if I had a woman who looked like this I’d do whatever I had to to get her back. You idiot!”
“My father will want me back!” Shelby hastily interjected, then wished she hadn’t when Eric turned his attention to her. “He has money. He’ll pay for my safe return. I know he will.”
Eric reached out and touched her hair with his fingertips. “Color this rich has to be real,” he murmured, rubbing it between his fingers. He glanced down, studying the lightly tanned skin bared by the low-cut pajama top. His gaze dropped farther to her legs. His fingertips slid down her throat and lingered on her shoulder. “Soft. Real soft. Like silk.” He picked up one of her hands and turned it over, so he could study her palm. “Not the skin of a woman who has to work for a living.”
Shelby found it difficult to swallow the lump lodged in her throat. She was feeling too uncomfortable with the heat that was quickly rising in his gaze. She suddenly knew what it felt like to be a fawn caught by a cougar.
“My father would pay to have me returned unharmed,” she said, stressing the last word.
“Now how do you know you might not rather stay around here with us? We’re likable people.” Eric Porter lifted a strand of her hair and admired the color.
With him standing so close to her she realized he didn’t smell any better than his nephews. She tried not to gag at his body odor and forced herself not to step back from him.
Doesn’t anyone understand the use of soap and water around here?
“Look, I told your little boys already.” She forced herself to keep her voice low and even. She sensed showing fear or revulsion would only amuse these men. “I’m not meant for outdoor life. My idea of roughing it is a hotel that doesn’t have room service.”
Eric moved closer. “You’ll get used to it. We’ll stay here tonight.” He looked up at the sky. “It’d be dark by the time we got to the cabin and I wouldn’t want this pretty lady to take a wrong step and fall off the cliff while we’re climbing up there.” His grin held a malice that was pure evil. “I’d sure hate to lose her so soon.”
Shelby swallowed the nausea rising in her throat at the look in his eyes.
In the movies, my hero would be striding in right this moment to rescue me, she thought wildly. Three-against-one odds aren’t all that bad.
“Sh…” Jed took a deep breath as he stared at the group standing in the clearing. “I didn’t think he’d show up so soon,” he muttered under his breath. He could deal with the odds, but he would have preferred two against one.
He looked around and realized the shadows were growing longer; the sun was going down. He could only hope that they’d decide to camp there for the night. He had an idea their living quarters weren’t all that close by and that the third man had just happened upon them by accident. If they did camp there, it would give Jed a chance to spirit Shelby away sometime during the night. He had found a couple of hiding places along the way and prayed the three men weren’t familiar with them. But of course, they knew the area better than he did.
He kept his attention on Shelby. He had to admire her show of bravery with the three men surrounding her like wolves toying with their prey. He also wanted to throttle her for getting in this situation in the first place. This wouldn’t have happened if only she had waited for him to come back!
Hidden by the trees and bushes, he f
easted his eyes on Shelby. He felt his temper heat up when he noticed the bruise marring one cheek and the cuts and scrapes on her legs and arms. Perhaps the abrasions were due to the mountain climb, but the bruise was obviously caused by a human hand. Right now, Jed wanted to cut off the hand that had struck her. He easily guessed which man deserved punishment. The one called Chris constantly looked at Shelby as if she was a rich dessert he wanted to inhale. Jed vowed Chris wouldn’t come through this unscathed if he had anything to do with it.
His biggest surprise was seeing she’d cut her hair. Why had she done that? He remembered how the flame-colored strands wrapped around him like silken, living fingers when they made love. Now her hair barely touched her neck.
For the moment, Jed was powerless, and he hated that feeling. He knew the only way he could get Shelby out of there safely was to have surprise on his side. For that he would have to wait until full dark. Making no noise, he settled back in his hiding place and watched the three men prepare their camp. One of them tied Shelby to a tree. With any luck, they’d leave her there all night. That would make Jed’s job easier. Stealing into a camp with three men had to be a hell of a lot simpler than stealing into a foreign prison to sneak out one of the prisoners. This time, Jed only had to sneak out a feisty redhead and get her home where she belonged. And once they were back in civilization he was going to make damn sure she didn’t venture outside the city limits without him!
Shelby rubbed her tongue across her teeth. There was nothing she hated more than to be without toothpaste and soap. She could already tell they weren’t something the three men bothered with. It was bad enough that Eric had made dinner. He’d told her he didn’t want her to feel too weak from hunger, so he had offered her a healthy portion of the meat. She didn’t dare ask what kind it was. The idea of eating Thumper or Bambi was too much for her. She decided this was one time when ignorance was most definitely bliss.
She wasn’t even going to consider that Eric was acting kinder than Chris. While the two brothers ate, their uncle untied her hands long enough for her to eat. He offered her choice bits of meat and gave her a tin cup to drink water from. She doubted the cup had ever been washed and forced herself not to think about that, either. At first she feared Eric’s kindness meant he expected repayment at bedtime. Luckily, he retied her after the meal and seemed content to keep her tied to the tree for the night, even if he did enjoy talking about what would happen once they got up to the family cabin. She vowed they’d have to kill her first.
No More Mister Nice Guy Page 6
