by Connie Mason
Dawn’s chin lifted fractionally. “It’s better than running around in the raw.”
Cole’s eyes sparkled mischievously. “In your opinion, maybe.”
Dawn fumed in silent rage. “If you were a gentleman you’d find me a belt to hold up my trousers.”
There was laughter in his voice. “Pardon me for forgetting I’m a gentleman.” Casting around for a solution, Cole spied a rope hanging from a hook. He retrieved it handily and presented it to Dawn with a flourish.
Dawn seized the rope, threaded it through the belt loops and pulled the ends into a tight knot. “Thank you.”
“Now that you’re decent, tell me about Duke Riley. Has he always ridden with Cobb? Have you and he … never mind, it’s none of my business. Just tell me what you know about the man.”
Dawn shrugged and started clearing off the table. “Duke is one of Billy’s gang. Other than that I don’t know a thing about him. He hails from Oklahoma, I think.”
“How thoroughly did he search the shed?”
“He said he tore it apart.”
“It would be easier for both of us if you’d just tell me where to find the money. Sooner or later I’ll find it, you know.”
Dawn remained stubbornly mute.
“Very well, have it your way.” He headed out the door.
“Where are you going?” It wasn’t as if Dawn wanted him to stay, she told herself. She just felt safe with Cole nearby.
“To unload the supplies. I brought Cobb’s horse back with me. If you don’t want him you can sell him. He’s a good animal, should bring a good price.”
Cole was still unloading the supplies when Dawn walked outside with a bucket in her hand. She started down the river path. “Where in the hell do you think you’re going?”
Dawn didn’t even spare him a glance. “I need water.”
He easily caught up with her. “I don’t want you wandering away by yourself. What if Sam Pickens or Spider Lewis show up for their share of the loot and catch you alone? Will they be any more ‘gentle’ with you than Riley? Is that the kind of man you want for a protector?”
“I don’t need a protector. I can take care of myself. I just proved it with Duke, didn’t I?”
Cole stared at her, at her bruised face, so proud and defiant, at the stubborn set of her narrow shoulders, almost too slender to carry the burden she had borne during her years with Billy Cobb, and he felt something stir inside him. Undeniably she had suffered. Yet despite Cole’s original assumption about Dawn’s character, Cobb had definitely not broken her spirit. Bent it, perhaps, but not shattered it. The little half-breed had more spunk than he’d given her credit for. The very idea of Dawn suffering Cobb’s abuse over the course of five years made him cringe inwardly.
“Very well, if you’re not back in ten minutes I’m coming after you.”
Dawn set out at a leisurely pace for the river, determined to show Cole Webster that she had a mind of her own. Nevertheless, she was back at the cabin within the time allotted her. She walked through the door to find Cole pulling up floorboards with a crowbar.
“What are you doing? You’re wrecking my home.”
“This wouldn’t be necessary if you’d tell me where Cobb hid the money,” Cole said, grunting from the effort of prying up a particularly stubborn floorboard.
“It’s not in the cabin.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Billy made sure I never watched when he hid the loot from his robberies. He always made me stay inside the cabin. I can truthfully say you won’t find the money here.”
Cole searched her face and realized she was telling the truth, at least about this. “Dammit! I’ve already questioned Riley, and he swore he hadn’t found it in the shed. Did Cobb bury it outside? What about the lean-to? You must have some idea where to find it.”
Dawn’s lips flattened. “I can tell you nothing.”
Cole’s eyes went murky as he tossed the crowbar aside and grasped Dawn, bringing them nose to nose. “Why don’t you trust me? I’m not going to hurt you.”
Dawn went still as she stared into the brilliant emerald of his eyes. She felt the caress of his breath upon her cheek and was moved by the strangest temptation to touch his lips with hers. To just touch him. Her fingers tingled. Her palms itched.
Cole must have felt the same urge, for his arms tightened around her, bringing her hard against him. His gaze fastened hungrily on the soft pads of her bruised lips. They were lush and red and parted, as if waiting in anticipation of his next move. Lured by the misleading innocence of her blue-eyed gaze, Cole sensed the depth of her yearning, felt her reach out to him in mute appeal, and reacted instinctively. He tasted the sweet corners of her mouth, tempted her lips apart. His tongue slid inside, rasping against skin as slick as satin. Then he gently sucked on her pouting lower lip before tasting her more deeply.
Cole shuddered. He couldn’t recall how long it had been since he’d held a woman in his arms, and his body responded powerfully. The heat of her breasts, belly and thighs scorched him, and he groaned low in his throat.
Dawn closed her eyes, forcefully moved by the intimacy of his touch. No one had ever touched her with such tenderness and warmth. She felt helplessly ensnared as she was drawn into his kiss, savoring this brief moment of madness. Shameful excitement raced through her, drawing her into its sizzling heat until all rational thought fled.
Abruptly Cole tore his mouth away and stared at her, his expression a mixture of confusion and anger at his loss of control. He hadn’t meant to take advantage of Dawn’s vulnerability, but he hadn’t been able to control himself.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”
Cole had no idea what had possessed him to kiss Dawn. The way she had looked at him, all mistyeyed, her mouth soft and trembly, God, he’d hated to stop.
Dawn swallowed convulsively, suspended in some faraway place by his kiss. Had any man but Cole kissed her, she’d be reacting far differently. She’d suffered through Billy’s clumsy kisses and brutal pawing by willing her mind to another place. Then Cole Webster walked into her life. After one kiss he made her yearn for impossible things, made her dream of tenderness and … love.
She stared at Cole through long, feathery lashes. The planes of his handsome face were taut with tension, and she could see a pulse beating hard and fast at the base of his throat.
Swallowing convulsively, she forced her mind to sweep away fantasy and confront reality.
Chapter Three
Dawn backed away from Cole, her eyes watchful as she touched her lips with her fingertips. “Why did you do that?”
“Kiss you?” Cole shrugged. “Because you wanted me to, I suppose. Why else would a man kiss a woman?”
“To hurt her!” Dawn blurted out. “And to humiliate her,” she continued, remembering Billy’s cruel kisses.
Cole went white beneath his tan. “Did Cobb and his friends kiss you because they wanted to hurt you?” He cursed violently. The more he learned about Billy Cobb, the more he wished his death had been a slow and painful one. “I can assure you I have no intention of hurting or humiliating you. I kissed you simply because I wanted to.”
“Why?”
He touched her cheek, lightly skimming the vivid bruises marring her flesh. Her skin was warm and satiny beneath his fingertips. It was hard to believe that anyone so young could have survived five years of brutality and rape by Cobb and his men and still retain an air of innocence and vulnerability.
“Why did I want to?” He hesitated so long Dawn thought he wasn’t going to answer. Then he said, “I suppose it’s because you remind me of someone I cared about.”
Dawn went still. Suddenly she recalled the name Cole had blurted out the first time he’d seen her. “Morning Mist,” she said softly.
Cole went still. “How did you know?”
“You called me by her name the day you burst into the cabin. Who is she?”
Cole’s expression was unreadable. “Mor
ning Mist was my wife. She’s dead.”
“I’m sorry.” She didn’t know what else to say. Obviously, Cole Webster had loved his wife a great deal. What surprised her was the knowledge that Morning Mist was an Indian name. “Was Morning Mist an Indian?”
“Her father was Sioux, her mother was White.”
She bit her lip, wanting to know more. “Did she—”
“We’ve discussed my life long enough, I’d rather hear about yours. Does your father live nearby? Can you go to him now that Cobb is dead?”
Dawn gave an inelegant snort. “I wouldn’t go back even if he were still alive. He’d just sell me again to someone like Billy Cobb, or worse.” She turned and began putting away the supplies Cole had just carried in.
“How old were you when Cobb married you?”
“Fifteen.”
“Damn! The bastard was old enough to be your father. What kind of parent would sell his daughter to a man like Cobb?”
Dawn shrugged, trying to pretend it didn’t matter that her father had cared so little for her. “After Mama died I was in the way. He brought another woman home. She didn’t like me. I was a half-breed. Pa never married my mother. She was his squaw. When Billy offered to buy me, Pa agreed, as long as Billy married me first. In Pa’s eyes that made everything all right.”
“You said your mother was Sioux.”
“She was. She was captured by a Crow raiding party when she was a young girl and sold to my father. Pa was a trapper. He needed a woman to see to his needs. Things weren’t so bad when Mama was alive. She sent me to a government school for Indians on a nearby reservation. She tried to protect me from Pa’s temper while she was alive. He didn’t much like children.
“Sounds like a real bastard,” Cole said sourly.
“After Mama died I kept house for Pa until he brought home another woman. Then he struck a deal with Billy. You know the rest.”
“Not everything,” Cole said softly. “Why did Cobb beat you? Did it happen often?”
Dawn flushed and looked away. She couldn’t talk about the things Billy had done to her. They were too shameful. “He beat me when I … didn’t … please him. Or when I made him angry. Don’t ask me anything else. I … I don’t want to talk about it ever again.”
“What are you going to do after I leave here? Where will you go? You can’t stay here. Sooner or later the other two members of the gang are going to show up for their money.”
“I’m not going to wait around for them to show up,” Dawn declared.
“Do you have any money?” Cole knew the answer to that question even before he asked it. If Dawn had money of her own she wouldn’t be wearing rags or starving half to death.
“Billy wasn’t a generous man.”
“There’s a reward for both Cobb and Riley. I’ll see that you get the money.”
“No! I don’t want your charity.”
Cole gave a snort of disgust. “You should be able to find work in a brothel with little effort. Is that what you want?” Cole hated to be so blunt, but Dawn had to understand she couldn’t survive on her own. She’d become prey to every predator in the area. She’d been forced to endure abuse from Billy and his cohorts, but now she was free of that kind of degradation.
The breath hissed from Dawn’s lungs. “I’m no whore. My mother was my father’s whore, and I know what it’s like.”
“I never said you were. I was just trying to talk some sense into you. Your options are limited. You’re a woman, you’re young, and you’re a half-breed. How will you support yourself? You could find another husband, who will—”
“No! No man will ever touch me again. All men are beasts. Just go away and leave me alone.”
Cole wished he could do just that. He was becoming too involved in Dawn’s life. He shouldn’t care what happened to her, he told himself. During all his years as a Pinkerton detective he’d never been moved to pity before. Yet he wouldn’t call what he felt for Dawn pity. Certainly he felt compassion for her sad plight, but something about her moved him as he hadn’t been moved in years. He wasn’t sure he liked the feeling.
“I can’t leave until I recover the money.” He turned toward the door. “I’m going to search the lean-to. If the money isn’t there, I’ll dig up the yard until I find it.”
“What are you going to do with Duke Riley?”
“Feed him, for now. His wound isn’t serious. I’ll take him into town tomorrow. This time you’re coming with me.”
“No, I …”
Her protest made little impact on Cole, who had gone without a backward glance.
Dawn watched Cole from the front door of the cabin as he literally tore apart the lean-to. When he failed to find the money, he grabbed a shovel and began digging randomly in the yard. By supper that night he was dirty, tired and out of sorts.
“I’m going down to the river to bathe,” Cole said when Dawn called him in to supper. “Fix up a plate for Riley. I’ll take it to him when I return. Don’t go near him, he’s a mean-mouthed bastard and not too happy right now.”
Dawn had no intention of approaching Duke. After what he had tried to do to her, she couldn’t stomach the sight of him.
For supper Dawn had fried slices of smoked ham, boiled up a pot of potatoes and opened a tin of peas. She used some of the dried apples Cole had purchased in town to bake an apple pie. Her mouth watered hungrily. She couldn’t count the times she’d dreamed of eating food like this, but Billy had provided only bare essentials such as bacon and beans and potatoes. Vegetables consisted of dandelion greens she’d dug up in the yard. And fresh meat was unheard of unless she managed to trap a small animal.
Cole returned to the cabin in a foul mood. He picked up the plate Dawn had prepared for Duke and took it out to the shed without a word. He returned twenty minutes later with the empty plate. Dawn had dinner on the table. He sat down and dug in with gusto. His mood lifted when Dawn brought the pie to the table.
“I can’t recall when I last had a piece of homemade pie,” he said, sniffing appreciatively at the warm apples and cinnamon.
“Neither can I,” Dawn said as she served them both generous slices.
Between them they finished off half the pie. Afterward, Cole offered to help with dishes. Dawn looked at him as if he’d just grown horns. No man had ever offered to help her with anything. She shook her head, too moved by his offer to speak. He helped anyway, drying while she washed.
“Think I’ll turn in,” Cole said, yawning hugely. “It’s been a long day. I imagine you’re tired, too.” He headed for the door.
“Wait!”
“What?”
Dawn flushed. “I mean … You can bring your bedroll inside tonight if you’d like. The lean-to is all but destroyed, and I don’t suppose you’d get much sleep in the shed with Duke. Besides, it looks like rain. You’ll get soaked sleeping outside tonight.”
“Am I hearing right?” The invitation nearly floored Cole. He knew how intensely Dawn distrusted men.
Dawn fidgeted restively. It was the first time she could recall asking a man for anything. Even when Cobb beat her she hadn’t begged or pleaded with him to stop. “I don’t want to be alone tonight. What if Duke frees himself? What if Sam or Spider show up tonight and you don’t hear them?” She was being foolish, she knew, but couldn’t seem to help herself.
Something stirred inside Cole. He didn’t dare examine his feelings for fear of finding something he wasn’t prepared to deal with. “You’d trust me inside the cabin with you?”
Her chin rose fractionally. “You haven’t hurt me yet. I suppose I trust you as much as I trust any man.”
Cole smiled thinly. “That’s not saying a lot.”
“Well, maybe I do trust you more than the others, but that doesn’t mean I’m inviting liberties.”
“Did I ask for any?”
“You kissed me.”
“You wanted me to kiss you. I’m over thirty years old. I think I know when a woman wants to be kissed.” He s
ighed raggedly. “Go to bed, Dawn. I’ll check on Riley and get my bedroll. That should give you ample time to ready yourself for bed.”
When Cole returned fifteen minutes later, Dawn had scrambled into a threadbare cotton nightgown that could have wrapped around her three times with material to spare and was in bed with the covers pulled up to her chin. Cole spread out his bedroll in front of the door, extinguished the lamp and settled down to sleep.
Dawn tossed and turned for over an hour, listening to the even cadence of Cole’s breathing, aware of the exact moment he fell asleep. Only then did she succumb to slumber herself. The dream came much later. It was vivid in its clarity. She felt the horror, relived the pain, suffered unspeakable humiliation at the hands of her cruel husband as he pounded her face with his fists and wielded his belt with ruthless dexterity against her tender flesh.
She refused to beg; she had learned long ago that he enjoyed her groveling. She forced back a scream but could not restrain the small cries gathering deep in her throat. She thrashed against the cornhusk mattress, wishing for a gun, imagining herself emptying the chambers into Billy’s wiry body.
Cole awoke with a start, trained to react instantly to the slightest noise or disturbance. He reached for his gun. A survivor of many dangerous situations, he knew enough to keep it within reach at all times. Nothing seemed amiss, but he was taking no chances. Then he heard some rather pitiful noises coming from the bed and realized immediately what had awakened him. Dawn was tossing about on the bed, making pathetic sounds that reminded him of a wounded animal.
“Dawn.”
No answer.
“Dawn. Are you awake?”
Silence.
Cole leaped to his feet, reaching the bed in three long strides. Once his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw that Dawn was in the throes of a nightmare. Not wanting to startle her, he reached out and gently shook her shoulder. She reared up, fighting, lashing out.
“No! Not again! Never again! Haven’t you hurt me enough?”
“Dawn, wake up.” Cole didn’t want to restrain her forcibly but he had no choice. He feared she would hurt herself if she continued like this. He held her down with the weight of his body. “It’s Cole. No one is going to hurt you.”
