Bounty Hunter

by Donna Kauffman

  “Sam was right in having you silenced. You don’t understand anything about what we’re doing. You probably been screwin’ that half-breed.” He shook his head and spat in the dirt next to her cheek. “I ain’t doin’ this for the money. I’m doin’ this because it’s the right way.”

  Any hope she had of bargaining with the man died as she saw the fanatic flair of obsession light his gray eyes. She should have known he was one of Sam’s followers. His voice rang with an almost religious fervor.

  “You women don’t know your place anymore. And your Indian lover, he’s only good for tracking, drinking, and sucking money from the government of the U.S. of A. Can’t decide which one of ya I’m gonna enjoy doin’ more.”

  Fear escalated to terror. It clawed at her throat, making it impossible to breathe. Was he going to torture her first? His expression was downright demonic as he stared at her. She began to pray for a swift death, murmuring silent prayers to her brother and Kane, apologizing for not being more valiant in the final moments of her life.

  She felt the barrel of the rifle press against her temple at the same moment she heard the click of the safety being released. One hot tear escaped her tightly shut eyes.

  The shot was so loud, it deafened her.

  But it didn’t kill her.

  In fact, it hadn’t hit her at all. Either that or she’d died so instantly, she hadn’t felt anything.

  Then another sensation filtered through her brain. She’d heard a sound, a high keening cry almost like a bird—or a hawk—just before the rifle had sounded. Her eyes flew open.

  “Kane,” she whispered in stunned disbelief. She blinked once, then again. He was really there. Only then did she realize she was free to move. She rolled onto her stomach, meaning to push up to her feet, but halted on her knees. The pain arrowed through her head where she’d been struck, causing her to bend forward and brace one hand on the ground. She thought she might even be sick. Fighting the nausea and the stars blinking in her peripheral vision, she tried once again to stand.

  “Stay down, Annie.”

  She turned her head too fast and ended up unintentionally complying. “Kane?” He had her attacker face down in the dirt, his knee planted in the middle of the man’s back, holding his head by a fistful of hair. She didn’t know what had happened to the rifle. Kane was holding his knife.

  “Damn you, Hawthorne,” the man ranted. “Get off of me.” Kane must have pulled harder, because the man visibly flinched, then swore again. “We’re on the same side, ain’t we? Sam wanted her found, she’s found. Now let me do my—oof.” His sentence was cut off when Kane jerked his head roughly backward.

  Elizabeth thought his neck might snap. She wondered if the man had gone over the edge of sanity. His words made no sense to her. “Kane, tell me where the rifle landed.”

  “In the bushes,” he jerked his head to his right.

  She scrambled on her hands and knees, heedless of the bite of the rough terrain against her palms. She rooted through the bush closest to Kane and his captive. It only took a few seconds to find it. “Here!”

  “Just hold on to it. Aim it at the ground.”

  Elizabeth did as he asked. Something about what her attacker had said niggled at her brain, but before she could grasp it, Kane bent low and began talking to him, drawing her full attention.

  His voice was a hiss in the man’s ear. “I want your name. Who hired you and why, and where you hid the car. Tell me now, and maybe I won’t slit your neck.”

  “Harold Lucheck. Sam Perkins paid me … to silence his girlfriend. Car’s in the trees … about a mile back down the road.”

  Kane tugged a bit harder on his hair. “Where’s my horse?”

  “Don’t know. Swear. She was gone when I … when I got back from torching the house. Thought I tied her tight. Maybe the smoke spooked her.”

  “You alone?”

  “Yes.”

  Kane didn’t react to the information other than to tuck the knife away. “Put your face in the dirt.”

  Kane could feel the defiance in his tightly clenched muscles.

  “What you gonna do, half-breed, scalp me? I told Sam not to hire—”

  Kane found only a tiny measure of satisfaction in the crunching sound Lucheck’s nose made when he helped him follow instructions. Gripping Lucheck’s wrists tightly behind him, Kane dragged the moaning man toward the nearest tree at the beginning of the trail and shoved him down to his knees. He slipped his belt off with one hand and turned the man so his back was to the trunk. “Put your hands behind you around the tree.”

  “Go to hell,” he shot back, but a close-up look at Kane’s knife made him comply.

  He cinched the man’s hands tightly around the trunk, then crouched down and took the bandanna from the man’s neck and gagged him.

  “Except Perkins, I’ve never wanted to hurt anyone as badly as I want to hurt you. I’m talking long, slow, and bloody.” He stabbed the knife in the ground up tight between the man’s legs. “I wouldn’t move if I were you.”

  Kane stood and forced his fists to loosen. The whole episode hadn’t taken five minutes. He’d wanted more like five hours with the guy. When he’d first discovered the fresh tracks and found them heading for the trail, his throat closed and his stomach dropped. When he moved into the clearing and saw Lucheck pinning Annie to the ground, a rage filled him so fully that he could barely see through the red haze that clouded his vision.

  It had taken considerable restraint not to flay the skin off the man strip by strip. But in the last recess of his brain that still functioned on logic, was the knowledge that this man was their only link to nailing Sam Perkins.

  “Kane?”

  Annie’s voice, rough and hoarse, drew him from his murderous thoughts, and he turned to face her. He had no idea what she was thinking, but she had to have heard Lucheck. She had to know.

  Half expecting her to cock the rifle and aim it at his chest, feeling as if he deserved no less, he was surprised when she dropped the rifle instead and launched her body against his.

  He instinctively caught her, but instead of pushing her away as he should have, he tightened the hold and buried his nose in her hair.

  “I’m sorry, little sun. I’m sorry.”

  “You got here. I’m alive,” she whispered. “You’re alive. There’s nothing to be sorry about.”

  She didn’t know. Obviously the trauma of the moment had kept Lucheck’s damning words from sinking in.

  “Annie—” he began, but she cut him off.

  “Is it really over?” She looked up at him. “I can’t believe it’s over.” Tears lined her lashes, but her cheeks were dirt streaked and dry.

  He saw the red welt swelling her right temple and tensed with a new rush of fury. “He hit you? What else, Annie? Tell me!”

  “Nothing. I’m okay.”

  “Like hell you are!”

  Kane made to put her aside, but she grabbed his shirt in her fists and held on tightly. “Don’t! Don’t leave me,” she added. Only the vulnerability in her voice kept him from going straight over to the tree where Lucheck was tied and finishing what he’d started, but with a much more satisfying conclusion.

  He stared down at Annie, hating himself for not preventing what had happened to her. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked softly. Unable not to, he reached up a finger and very lightly traced the skin near her bruised flesh. “I wanted to kill him, Annie,” he whispered. “I still want to kill him.”

  The tears brimmed over and trickled down the sides of her nose, removing tiny trails of dirt to reveal the freckles that lay underneath. In that moment he wondered if he’d ever be able to look at a freckled nose and not feel his eyes burn with shame.

  “I know. I’m not too happy with him either. But he’s our link to Sam. You did the right thing. We can get him now. Right?”

  He couldn’t answer. All he could do was stare at her, wiping her tears away with his blunt fingertips one by one as they fell. He studie
d her, her beautiful eyes, her freckles, her lips, everything. He took his time. It was going to have to last him the rest of his life.

  “Hawk?”

  Unthinkingly, he wiped her last tear and put his damp fingertip to his lips. It was a mistake. Tasting her tears unleashed a tidal wave of emotions he didn’t dare label. All he knew was that she’d almost died and he had to taste her, feel her alive against his mouth—if not his body—one last time. He would likely roast in hell for it. But then, he’d expected to do that all along anyway.

  He meant to make it brief, but one touch of her warm lips undid his resolve. He took her hungrily, over and over. When she met his tongue with a thrust of her own, he thought his tears would surely come, but they remained behind his eyes, burning like the acid that was eating away at his soul. “I shouldn’t …” he murmured brokenly, “I can’t stop,” he mouthed against her lips. “Help me to stop, little sun.”

  Her breathing ragged, she managed to pull back a breath. “I know,” she panted. “We need to get him out of here, get the authorities.”

  Dear God, if it were only that easy, he thought. He knew the pain had only begun for her. He wanted to cut his heart out and hand it to her. It would be simpler than saying what had to be said. Betraying her.

  He set her away from him until they no longer touched, stifling the moan that rose in his throat at the severed contact. He wasted a half a second trying to convince himself that what he was about to do was for the best, that no matter how it had started, the ending was inevitable.

  “Annie, we need to get to Lucheck’s car and get him down to Dobs. I’m going to call Brody and have him set things in motion.”

  “Let’s go then. I want to get out of here.” She shivered slightly and rubbed her arms.

  Kane clenched his fists. “There’s something I have to explain first.”

  “Can’t it wait? I really—”

  “No. Listen to me. I’ve tried to tell you this before. You have to know this.” Kane paused and looked over his shoulder at Lucheck. He motioned for Annie to follow him a few yards down the trail, out of earshot. They’d given the bastard enough of a show, he’d be damned if he’d spill his guts in front of the lunatic.

  “What is it, Kane?”

  He turned to face her. “I don’t know how else to tell you this, so I’m going to say it straight out. All I ask is that you let me finish.”

  “You’re scaring me.” She folded her arms over her stomach. Kane felt his own clench even tighter.

  “I’m not here by accident, little sun. Sam Perkins hired me to find you. I’m a bounty hunter.”

  ELEVEN

  Elizabeth felt the blood drain from her face. No. No! She wanted to scream the words at him. She wanted to clamp her hands over her ears like a child and hum some tuneless song so she couldn’t hear him. But there was no avoiding the truth.

  She swayed and grabbed onto the trunk of the closest tree for support, trying desperately to make sense out of what he was telling her. Then she recalled Lucheck’s words. “We’re on the same side.”

  She looked up at him. “Why?” It was only one word, but it was filled with anguish. She took little consolation in seeing the same emotion reflected in his eyes.

  “Perkins told me you were his wife and you’d run off after a blowup about money. He was afraid you’d come to some harm.”

  “Why would he …?” He’s lying!” She felt the hysteria she’d managed to hold at bay overtake her.

  “I know, I know.”

  “When did you know?” she said, her voice rising anyway. “Just what are you planning to do now?” Quickly losing her battle with nerves, she didn’t stop to consider what she was saying, just lashed out at him. “Why did you stay? To get me into bed? Are you taking me back to him now?”

  Kane grabbed her by the arms and gave her a little shake. “Let me finish, dammit,” he said, his voice breaking for the first time.

  Elizabeth choked on the hot tears that threatened to fall. She pulled from his grasp and stood perfectly still.

  “It took me a while to track you down.”

  “How did you find me?”

  “I searched your brother’s apartment. I found the picture of you and Matt taken at the Lazy F.”

  “But we were just kids!”

  “I’d exhausted every other possibility. It was a lead. The Lazy F sign and the mountains in the back gave me a place to start.” Kane should have told her he’d taken it, but he didn’t. He’d thought to return it eventually, telling himself it was merely evidence in a case. But he knew now that he’d taken it because the image in Perkins’s glossy photo hadn’t jibed with the photo of the scrawny seven-year-old with pigtails and scuffed knees.

  “Why didn’t you take me back the day you found me?”

  Kane exhaled on a deep sigh. It was such a loaded question. “Because I knew something wasn’t right even before then. I was tailed when I left Boise, but I didn’t know why. That’s the reason I ditched my truck for Sky Dancer. I lost Lucheck just south of Coeur d’Alene.” And then I met you, he added silently. And you stood there with your hair all curly wild and red, the sexiest damn freckles sprinkled across your nose, sporting sponges for knee pads. And you stole my heart.

  But he couldn’t tell her any of that. It was no excuse for what he’d done, and he wouldn’t use something that was so precious to him as a defense.

  “Were you afraid this other guy was going to get to me first and take your fee away from you?”

  “Never,” he said quietly. She’d either have to believe it or not.

  “That sure of yourself?”

  “The only thing I was sure of was that no spoiled, pampered wife would be doing the back-breaking work you were doing because she was in a snit over money. When you told me the truth, I realized that the man following me had no intention of letting either of us come back.”

  “Which was why you disappeared that night,” she said, more to herself than him. “I’m surprised you believed me at all. I mean, why would a leader of a supremacist group hire someone who wasn’t …?”

  “White? I guess he figured he’d use me for the only thing he saw me as good for—namely my tracking skills—then dispose of both of us. He’s not stupid. He knew that if we somehow turned on him and told our side of the story, it was doubtful anyone would believe the accusations of a scorned girlfriend and a half-breed bounty hunter.”

  She stared at him for a long moment. “I guess you’re right.” She waited a few seconds longer, then asked, “Why didn’t you tell me all this before? After we …”

  “Think about it, little sun. I tried. Right before you smelled the fire. There was no time.” He held up his hand, certain what her next question would have been. “I couldn’t tell you earlier. Answer me this; would you have let me help you if I had?”

  She dipped her chin. “No.”

  “Annie—”

  “Why did you? Help me?” She let go of the tree and took a step toward him. “This is your job. So why help me?”

  “I could say it was because my life was in jeopardy too. Sam had no intention of letting me collect that fee.”

  “And would that be the truth?”

  “No.”

  She opened her mouth as if to say something, then shut it. Before he could continue, she stepped by him. “We’d better get down there and find Lucheck’s car.” She saw Kane glance back at Lucheck. “Should we bring him down now?”

  “He isn’t going anywhere.”

  “Fine.” She turned and picked her way down the trail.

  Kane stood and watched her walk away. Away from him, from all he’d done—both right and wrong—for her. He thought ahead to the call he planned to make. Brody would arrange a transport for Lucheck and set the proceedings into motion to track down Perkins.

  He didn’t know if he would have a chance to be alone with her long enough to talk again. Or what he would say if he did. He’d done the only thing he could do for her—keep her safe. He
had nothing further to offer her. “Damn.” He started down the hill. “Damn, damn, damn.”

  Elizabeth paced across the dirt road toward the tiny Boundary Gap post office, then back toward Dobs’s store. She was surprised she hadn’t dug a trench by now. Where were the helicopters? She groaned inwardly.

  Despite her resolve not to, she looked up the road to where Kane had disappeared in the sedan almost an hour earlier. He’d woken Dobs—who was far less grumpy at being woken up in the wee hours of the morning than she’d have guessed—and placed a call to Brody Donegan. He’d left Lucheck tied up in the post office, then said something about going back to check on the ranch. She had a sneaking suspicion Sky Dancer played a part in his hasty retreat, but he hadn’t given her any time to ask.

  She shivered, rubbing her arms as she walked into Dobs’s store. She knew she should be feeling somewhat vindicated. Kane had told her and Dobs and Letty—who’d made a surprise appearance shortly after Dobs—that by the time they got Lucheck to the authorities, Sam should be in custody. With their testimony and Lucheck’s, Sam wouldn’t be walking free.

  Enough time for her to figure out what the hell she was going to do next? The sound of tires crunching gravel drew her to the screen door. Kane was back. She stepped outside.

  “Annie?”

  The softly whispered word cracked through the stillness like a whip. She spun around. Kane was leaning against the side of the store.

  She fought the urge to rub her arms again, feeling the sudden need to appear calm and collected. This was the first time they’d been alone since their talk on the trail. She said the first thing that came into her mind. “I wish they’d get here.”

  “They will.”

  She hated feeling so uncomfortable around him. Uncomfortable in a way she’d never been with him before. It wasn’t at all pleasant this time. “Did you find Sky Dancer?”

  His eyes widened a fraction, but his expression remained unreadable. “No.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I am too. But I haven’t given up yet. She’s a tough old mare. She’ll be okay.”