Once a Hero Page 13

  “My wife,” Kee snapped. “Bringing her home to my folks over by Sweetwater.”

  “Goin’ the long way?”

  “Going until I get there,” Kee answered. He led the mustang to the water trough, ground-tying him while he followed the old man inside. Kee held his breath. Musty air mixed with rancid smells. The place was a cluttered hodgepodge of blankets and pans, shovels and picks, barrels and boxes.

  Kee almost regretted having stopped here, but the nearest place would be a ride to the Silver King Mine or down to Globe, and he felt time was slipping by too fast for Isabel to get her gold to help her grandmother.

  While the old man busied himself in the back, Kee opened two buttons on his shirt and took out a twenty-dollar gold piece from his money belt. But there was something else in his belt. A round disk from the feel of it. He wasn’t about to take it out here and examine what it was, but he knew he had had nothing like it.

  Isabel. She had plenty of opportunity. But why give him…

  “Here you go. Only had four potatoes to spare. Just come back from selling off what I had.”

  Kee opened the sack that Reavis handed to him. The bacon had no rancid smell, and there was coffee and flour. He handed over the gold piece.

  “You seen many strangers around these parts in the last day or so?”

  “Four or five riders come through about three days ago. Didn’t stop. Didn’t let them.”

  “Any Apache?”

  Reavis squinted at him. “Them that escape the reservations head south. You run into trouble with them?”

  “Not Apache. But I ran into a little trouble. Wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle, but a man likes to know who’s riding his back trail these days.”

  Kee watched the old man bite down on the gold piece and then he smiled. “Real enough. Don’t cotton to most folks. Wouldn’t be livin’ here if I did. Now, those riders I seen, wouldn’t be invitin’ a one of them to set at my fire.”

  He stared at Kee, scratching at his hairy chest. “If you want, bring your missus on up. It pleases me some to see a lady.”

  “Another time. She’s shy as a spooked deer when it comes to meeting folks. Sure appreciate the supplies. Don’t suppose you could spare a box of .44s for me?”

  With a cagey expression the man waved toward the buffalo gun. “Know you seen that, saw for myself you know the kind of hole she’d make.”

  Kee smiled, but it never reached his eyes. “You didn’t fire that warning shot with the Sharps. Sounded like a brand-new Winchester to me. Like the one on the box covered with sacking. Man wouldn’t have a rifle like that without the bullets to use it.”

  Reavis stopped scratching and scowled up at him. “Mister, that’ll cost you another gold piece.”

  “Now I know why they say you earn more than a miner, old man. Throw in two blankets and you got a deal.”

  “Ain’t no damn store,” he muttered, turning back into the maze of stacked goods.

  “If you find a spare canteen back there, I’d be mighty grateful.”

  “You don’t stack up like no greenhorn, mister,” Reavis grumbled. “How come you be needing so much?”

  “Like I said, I’ve run into a little trouble. And you keep a sharp eye out, Reavis, those hombres are the killing kind.”

  Reavis returned and held out two blankets to Kee. They smelled musty, but were soft, brand-new-soft, army issue. Kee didn’t ask where he’d gotten them. The canteen was battered a bit, but in the dim light Kee didn’t find any cracks. He shoved them into the stack along with the box of bullets.

  “These hombres got a fine-looking black woman with them?”

  “No. An Apache hellcat.”

  “Didn’t figure it could be Julia Thomas. She’s been hunting Walz’s gold since he died and told her where to find the mine. They ain’t gonna find it. That quake changed the look of the land.”

  “You figure to look some?” Kee asked.

  “Ain’t looking to die, mister. Best you ride for shelter if you won’t stay on. Storm’s coming up. Can smell it in the wind.”

  Kee hadn’t reacted when Reavis told him about Julia Thomas, but he smiled now. “That’s the best news I’ve had. Rain’s just what I need.”

  Reavis shook his head, but other than a funny look he didn’t ask what he meant.

  Outside, Kee sensed the change in the air himself. The temperature had dropped. He mounted and rode back to where he’d left Isabel. Hoping, despite his threat, that she had waited for him.

  She came out of the dark holding the rifle. “Kee?”

  “None other.”

  “Something is spooking the horses.”

  She came up to him, pulling on the lead rope.

  “Storm’s coming.” Kee slid back on his saddle. “Come on, ride with me. It’s not that far to shelter.” He tied off the lead rope to his saddle, then extended his boot in the stirrup for her to mount.

  “You’re shivering, Isabel. I’m sorry.”

  “Not your fault.” She had been cold, but now his body heat surrounded her. “Did you get what you wanted?”

  “From Reavis, yes.”

  She bit her lip rather than respond to the underlying innuendo.

  “He told me that still another party’s looking for that gold. Julia Thomas. Ever heard of her?”

  “She was the last woman that Walz lived with. He supposedly told her exactly where the mine is.”

  “Yeah, that’s what Reavis said. He agreed with me though, about how that quake changed the landmarks. And another thing. That old man’s eyesight’s failing. He thought he’d seen five riders a few days back. I figure it had to be your cousin and the others. But I didn’t see a fourth man.”

  She leaned back against him, sinking into his warmth and his strength. Weariness assailed her.

  “Isabel, did you hear me?”

  “I heard you, Kee. There is another man. Vasa. Clarai would not ride without him. I do not know where he was when you met up with her and the others. I saw him. He is a man who kills for sport.”

  “He wasn’t there when I had my run-in with them. Which reminds me—” he leaned close to whisper since the wind was rising “—why did you take off without me? And where did you go?”

  “Not now, Kee.” She felt the weight of his arm across her stomach, holding her tight against him. “How can you see where we are going?”

  “I spotted a place when we rode into the canyon. The moonlight was brighter then.”

  Kee let his unanswered questions go. He would wait. Right now he used the little moonlight the scudding clouds allowed to light the landmarks he had spotted earlier. The sudden change in Outlaw’s gait told him they were on dry sand in the wash he wanted.

  He slid from the saddle before Isabel realized what he was doing.

  “Wait, Kee. I do not want to stay alone again.”

  “There’s a cave above. I want to make sure there are no snakes.”

  “Snakes? I hate them.”

  “Me, too, lovely lady.”

  Kee walked on. There was plenty of dead wood, left behind by flash floods. He found what he was looking for, a fairly long, straight piece, and pulled some of the dry grass which he wrapped around the wood. Closer to the mouth of the cave which water had cut from the rock, he sheltered his makeshift torch from the wind and lit it.

  Inside the place was high and dry. For a change luck ran with him, the cave was long and deep enough to shelter the horses, too.

  Luck remained with him as he poked the torch into crevices and found no sign of snakes. A loose ring of stones and one fire-blackened wall told him others had camped here. The sandy floor was dry, leading him to believe it had been a long time since water had flowed through this cave.

  The one thing he wanted was a safe place during the storm. He had been caught a time or two on high peaks when lightning leaped from peak to peak and sometimes in sheets of blue flame.

  By the time he gathered wood and got the horses settled, the first raindrops fell. Thu
nder rolled in the great empty halls of rock, but in the inner cave where Isabel had started the fire all sounds were muted.

  He saw how she rubbed her arms to ward off the cold. Taking the two blankets from the sack, he went to stand behind her.

  “They’re clean, but musty,” he said, wrapping first one then the other around her shoulders. She turned to look up at him, a smile on her lips. Firelight bathed her face with golden shadows and somewhere deep inside, his breath caught and held at her loveliness. He felt just like the hard, dry wood catching fire and set to burn for a good long time.

  The end of her long braid brushed the earth and he was arrested by the thought that Isabel belonged to this land—wild, free and unspoiled by any man’s hand. His gaze held hers. He longed to know if her soft, golden skin gracing her face and neck was the same all over—her breasts, her belly, her thighs, between her legs.

  Hunger filled him with a violent rush. Were her nipples the same lush, dusky color as her generously shaped mouth?

  His hands clenched over the blanket he had placed around her shoulders, and a low, rough sound rumbled in his throat. Then he looked away. She was a woman meant for some man’s marriage bed, and as much as he ached to taste her and show what passion could be like between them, he wasn’t about to beg.

  She reached up to touch his hand with hers. “Kee? What is wrong?”

  He heard the longing in her voice, saw it in her eyes that searched his face. He turned away, and then forced himself to walk around the fire and put distance between them. It was the only way he could keep his hands off her.

  Isabel no longer looked at his face, but his hands. She saw not so much their strength but their gentleness when he touched her. A quiver of heat trembled through her that had nothing to do with the warming fire or the soft wool blankets. But she looked up and their gazes clashed. Kee’s was suddenly guarded.

  “Bet you’re hungry. I got two slabs of bacon off Reavis. Flour, too. Might as well eat then bed down.”

  “Yes,” she whispered, taking in the full power of his dark, intense stare. Then she shook her head, as if to ward off the spell of him, and remind herself what was at stake.

  “I am hungry, Kee. Hungry for food.”

  “I know. More’s the pity.” The corner of his mouth curled up, the smile cynical. But the sadness in her eyes made him turn away with the feeling that he had somehow pushed too hard.

  Isabel wanted to be out in the storm. The rain would cool the heat he stirred with his every move and breath. Out there, in the darkness, the wind blew with a wildness that equaled the beat of her pulse. She did not understand why she felt so defenseless. Kee had done nothing to defend against. It was herself. She was fighting herself.

  “I will cook. You can make coffee,” she said in a brisk tone. And refused to look at him again.

  Kee found that he had his own waterspout right outside the cave mouth. Rainwater came down in a steady stream and filled the coffeepot in a few minutes. Wind gusted and sent rain against him, but he welcomed the coolness. It was going to be a long, long night.

  When he returned to the fire he found that Isabel was neatly slicing one slab of bacon. He had never seen the knife she held. It was smaller than either of his, about ten inches from tip to handle and she wielded it with a skill that came from long use.

  The pan was just hot enough to sizzle when she laid the strips in it.

  “Mighty handy with that blade,” he remarked, too restless to sit.

  “You carry one on your belt and one hidden on that leather thong that hangs down your back. I carry this one in my boot.” She wiped off the edge of the blade on the corner of the blanket, then plunged it into the sand and wiped it off again. Knowing that Kee watched her every move, she extended her leg, hiked up her pants and slid the knife into the sheath sewn inside her boot.

  He bent down across from her. “Mighty handy, like I said. You have any more hidden weapons I should know about?”

  Something in his too calm voice alerted her that Kee was anything but calm. She shook her head, watching him with the instinctive wary sense of prey.

  “No? How about this, then?” He opened two buttons on his shirt, slipped his fingers into one pocket of his money belt and pulled out the round piece of metal. It was gold, and pierced with odd cuts. He held it up by his fingertips and examined it. A crescent slice, and what appeared to be a series of narrowing arrowheads and one jagged line that combined made no sense to him.

  “It belongs to me. When I left you, I knew that Clarai was close. She must not get her hands on that.”

  “You’re not telling me what this is.”

  “It belonged to my grandfather, Kee, and it means a great deal to me. I left it with you for safekeeping.”

  What she did not say, but had thought, was that he would never know it was there. How could she know that he would find a place to buy supplies?

  “May I have it now?” She held out her hand for the gold disk, all the imperious arrogance of their first meeting back in her voice and her eyes.

  Kee grinned. And it wasn’t a nice one. He tucked the disk back into his money belt and watched disbelief spread across her face.

  “I’ll hang on to this for now. Since you thought it was safe with me and all.”

  “But there is no reason—”

  “You still trust me, don’t you, Isabel?”

  His dark, intense eyes were waiting to snare hers when she looked up.

  “Yes.” The word was choked. Yes, I trust you, but I do not trust myself.

  “What else should we talk about? I know, you were going to tell me why the hell you took off on your own. Especially when you knew those men and your cousin were nearby. Then you might explain why you neglected to tell me about this Vasa. Nothing like the thought of an extra killer riding your back trail when you think you’ve got all the players figured.”

  The intensity was all in his eyes. His voice maintained that same infuriating calm. Isabel heaved a sigh and sat back from the fire.

  “When I saw that your wound was not serious, I left you so that I could find Clarai. I did not want them to find you and kill you.”

  “You’re so sure that’s what she intends to do?”

  “Yes.” Her voice hissed out from between clenched teeth. Isabel took a deep, shuddering breath. How could she make him understand about her cousin?

  “Get back to her later. Why didn’t you tell me about Vasa?”

  “When I found you again, or you found me, I had just escaped from Alf and was trying to stop you from walking into their trap.

  “And when you found me, we did not talk, Kee. We…we…” She looked away unable to put those brand-new feelings into words.

  Kee had no such trouble. “We kissed, Isabel.” And I’m still aching from it.

  “Yes, we kissed. And then we rode through the night, until we came to that devil-made trail. There was no time to ask questions, and you certainly were not thinking about anything but—”

  “Taking you down beneath me and finding out if your lovely golden skin is the same shade all over.”

  The words slid out beneath his guard and it was too late to recall them. The hitch in her breathing, the widening of those dark-blue eyes acted like a steel spur raking over his body. Each tiny claw sank deep inside him, and this time he was the one who looked away.

  Had he thought it was merely going to be a long night? Hellishly long might describe it.

  “Something’s burning.”

  “I know,” she snapped. She wrapped a corner of the blanket around her hand as protection from the heat and pulled the pan back from the fire. Would that she could so easily pull herself away from the fire in his eyes, and the heat of his voice.

  Kee abruptly stood up. “You eat. I’m not hungry.”

  Having been pushed far enough, Isabel looked up at him through thick, black lashes. “You are a liar, Kee.”

  Even to her own ears the accusation sounded more like an invitation.

&nbs
p; “Sure enough. But we both know what I’m hungry for. Don’t we?”

  She made a helpless sound. She even bit her lip so she would not answer him. But he stood, tall and lean, all waiting stillness his to command and she whispered the one word he wanted to hear.

  “Yes.”

  He didn’t feel like smiling even though he’d won something with her admission. If anything, he felt as if he’d lost something.

  Maybe that’s why he didn’t stop the taunt. “And what is it that you want, Isabel? And don’t tell me it’s the gold. That’s not what I mean. No quick answer. I’ll wait. And you can think about it.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Isabel did nothing but think about Kee while he either stayed in the front of the cave or prowled outside in the rain.

  She thought of him wounded and helpless. She thought of how she had touched him, how the dark mat of hair that formed a diamond-shaped wedge on his chest was as soft as it looked. She remembered her fingertips tracing the line of his lips. And later, as curiosity got the better of her, she had traced the small scars on his back and chest.

  Truly, Kee was made to be a woman’s temptation. His hair was thick, like his eyelashes. She even admired the shape of his ears. And smiled to herself at the very innocence of all her exploration.

  She stared into the fire, hugging her knees and saw his smile that invited her to share it. He had asked her what she wanted besides the gold. And she knew the answer. Just as she knew that time was running out before she would give it voice.

  Kee stared out at the darkness. The rain slacked off, but the wind remained. He should have his mind on anything and everything but Isabel. How much longer would she deny that wild, hidden sensuality that was awake and growing? He shifted his stance to ease rapidly hardening flesh, but the move was useless. He wasn’t going to get rid of this ache alone.

  He licked his lips and thought of tastes that were sweeter, hotter and smooth as satin to his tongue. Isabel’s taste, her lips.

  “Hell,” he muttered. “You’re a man not a boy. Get over it. You can’t always have what you want. She’s a marrying kind of woman and you’re a roving kind of man. End of sermon, boy.”