Heart of the Hawk

by Justine Davis, Justine Dare

  Josh jerked as if startled, instantly letting go of the broom, his head snapping up and his body tensing visibly as his gaze shot to her face.

  “If you’re going to continue in this mood,” she said, “the roof needs fixing.”

  She saw his right arm flex over his holster, then relax, and realized with a sick little shock that he hadn’t just been letting go of the broom, he’d been going for his revolver.

  “What?” he said, his brows furrowed, looking merely puzzled while Kate was fighting to keep her heart from hammering its way out of her chest.

  Luke was staring up at Josh, wearing an expression Kate was sure was similar to her own, half stunned, half sick.

  “You . . . you weren’t really gonna shoot us, were you?” Luke said, sounding shaken.

  “Shoot you?” His gaze flicked from her to the boy, then back. “Why would I shoot you?”

  “Sure looked like you was goin’ for that Colt,” Luke said, wide-eyed and uncertain.

  “Well, she shouldn’t sneak up on me like that,” Josh said, his mouth twisting in irritation.

  “I did not sneak!” Kate exclaimed, her fear shifting to some irritation of her own. “We’ve been carrying on a normal conversation. You’re the one who’s been acting like a cornered snake all day, and then ignoring Luke, when all he wanted to do was talk to you.”

  “Ignoring?” Josh looked puzzled again. He glanced at Luke. “You were talking to me?”

  Confusion, then understanding—and relief—dawned on the boy’s face. “You didn’t hear me?”

  The man at least had the grace to look embarrassed, Kate thought. And to be gentle with the boy when he explained.

  “No. I guess I’m a little . . . preoccupied.”

  “What’s peroc . . . apied?”

  “It means I was thinking too hard,” Josh said, his tone wry enough to make Kate wonder just what exactly he’d been thinking about.

  “Oh.”

  He looked at her then. “I’m sorry if I frightened you,” he said softly.

  “I . . . it’s all right.”

  Josh shifted his gaze back to the boy. Luke studied him for a moment, as if trying to judge if it was safe to go on. Apparently what he saw in Josh’s face satisfied him.

  “Thinkin’ about what?” he asked.

  Josh glanced at Kate again, and unaccountably she felt heat rising in her cheeks. She hastily let go of the broom and backed up a step. Josh, moving so swiftly she could barely see the motion, caught the broom handle before it even began to fall. Then he looked back at Luke.

  “About that book I showed you,” he said.

  What was this? Kate wondered. But Josh didn’t explain, just kept his gaze on the boy.

  “Do you remember seeing my name written in there, Luke?” he asked.

  “Sure,” Luke said. “Remember, you were on that last line, of that part you said they call the tree.”

  “I mean anywhere else. On the next page, or anywhere?”

  The boy shook his head. “That was the last page with any writin’ on it.”

  “You’re sure?”

  He nodded this time. “Yep. I looked, ’cause I couldn’t figure why there was all those empty pages.” Luke looked worried now. “Is something wrong?”

  With an audible exhalation, Josh shook his head. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “I liked reading that book,” Luke said.

  “What book is this?” Kate asked. “And what about a tree?”

  Luke turned to her. “It’s like no book I ever saw before, Miss Kate. It’s got the story of Josh’s folks, you know, way back to the very beginning.”

  Kate looked at Josh curiously. “A . . . family tree?”

  Josh’s mouth twitched. “Even gunfighters come from somewhere, Mrs. Dixon.”

  “I didn’t mean that.” She tried not to blush as he went back to using the formal appellation, and she realized she liked it much better when he called her Kate. “It’s just that I’ve never seen one before.”

  “I never even heard of one before,” Luke said. “But it’s real interestin’, with all those lines and names, and then the stories.”

  “Stories?” She’d never heard of a family tree with stories before.

  “Yep, I read the one about Jenna and Kane, the very first Hawks, didn’t I?” he said, turning to Josh, who was looking decidedly uncomfortable. “Can I read the others sometime? About the other Hawks?”

  “Maybe. Just don’t be telling anybody about it,” Josh said warningly. “Not anybody.” He sounded as uneasy as he looked, and Luke’s face fell.

  The idea of a man like The Hawk carrying around something like a family tree struck Kate as rather whimsical. “I’d like to see this book.”

  Josh stiffened, so visibly that Kate couldn’t help feeling a tiny bit affronted that that “anybody” apparently included her. Then she realized how absurd she was being, to think that a man like Josh would want to share something personal with her. That a man like The Hawk would want to spend any more time with her than he had to to erase whatever debt he felt he owed.

  “Speaking of books,” she said to Luke hastily, trying to cover her blunder, “we should go back to working on your reading some more.”

  Luke brightened. “We don’t have to hide anymore, do we?”

  Kate smiled and shook her head. “No, we don’t.”

  “Hide?”

  Something in Josh’s tone reminded her she had unthinkingly intruded on his privacy.

  “Yeah,” Luke explained. “We used to have to hide out in the kitchen late at night, ’cause ol’ Arly, he didn’t like us reading.”

  Josh’s gaze flicked to her cheek, where the last of the bruise was fading away. Kate kept her head up, refusing to hide it as she wished she could do. She looked back at Luke.

  “I have some other books we can read,” she said. “I had to keep them hidden before, but now we can look at them whenever I’m not busy, if you like.”

  “Do they have any wizards and magic in them, like Josh’s does?”

  She glanced at Josh, startled. “Wizards? Magic?”

  Josh shifted his feet restlessly, looking uncomfortable once more. “It’s just a story,” he said.

  “I’ve never heard of a family tree with stories before.”

  “This one’s got ’em,” Luke said excitedly. “It’s got the tree part, too, but every time it gets down to the last name on the tree, there’s a story.”

  “The last name on the tree?” Kate asked, still looking at Josh who was clearly not happy with the discussion.

  “Just forget it.”

  His tone was sharp enough that Kate drew back a little, disgusted with herself for again trying to talk to this man as if he was any other man.

  “I’m sorry,” she said stiffly. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”

  She turned to go back to her work. Josh let out a compressed breath. “Look, I—”

  The door to the mercantile slammed open, cutting him off. A man burst in, waving a rifle wildly. Kate smothered a startled cry as Josh reacted instinctively, instantly. He spun toward the door, his Colt in his right hand so quickly Kate couldn’t see how he’d done it.

  “Josh, don’t!” Kate cried. “Luke!” The boy was between him and the man holding the rifle in unsteady hands.

  Josh froze.

  She could see his gaze flick from the sweating man to the terrified Luke, then back. She held her breath.

  He didn’t fire.

  “Drop it,” the man with the rifle ordered.

  Kate saw Josh’s jaw tighten. “I don’t drop my Colt for any man,” he said, but he knelt to set it on the floor, his eyes never leaving the man in front of them. That man breathed a sigh of relief. So did Kate; Th
e Hawk had bent for Luke. He’d given up his gun so the boy wouldn’t be hurt. Perhaps there was more to him than it seemed.

  “Get it over with, mister,” Josh grated out. “But get her and the boy out of here first.”

  Kate’s forehead creased, then she gasped as his meaning struck her. He’d given up his gun all right. And he’d done it fully expecting to die for it.

  Chapter 8

  “YOU’RE SAFE NOW, Kate,” the man said.

  “Safe?” Her voice had risen, sounding nearly like a yelp.

  “I heard as soon as I got off the stage that The Hawk had killed Arly, and that he was in here with you right now. I grabbed my carbine and came running.”

  “Put that down! No one is safe with you waving that thing around.”

  Josh blinked as she issued the order to the man in the fancy suit. People were gathering in the doorway, gaping at the display before them. The man looked uneasy, but didn’t lower the rifle. A lock of sandy brown hair fell forward over his brow, and he flipped it back with a snap of his head, but never took his eyes off Josh.

  “Yeah, Mr. Hall,” Luke said, recovering rapidly from his fright, “put it down. Everybody knows what an awful shot you are.”

  The man flushed. “Well, maybe I’m not a crack shot, but I backed down The Hawk, didn’t I?”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Alex, only because he was afraid you were going to hit Luke!”

  Alex, Josh thought. Alexander? The memory came then, of a name painted on a building.

  “You’re the lawyer,” he said.

  “I am,” the man said proudly.

  “You’re also a fool,” Josh said sourly. “If that boy hadn’t been between us, you’d be dead.”

  The lawyer held his gaze, hazel eyes unwavering. He was clearly nervous, but he didn’t back away; Josh had to give him credit for that. Hall might not be a crack shot, as he’d said, but he wasn’t short on nerve.

  “You expect me to believe that a man of your ilk would stop simply because a boy got in the way?”

  “I expect you to believe the evidence of your eyes,” Josh said. “Was there any other reason for me not to drop you where you stood? With witnesses who saw you come charging in here waving that old Sharps around?”

  “I would have shot you,” Hall pointed out.

  “And it would have been your last act.”

  Hall paled. Then a chuckle came from the doorway. “And you woulda missed to boot, Alex,” Marshal Pike said.

  Laughter broke out among the group gathered just inside the doorway, a group that had apparently seen the young man heading this way at a run, armed.

  “Before you charged in here to rescue the lady, you shoulda made sure she needed it first,” somebody called out from the group. Hall flushed. And at last lowered the carbine to his side.

  “You’re a fine lawyer, Alex,” Kate said soothingly. “Isn’t that enough?”

  Hall cleared his throat. “Well, yes.” He cast a wary eye at Josh. “But what is he doing here?”

  “Working,” Josh answered.

  Hall blinked. “Working? Working at what?”

  “Sweeping,” Josh said blandly.

  Hall looked from Josh to Kate and back. “Sweeping?”

  “Is that a habit with lawyers?” Josh asked. “Repeating things?”

  Luke laughed, and Hall flushed again. His sheepish expression clearly showed that he realized he’d made a rather embarrassing mistake.

  “Come on, Alex, we’ll paint your tonsils with something to wash down that road dust,” Pike said.

  The clearly embarrassed young lawyer seized the offer quickly. The group continued to harangue the man, clapping him on the back as they herded him toward the saloon and that promised drink, but with the kind of good humor that spoke of liking, not contempt.

  Pike lingered in the doorway for a moment, looking at Josh. “That true? You didn’t fire on account of the boy was in the way?”

  Josh shrugged. He wasn’t sure himself why he hadn’t shot the man; it had certainly been his first instinct when Alex had burst into the store with that rifle.

  Pike seemed to accept his gesture as an answer. “The reverend’s been saying you’re working here because of killing Arly, and Mrs. Dixon here helping you out.” Josh shrugged again. “That’ll do, for the town folks,” Pike went on. “But you start drawing them in from the territory . . .”

  Josh nodded. Pike nodded back, then turned and walked off after the others.

  “What did that mean?” Kate asked.

  Josh shrugged again. “He was reminding me my welcome here is limited.”

  “Why?” she asked. “You were freed, and Luke told me the judge’s order came through on the telegraph, declaring you innocent of murder.”

  “No man with my kind of reputation stays welcome in any town for long. Not any town with any kind of lawman, anyway. Pike’s just letting me know I have until the men looking to build their own reputations start showing up.”

  She frowned. “But that’s not your fault.”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  “But Caleb is a fair man—”

  “He’s also a good marshal. And a good marshal stops trouble before it starts.”

  “But it’s not fair for you to have to leave because of what somebody else does.”

  “Worried about me, Kate?” he asked softly, more to see her blush at his use of her name than anything else. She did, prettily. She didn’t seem plain at all at the moment, he thought. Nor had she when she’d been so riled at that lawyer fellow. When she got her blood up, those golden eyes fairly snapped. “That lawyer, he a special friend of yours?”

  “Alex?” she said, sounding surprised.

  “Aww, he’s sweet on her,” Luke said. “Has been for a long time, but he was too afraid to say anything because of ol’ Arly.”

  “Luke!” Kate exclaimed. “Don’t be silly. Of course, he’s not.”

  “Then why did he come in here like a Texas brush popper when he thought you needed help?” Josh asked.

  Her color deepened and she turned away from him.

  “Told ya,” Luke crowed. “Why, he even cozies up to Miss Deborah, ’cause she’s her good friend. Now that that ol’ bastard Arly’s gone, he’ll probably—”

  “Lucas Mitchell, that’s enough,” Kate said sharply, turning on the boy. “And I’ll thank you not to use that kind of language!”

  Luke stopped, staring at her. Josh didn’t know if Luke’s shock was at her tone, or her use of his full name, which, Josh realized with some chagrin, he’d never asked of the boy. Either way, the boy was startled.

  “I’ll not have you calling the dead names under my roof,” she said. “Arly is gone and buried now, and there’s no use in speaking ill of him.”

  Luke backed up, blinking rapidly. “Why not? He called me the same thing. Said I was nothin’ more than a catch colt.”

  “A . . . what?” Kate asked, in a tone that sounded like she was regretting her irritation with the boy in the face of his obvious hurt.

  “It means a colt that comes out of an unplanned breeding,” Josh said bluntly, realizing she was embarrassed, but feeling badly for Luke at the same time. He dug into his pocket and flipped the boy a dime. “Do me a favor, Luke. Go check on Buck for me, and give him a good grooming. I haven’t had time yet today.”

  Luke caught the coin, and with a final glance at Kate, turned and ran out of the store.

  “Guess we’ve both been a little hard on that boy’s feelings today,” he said.

  “I didn’t mean to be. But Arly’s dead. He won’t hurt anyone anymore. Let him rest in peace.”

  “As he let you live in peace?” Josh asked softly. He knew it had been the wrong thing to say the moment he saw her eyes. Anger flar
ed again in the golden depths.

  “What would you have me say? That he was a mean, brutal, angry man? That’s no surprise to anyone in this town. That he took it out on people smaller and weaker than him? That’s no surprise either. That he only married me because it would make it clear he owned me, so if I ran away he could have me brought back?”

  “I doubt that was his only reason,” Josh said, wondering how Arly had reacted to this fire in her. Had it fired him in turn, or had he, as many brutal men did, felt the need to stomp out that courageous spirit? He suspected he already knew the answer to that.

  “No,” she agreed, “it wasn’t his only reason. There are decent people in this town who were his customers, and he couldn’t afford to alienate them entirely by openly keeping a whore.”

  Josh stiffened. “Don’t say that.”

  “Why? What else do you call a woman traded for a pair of boots because she’s the oldest and plainest of four girls, with a father who’s afraid he’ll never be rid of her?”

  “Kate, stop.”

  She kept on, like a pebble picking up speed as it rolled downhill. “And poor Arly got stuck with her because he was so mean none of the women in town would go near him. He couldn’t be choosy—”

  He took a quick step toward her, grabbed her arms, and pulled her around to face him. “Stop it!”

  “NO!” She screamed it, and instantly began to fight him fiercely, clawing, kicking, twisting. “No, no more!”

  The instant he realized what she meant, he released her and backed up. She backed away until she came up hard against the counter. Then she stood there, staring at him, wild-eyed, her breath coming in short, harsh pants.

  “Easy,” he said, holding his hands up and away from her, palms out. “Easy. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not Arly, Kate.”

  He saw her bite her lower lip, as if trying to regain control of herself.