“You’ve been down for the better part of a day, darling. Every time I tried to help, you’d murmur no.” He didn’t disguise his dislike for her discomfort. “A man has to do what a man has to do. You said I could help, I helped.”
Exasperated by and adoring him in the same breath, she touched his jaw with her lips. “Are you in pain?”
“Minimal. It will pass in a while. I can ignore it. How do you feel otherwise?” He skimmed his fingers up and down her spine.
After a mental inventory of her aches and pains, she tested the areas of her mind that used her gift—they were bruised and that normally slender channel had widened. “Achy…what was that?” The memory still held the power to leave her staggered.
“That was Jason,” he began and surprise jolted through her.
“Your brother? The one who kept everything from you.” She couldn’t keep the fierce hostility at bay, but when William only gave her a long, patient look, she tried to swallow it. “Sorry, I am still not fond of how he treated you.”
“I know.” A grin softened the words.
Blowing out a breath, she settled against his chest, utterly comfortable with the way his body fit hers. “Please continue.”
He waited a heartbeat more. “The first night I found you, Buck reached out to me in a dream. He’d been keeping an eye on you for Quanto and knew when I’d found you. So I asked them to check San Antonio. If those men really were pursuing you, that is where they would go.”
That it had been a few days since he’d made that request and he hadn’t told her stung. Fresh on the heels of her purely emotional reaction came rational reason. He had nothing to tell her other than they went to verify information. Mollified by that idea, she blew out a breath.
“So that is what Jason meant when he said three of them were at the…fort?”
“And why Jimmy and Shane will head there to check the information. As for Jason and what happened…I have an idea and Quanto agreed with my assessment as much as he was able to based on my recount of it.” He said it so easily, as if one man weren’t miles to the west of them and on top of a mountain and the other miles to the east and at his home.
“William, we’re in the middle of a desert and you’ve just described conversations with men who are nowhere near us. It seems impossible to even comprehend.” Her mind wanted to reject it, yet how could she? She’d spoken to Quanto in dreams. Not since she left the mountain. It made her uneasy to think of Buck looking in on her dreams especially when she’d…heat scalded her face and she felt her eyes widen.
His hand came up to press against the back of her head when she would have jerked away entirely. “He said he only checked to see if you were all right. He didn’t stay in your dreams.” The smugness deepening his smile said the other man had gotten a glimpse of their contents and shared.
“I am humiliated before I’ve even met them.” She bent her head back to his chest and tried to ignore the rumble of laughter vibrating it.
“You want humiliated? I know for a fact that Buck walked into his sister’s dreams when she was—how shall I put this delicately? Having very improper relations with my brother.” His wild amusement begged her to join in and she laughed.
“I will concede the point. That would be far more embarrassing, particularly if he were my brother.” But she knew her face had to still be red. What would they think of her? Theirs was far from a proper relationship and most circles would totally shun her as a harlot. Shoving that worry away for the time being, she refused to muddy the air between them again. He was too precious to her. “That doesn’t explain how we saw him or how he saw us.”
Instead of answering her, he sat up and carried her with him. Nudging her away from him, he climbed to his feet and returned with the water skin. “You need to eat.” Leaving her with the water skin, he put together a meal with sizzling meat that she recognized as a rabbit—she didn’t ask how he’d found one in the desert.
Or how he’d found this narrow little, shaded canyon. The horses drowsed in the shade of another ledge. The walls jutted up high around them, with some green peeking out from the beneath the rocks that seemed to have been crushed together.
“It’s a flood gully,” William explained and held out a small tin plate to her with several slices of meat and a whole heel of their bread. “Eat it all.” He told her before fixing a plate for himself, one that didn’t include bread. “As for Jason, Buck warned me that Jason believed he might be able to reach me across the distance. We’re brothers.”
Following his logic, she nodded. But when he continued to stare at her, she took a bite of the food.
Seemingly satisfied, he sat down on the bedroll opposite her and spoke between bites. “While we were talking, he did reach out and I heard him. It was really loud and then kind of broken, like I couldn’t quite hear every word. I had to fiddle with my shields. Balancing how much to drop them meant taking down a couple of layers…”
Swallowing her bite, Evelyn frowned. “That could have been bad for you.”
“You were the only one close enough to affect me and I like feeling you.” The raw intensity in that statement sent a shiver racing over her skin. She liked feeling him, too. “So I judged it safe enough. When you took my hand, however, I think your gift and mine worked in tandem, while Jason was still connected. My mind could hear him and a part of me wanted to see him. You couple desire with ability and…”
“…and I was trying to answer your question, but maybe not the question you had in your mind at that moment.” Possibilities tumbled through her mind. “Intent is everything. That is what my father always said. That need and desire combine to create intent. The difference between being responsible for a death and being a murderer is volition.” Astonished by the credulity of the argument, she forgot to eat until William nudged her plate. “Why was I the one who got so tired, do you suppose?”
“You did the majority of the work, you were projecting Jason here and us there—and that’s a fair bit of distance.” William cleaned his plate. “At least that’s what we all think. You went out pretty hard, though. We’re not trying to attempt it that way again.”
“But he needed something more, confirmation of what the men looked like?” She’d seen the questioning look in his brother’s—“Why do his eyes glow?”
“I have no idea. He did ask about the men, but we can make do with what I remembered from when you conjured them before. Buck took the image and planned to share it. According to him, it was a great deal clearer than what Quanto managed to share before.”
“When I’ve rested—”
“No.” He didn’t even let her finish speaking.
Mutiny reared up. “It’s my risk to take.”
“No.” He repeated and eyed her plate. “Finish that. We’ll ride as soon as the sun sets, which will only be a couple of hours or so. You can rest until then.”
“The discussion isn’t over. If they are there and I can help, then I can…”
William finished scraping his plate and repacked it into one of the saddlebags. Stretching out next to her, he tilted his hat over his eyes.
“You’re not listening to me.” She pursed her lips.
He patted her leg. “I can hear you fine, darling, I just don’t agree. Particularly when we don’t know the cost of straining your gift that way and your whole focus is on vengeance.”
“My whole focus is not on vengeance.” How could he think that? “It’s justice for my father.”
“No, it’s about absolving yourself of the guilt for not acting sooner. It’s about making the death of a man you’ve decided might be innocent, even though you have no proof of it, mean something by punishing those who did hurt your father—and who hurt you, sweetheart. They hurt you. And you want to take back what was taken away. You’re willing to do anything and I understand, but I’m not going to let you kill yourself to accomplish it.” He continued to caress her leg. “Eat and then come sleep for a bit. We still have a long ride.”
It was a long time before she finished eating because William’s words kept repeating over and over inside her mind. Was he right?
Chapter 24
Kid, Hill Country
“It’s beautiful.” Evelyn grinned. They’d paused near a cliff top to look down at the Colorado. The lazy flow of the river cut through the landscape. Though deep enough to boast riverboats, they were still a scarcity in the region. Once they’d left the desert behind, they’d ridden through hard lands where water sources often ran under the rock and it wasn’t until the last couple of days that they’d reached the heavier green foliage and hardier terrain of the hill country.
Kid was relieved. The late summer heat turned the air sticky and kept the flies swirling lazily, but the desert heat had been brutal and Evelyn—tough as she was—had struggled. “The Flying K is about another fifty miles that way.” He pointed. “We’re making good time.”
“If you say so,” she shifted in the saddle. “I feel like we’ve been riding forever.”
“Life on a ranch means a lot of time in the saddle, you get used to it.” He drank in the sight of her stretch. The denim britches shaped her rear nicely and he knew the supple muscle hidden beneath the shirt. He’d watched her get stronger, day-by-day both on the mountain and since they’d begun the ride.
“Hmm, I think I actually prefer stagecoach travel to this.” The teasing glint in her eye betrayed her humor. “Of course, stagecoaches are musty and hot little boxes on very bouncy wheels. Well, except when they’re cold, damp boxes and the people you travel with are unwashed.”
“Hmm. Is that a hint my darling Evelyn? Do I need a bath?” Considering they wore half the trail in a hard layer of grime, he didn’t question his own stink. She still smelled sweet—or maybe it was simply that she was Evelyn.
“I was thinking both of us did.”
Unable and utterly unwilling to dismiss her request, he checked the sun’s position. It was harder to see above the trees, but the shadows overhead gave him a good idea. “This close to the river, we’re better off finding a stream fed pond. The water will be cleaner.”
“How do you always know where to look for these things?” She asked as he found a narrow shelf path the horses could follow down to parallel the rocky gorge.
“I know the land.” Not as well as he knew the ranch, but he knew the far ranging territories. He knew how to read the local environment, how to track water and how to hunt. It took them an hour to make it all the way to level land and a little longer than that for Kid to track the water to a clear pond. Taking the time to scout the area both physically and psychically, he called a halt.
“Go ahead and bathe. I’ll set up camp and take care of the horses.”
It was a testament to her exhaustion and desire that Evelyn didn’t offer even the illusion of an argument. She slid off her horse and grabbed the soap and fresh clothes they’d purchased a few miles before in a small trading post at the edge of the desert. “It’s safe?”
He nodded once. “No one’s around. Go enjoy yourself. I’ll be along soon.” Her palpable relief washed over him. Once the horses had been groomed, he let them graze and gathered wood, setting up a fire to build. He spared time to check the tack and eyed the fray on her saddle’s girth. They had plenty of time before sundown.
A splash and a laugh drifted over from the water, and he grinned.
“Are you ready to come swim yet, Mr. Kane?”
“Oh, so it’s Mr. Kane now?” The address sounded strange.
“I think I should learn to be a bit more proper in our interactions before we get to the ranch.” Despite the light tone, a distinct undercurrent of seriousness threaded the words and Kid paused to glance over at her. Submerged in the cool water, Evelyn was busily rinsing out her hair. Water glistened off her bare shoulders and long arms—but it was the fact that her back faced him that deepened his concern.
“And why would that be?” He stripped off his clothes and dumped the dirty ones next to the edge of the water; he’d wash them all and leave them to dry on the rocks. The gun he put within reach and he lowered his shields fully, extending his senses out in all directions.
They were still alone.
Satisfied, he strode into the water. Though warmed by the sun, it was far cooler and the chill shocked him. Evelyn turned at the first splash of his foot striking the water and the lazy heat in her gaze caressed him. “William, we can hardly continue as lovers in your father’s house or the town. What would everyone think?”
A flicker of feeling teased him, but he closed it out. For this moment, he didn’t want to read her. He wanted to hear her. Striding out until he was waist deep, he studied the strain around her eyes. They’d had some hard discussions over the last few days and harder riding.
“Why does it matter what they think?” He had his own ideas, but he desperately wanted to know where that delightfully rational mind had taken her on this point.
She dropped her hands from her hair to stare at him, incredulity stamping across her features. “William, I realize Fevered are different, but society does not condone men and women fornicating freely no matter what your experiences are with brothels, saloons or…the wives of other men.” The righteously prim tone slapped at him and he had to bite down on the inside of his lip to keep from grinning.
“Oh, there are definitely situations where not only is fornication between men and women approved, sexual congress is encouraged.” He sank into the water and rinsed off the dirt. Rising, he wiped the droplets from his eyes and held out his hand for the soap.
Instead of passing it over, she approached, soap in hand. When she began to lather it up his arm and onto his shoulders, he held still and just enjoyed her ministrations. “In what situation would a man and woman have to be in for their dalliance to be encouraged rather than the woman being branded a light skirt?”
“Mating,” he reached for the first word that came to mind and had to hide another grin when her nails bit into his shoulder. She paused for a moment and then began to work her way to his other shoulder.
“I’m afraid I do not shift into a wolf, so I fear mating will not be an option.” The hesitation, however, was gone. A playful, and utterly sensuous woman, began to massage the soap into his hair. Tilting his head back so she didn’t have to reach, he smiled.
“True. Buck and Delilah declared their joining to each other and probably held some type of handfasting—or maybe he married her in a dream. No one complains about their time together and I understand it’s been quite a bit.”
Her response was a hard tug on his hair and then she went back to scrubbing his scalp. Kid had to wonder if he’d end up purring like a cat if she kept it up. “You do realize being cruel is not particularly fair.”
“I would never be cruel to you.” He would have said more, but she pressed on his shoulders and he dunked himself down, running his hands through his hair to loosen the soap. When he came up again, he slid an arm around her waist and drew her over to cleaner water.
“William…” Her blue eyes held a dozen questions and he cupped her face in his hands.
“I love you, Evelyn. I love your mind, I love your spirit. Hell, I even love every big word you use. I love you. Do you really think I will let anyone do anything to make you feel unwelcome or that you’ve done anything wrong?”
“You love me?” The trembling shivering over her couldn’t be fabricated and he pulled her closer and held her tight.
“Of course I do.” He held onto his shields, because no matter how badly he wanted to read her in this moment, he had to be utterly honest with her about his feelings. “I know I didn’t say it. Those are not the easiest words for me.” In fact they were rather impossible ones. “But I’ve loved you for a quite a while and I thought I’d shown you…”
She pulled back, tears slicking her cheeks. “You did show me you cared, but…” Her wince spoke volumes.
“You told me you loved me and you let me feel it. You were worried that I only return
ed the affection because you held it.” Despite how every part of him violently rejected the idea, he couldn’t fault her for the belief. Her crestfallen expression and reddening cheeks told him that was exactly what she’d thought.
“I didn’t want to think that, but the further we’ve gone from the mountain, the more rational and restrained you’ve been. Only when we’re…”
“…engaging in sexual congress?” he grinned.
“You are a terrible man.” God, he loved how she turned her tone prim and her words crisp when embarrassment threatened.
“But I’m your man,” he told her. “Darling, I’m crazy about you—crazy for you—but you need me to be rational and restrained. I have to think and act, not react. It takes a little practice for me.”
“I love the passionate you, the man who makes me feel the most wonderful things, who is generous beyond measure and has no comprehension of how much I truly adore him.”
“Oh, he knows.” Tracing his thumb across her collarbone, Kid whispered. “When I said only you, Evelyn, it wasn’t just about that night. It was forever. I want you to be my wife and the moment you set foot on my ranch, you’re not leaving it. I’m taking you home, to my family—a family that is going to belong to you, too. I wanted you to meet them first, I thought it only fair to know what you’d be in for.”
Her grin lit up his soul. “You had a plan.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Have I spoiled your plan?” She looped her arms around his neck, the twinkle in her eyes dancing.
“That depends,” he told her solemnly.
“On?” The soft friction of her breasts against him threatened to rob him of his speech.
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