“It doesn’t matter if you agree to join up with me. You see, my impulsive and beautiful wife, after I learned about Newl’s plan to hire somebody to rescue Ben, I came up with an idea for capturing hard-to-expose criminals like Barber and Jones and recovering stolen money or goods. My superior got that suggestion approved by the President himself. My strategy was to break a gang member out of prison and let him lead me to the others and the money. As my deputy and with Ben trusting you, we can say I let you carry out the first step of my plan. Then we pretended to try to prove his innocence to remove any lingering doubts he had about us so he’d guide us to his cohorts and the money. After we discovered they’d had a falling out, we used our guise as journalists to help lead us to Barber and Jones.”
“You have permission to break the law?”
“Let’s just say bend or stretch it a little to obtain justice.”
“You want me to help you arrest Ben and send him back to prison?”
“That’s right, but after we finish here with Barber and Jones. Their little plan for Monday night will be their last crime. Once they’re in custody, we can use Ben to prove their involvement in my family’s murder.”
“But I can’t lead you to Ben; I don’t know where he is. He—”
“Maggie, love, I can’t save you if you don’t trust me and help me.”
“Let me finish. He’s somewhere in or near Sante Fe with one of Newl’s trusted friends. I wasn’t told the person’s name or location. They promised if I couldn’t find evidence to get Ben cleared within two months, Ben would surrender and wouldn’t incriminate me. I was convinced he was innocent, even suspected maybe he was framed. I wouldn’t have helped him escape except I was told his life was in immediate danger. I was told if I left him in Yuma while I investigated his case, he wouldn’t be alive by the time I could get him exonerated. He’s supposed to be in safe hiding until either I clear him or he surrenders on June twentieth.”
“He won’t ever surrender, Maggie, and you can’t clear him.”
“I realized that this morning after Newl telegraphed a response to my query about that hunting trip; you were right: it was Ben’s idea. No matter what you feel about Ben, Newl honestly believes him and told the truth in court. It’s going to break his heart. He’s going to hate me for being responsible. He’ll probably try to turn Mother against me, and she’ll get caught between us.”
“That’s a risk you’ll have to take, Maggie. Newl and your mother will have to accept the bitter truth about Ben and understand you had no choice in this matter.”
“If I work with you, Hawk, they won’t know the truth; they’ll think I was against Ben from the beginning and lied to them just to capture the others and recover the stolen money. Even if I tell Newl the truth about our ruse, he might be so angry at us for sending his son back to prison or to the gallows that he’d expose your plan to save me. What if we incriminate Newl for hiring somebody to engineer the prison break and he gets into trouble? They might even send him to jail. What would happen to my mother?”
“My superior already knows about Newl’s plan, and I’m sure any court would understand his paternal action. He’ll probably just be scolded again like he was in Prescott. As for your mother, she’s a smart and brave woman like her daughter, so she can take care of herself if the worst happens. In my opinion, she’ll be glad nothing bad happened to you.”
“You’re right, of course. The main thing is, I can’t get you into trouble to protect myself; it could cost you your badge and reputation.”
Hawk pulled her into his embrace and cuddled against him. “So what? I have a three-hundred-acre ranch in San Antonio. I can live and work on that. Besides, I have to make a home for my new wife. We can’t be dragging our children down dusty or muddy trails chasing outlaws, so we’ll both have to retire from our jobs after we close this case.”
Hawk leaned back so he could look into her eyes as he said, “That is, woman, if you love me as much as I love you and want to stay married to me, have a family, and become ranchers. Do you, Maggie? Will you?”
That time when her heart rate increased, it was from elation and relief. She smiled and said, “Yes, Hawk, I do want to be your wife. I love you and I want to have a home together, and live as ranchers in Texas. Are you sure?”
“Never been more certain of anything in my life, Maggie love. Look now, I have a present for you,” he said with a broad grin and released her. He withdrew his marshal’s badge from a secret leather pocket on the underside of his left holster and showed it to her. As she held and eyed the silver star, he withdrew a deputy badge from a small package in his drawer. “This arrived this morning. I rode over to Fairbank to pick it up while you were shopping. After I pin it on and you take an oath, we’ll be official partners.”
“I would rather take something off than put something on,” she told him, grasping the front of her blouse and shaking it for clarity. Now that they had revealed their mutual love and their marriage was for real, she yearned for the physical closeness that would unite their bodies.
Hawk grinned and nodded. “I like your idea best, Mrs. Reynolds, so this business can wait a while.”
Hawk’s passion increased in intensity and heat. She believed him and trusted him, understood his motivations and forgave his secrecy. She loved and desired him, only him, and had committed herself to sharing his life. She was his wife in more than name only. He almost could taste the delicious future that awaited them as soon as his mission was finalized.
As Hawk looked into her radiant face, he traced the delicate features and said, “I love you, Maggie, more than I could have imagined was possible.”
“I love you, my arresting husband; I think that feeling started the moment we met. It was like being only half a person in many ways and finding my matching part. It was as if I knew immediately we were destined for each other. I meant every word I said during our marriage ceremony.”
“So did I,” he concurred before his lips claimed hers in a tender kiss.
After they walked to the bed, Maggie wondered if her brimming heart could burst with happiness or if she could melt from the sweltering flames blazing within her body. Her breasts felt heavy with desire and she moaned in delight when he removed her blouse and chemise to fondle them. A fierce craving for him attacked the center of her being and she yielded to its sweet and powerful summons.
They kissed several times as Maggie unbuttoned his shirt. They parted for her to shuck her remaining garments and shoes, and toss aside the covers while he undressed. They lay on the bed and cuddled as they sought each other’s kisses. Their hands roamed and their fingers gave and took pleasure.
Hawk drifted his lips across her face, down her neck, and to the satiny skin of her breasts. Her nipples were taut and seemed to beg for his loving attention. He teethed, licked, and tantalized those points until he had her breathless and squirming in rapture. He adored the velvety texture of her bare skin and its intoxicating contact with his own flesh. She had taught him how unique and potent and consuming sex could be when it took place between true lovers who were bound to each other.
Maggie quivered in anticipation of what loomed before her as his hand blazed a searing path down her abdomen, across the space between her hipbones, and went lower where it teased and tantalized her to the brink of ecstasy. She felt special, treasured, loved deeply. When she became so aroused from his strokes and suckles, she thought she might cry out from sheer ecstasy. Her fingers sated their yearning to touch and stimulate him by journeying over his stalwart frame as far as she could reach. Just when she wondered if she’d perish from hunger if he didn’t kiss her soon, Hawk’s mouth returned to hers and he moved atop her responsive body.
He looked into her softened gaze as he thrust his pleading erection deep within her feminine core. Her long brown hair spread around her head on the pillow and he buried his fingers within those lustrous locks. He lowered his mouth to her throat where it felt blood pounding there with exhilaration. With
leisure, generosity, and gentleness, he advanced and retreated numerous times at a steady and teasing pace. He heard her sigh dreamily, felt her cling to him, and savored her mouth meshing to his.
Maggie clasped his handsome face between her hands and tried to convey all of her emotions in a deep and loving kiss. She felt every inch of his magnificent shaft as he penetrated and withdrew over and over until she was engulfed by need. She wanted him urgently. She liked when he increased the speed, depth, and power of his thrusts. From their past encounter, she knew where this trip would take her, and there was no discomfort this time. She was ready to reach her destination and could not hold back from racing toward it with haste.
As soon as Maggie surrendered to the blissful sensations and writhed in the throes of her release, Hawk cast aside his weakened control and sought his own fulfillment.
They continued to kiss, stroke, and embrace until they’d savored every measure of the glorious experience. Then they nestled together as they relaxed and rested.
As current events returned to her mind, Maggie propped up beside Hawk and looked down at his peaceful face. “How do you plan to explain Ben’s escape before we became partners? Won’t that contradict our story?”
Hawk grinned as he placed a lock of hair over her shoulder and teased his fingers across her exposed collarbone and down her upper arm. “I took that precaution while we were in Prescott. I had a gut feeling about you and us even then, so I acted on it. I telegraphed my superior and told him I had somebody working with me who had assisted with Ben’s escape and was traveling with me to carry out my assignment. After I learned more about you in Tucson, I sent him another telegram and said I wanted to appoint my partner as my deputy so you’d have the authority to help me make the arrests. That’s when I requested a badge for you and asked for it to be sent to me at Fairbank.”
Maggie laughed and jested, “So, I have a very sneaky husband.”
He chuckled and quipped, “Nope, just a cunning and cautious one.”
As Maggie nibbled on his strong chin in a playful manner, she said, “Now I’m working for you and you’re the leader of our team. I guess you didn’t like having a boss lady after all, right?”
“Oh, you can boss me around any time, my tempting wife.”
“As long as my orders are agreeable, right?” she retorted.
“So far, you haven’t given me one that isn’t.”
In a serious vein, Maggie said, “I’m sorry about what happened to your parents and brother, Hawk, and I’m sorry my family is involved in those tragic losses. I’m positive my mother will adore you as much as I do. Well, almost as much. But I can’t surmise how Newl is going to feel about either of us later. We might not be welcome in their home.”
“That reaction is to be expected in the beginning, Maggie, so don’t let it hurt you or make you hesitate about doing what’s right. In time, things should be settled between us; I hope that’s true because I know how much you love your mother. One thing you’ve taught me is that hatred, anger, and a hunger for revenge can be tamed by love. In time, maybe Newl will accept that reality and forgive us for upholding the law.”
“That’s one of the nicest things you could say to me, Hawk; thanks. I pray that Newl will be understanding, because those feelings can be so self-destructive and damaging to relationships with loved ones. You made the right decision to let the Law mete out justice for you and your family. You’re a good and honorable man, so I think you would have come to regret killing them, despite what they did.”
Maggie halted herself from stroking his chest as if trying to soothe the anguish he still endured within his heart. “How did you discover Barber’s gang was responsible for their deaths?”
“My parents and brother had just returned from the bank in town, carrying a satchel of money Pa had collected to pay for a herd he was buying that week, when those varmints rode up to steal it. I figured one of them must have been in the bank, maybe checking it out for a robbery, when Pa made his withdrawal, so they considered him an easier and safer target.”
Hawk’s voice hoarsened with a mixture of sadness and anger as he said, “Whoever saw that pickup must have gathered the others and followed them home. They shot them down near the barn, right beside the carriage, took the satchel, and left in a hurry before any ranch hands could come running to help. Pedro Gonzales, a Mexican boy who does chores around the place, he was in the loft checking out a bird nest when the incident took place. From where he hid behind bales of hay, he saw and heard everything, including their first names. When he told me it was a tall redhead called Pete, a spooky-eyed skinny man called Slim, and two others called Coot and Toby, I knew who was responsible. Besides, they’d been seen in town that morning. I learned that when I returned to bury my family and investigate their murders. Blazes, Maggie, if I had stayed longer, maybe I could have saved them. But it’s too late to think in that direction.”
Maggie’s heart ached over his sufferings and misplaced guilt. Yet, she thought it best to keep silent. Grief was something a person had to deal with in their own way and time.
“Pedro said a fifth man was with them, tall, sandy-haired, nice-looking. Nobody spoke his name during the attack. After I caught up with Muns, he told me it was Ben Carver, and that Carver was in prison. With Ben locked away until I dealt with him later, I concentrated on finding the others. As I told you, they laid low for a long time. Every clue I got to them only lead me into box canyons. Then, I received word from Callie—the girl who works in the Paradise Club—that Newl was looking for a hired gun to bust Ben out of prison. That’s when I came up with my cunning idea and got my superior to agree to using it because the authorities want Barber and Jones real bad, and want that stolen money returned to Prescott. You see, part of that theft was the payroll for Fort Whipple soldiers, government money. Since federal laws had been broken, that gave me power to act.”
“So, you have a witness against them this time; that’s good news.”
“I don’t want to involve a boy in a trial. That could put him in danger. You see, Maggie love, Barber has a brother who’s as mean or meaner and faster than Barber. His name is Berk and he’s as dangerous as a villain comes.” Hawk decided not to tell Maggie that Berk also fit Pedro’s description of the fifth man because he didn’t want her doubting Ben’s guilt at this point in time, and he’d been told Berk was seen in New Mexico on that awful day.
“So you’re afraid that this Berk would harm Pedro?”
“Yep, either before or during or even after Barber’s trial. I don’t want anybody to know about Pedro’s existence, other than my superior and you. Pete and Berk are sorry excuses for men, but they are brothers. Whether they love each other or not, those kind of men go after revenge.”
“You’re right. I’m sure you felt frustrated knowing you might be unable to prove their guilt since you couldn’t use Pedro against them.”
“For a while, about as frustrated as I was about a mysterious woman who blew into my life and gnawed at my innards without mercy or relief.”
Maggie smiled, allowing him to get off of the painful subject. “But you’re appeased and calmed now, right?”
He caressed her cheek and smiled. “For a little while. You have this way of making me hungry and thirsty over and over again, no matter how good my last taste of you was.”
“Speaking of taste, if we don’t hurry, we’ll miss supper again.”
“I can take a hint, woman. Let’s get dressed and go eat.”
As they snuggled in bed later, Hawk asked Maggie about herself and her work. She talked about her childhood, schooling back East with Abby, life and work with her mother in St. Louis, Catherine’s romance with and marriage to Newl, her job in a lawyer’s office for two years, and about joining the Carlton Detective Agency years ago. She related tales about her various assignments: She told him about investigating a detective agency in Denver which was in reality a cover for the clandestine business of forcing gamblers to make payoffs rather tha
n risk being searched for hidden cards or shot down from concealment. She told him about a ruse in Amarillo where diamonds were sprinkled on rocky sections to lure ignorant men into purchasing certain properties, only to discover no other stones could be found later and those picked up earlier were of low quality. She told him about burnings and so-called accidents at a newspaper office in Kansas City where a formidable cattle baron was being written about unfavorably and was trying to scare off the editor and reporter. She related other stories at his encouragement, then said, “You see, my value was in being a stranger to those areas, being a woman who wouldn’t fall under suspicion by the culprits, and the ability to play a southern belle to great heights. That Kansas City case was where I got my newspaper experience I’ve been using during our work together.”
“I married a very smart and brave woman. My family would have loved you, Maggie, and you would have loved them. I know my grandparents will feel that way. I’m eager for you to meet them. Grandpa owns a mercantile store in San Antonio. He retired from ranching years ago; as you know, that’s hard work in all kinds of weather. He and Grandma are wonderful people; they started the ranch my parents had. It’s a large and beautiful spread, three hundred prime acres and plenty of water. They raised high quality cattle and horses. Stone, my brother who was killed, took to ranching like a duck to water. As for me, I liked moving around and seeing places and being a lawman. It got lonely and the weather could be miserable at times, but it suited me too much to let the sacrifices and hardships get me down. Their foreman and hands are running the place for me until I return or sell out. Now that I have a wife and want a family of my own, the Circle R Ranch is where we’ll live. Unless you want to settle somewhere else.”
“Absolutely not. Living on your ranch sounds like a dream come true, Hawk: a home we and our children will love.”
They lay on their sides and talked in whispers for a while before they went to sleep.
Wild Winds Page 24