by Austina Love
“I know. That man came out of nowhere and had me trapped. He was huge. I think he saw me go through the wall.” Her hands started shaking from the adrenaline rush. “Now they will know it was me taking the money. He must’ve been hired by that sleazebag banker.”
“Looks like we have a common enemy.” Trip took her hands in his. “Relax…Pike Draven has ghosts of his own. He’s not a law abiding citizen so he won’t go to the cops.”
“You know this man?”
He nodded and the expression in his eyes deepened. “I’ve been tracking him for a while now. I knew he had to be in this area but today is the first time he came out of hiding.”
“So that’s why you’ve been hanging around town? It wasn’t as you said, in hopes of meeting me?”
“Initially, yeah, I was coming into town waiting for Pike to show up. He had to hook up with Carter and Gage eventually.”
Her heart sank. “So what was I? Just some sideline entertainment?”
Trip released a frustrated sigh. “Ya know, for a small dust ball of a town, it sure isn’t dull. I didn’t have to pick you up on the road that day. I could’ve kept on going. It’s never been my style to give hitchhikers a ride. And I continued giving you rides even after you robbed the bank because I just can’t resist your sweetness. Now if that doesn’t say something to you, then I don’t know what will.”
She mulled over his words. He made a point. She had used him for a getaway driver without giving him a heads-up. He could’ve left her there to find another ride back to the reservation yet he’d waited on all accounts and helped her each time.
“I guess you have a good argument there. We still have a lot to learn about each other. What do you know about Carter and Gage? I know they are in cahoots with one another and worked together to steal my family’s farm but I’m not aware of anything else.”
He pulled her into his arms, against his hard chest. He smelled wonderfully masculine and his embrace eased her tension.
“Let’s just say your lawyer friend has more going on in his firm than helping underhanded pricks like Carter. I’m betting that had you dug a little deeper, you’d have found what really made him rich.” He petted her hair with strong yet tender hands. “He didn’t make all that money defending clients.”
“I know. He padded his pockets to cover Carter’s shady past. I’m sure he does it for others.”
“Not only that. He and Carter head the biggest drug ring in the area. The deals go down at night. I’m guessing they’re using Gage’s office as a front and the bank to hold the money.”
“I wonder how that slob convinced Gage to get involved with his dirty scheme. Maybe Gage was desperate for money.” She sighed, disappointed that a man she’d trusted all her life had been corrupted. “So you think Gage keeps a storehouse of drugs in his building?”
Trip nodded. “Pretty big office for one lawyer with no partners and only one secretary.”
“No doubt his mortgage is owed to Carter. That creep is the worst thing that ever happened to this town.” She shook her head sadly. “Why haven’t you busted them?”
“I’m a bounty hunter, babe, not a lawman. My stake in this is personal. Once I take down Pike I’ll leave his cohorts for the FBI.”
“No…” She tilted her chin upward so that their eyes met. “You can have Pike but that low down sleazy banker is mine. Maybe once we get rid of him the town will be safe again.”
A wry grin touched his lips. “I knew it was a good thing hooking up with you. It just felt right.”
“Yeah…it does.” Her thoughts came together quickly. “Pike is the one responsible for the death of your brother, isn’t he?”
Trip placed a light kiss on her nose. “Yeah.”
Their gazes locked in a silent exchange. She saw the pain, rage and determination in his—the same feelings raging in her very soul. “What happened?”
With open hesitation, he sighed before speaking. “My brother uncovered their drug ring. He was a cop. Pike gave him an overdose of heroine to keep him quiet.”
“So that’s why you asked if I was running drugs? When you saw me leave the bank with a huge bag of money, you thought I was working with them?”
“The thought crossed my mind. I didn’t know you had your own personal beef with them.”
“And your brother’s OD was not an accident…” She offered him a consoling smile. “You’re beginning to make sense to me.”
“Don’t get too confident,” he said with a wink. “I have a feeling we’ve only scratched the surface on what makes each other tick. I don’t even know your last name yet.” He gave her an expectant look.
“Oh…we do have a long way to go. My last name is Halayi.”
He studied her for a moment in open adoration. “It’s beautiful…like you.”
Heat flooded her cheeks and she looked away. “You know they’ll be gunning for me now. Even if I don’t show up on camera, which I hope I don’t, Pike saw me with the money then watched me ride off with you.”
Trip laid a comforting hand alongside her face, lifting her chin until their eyes met. “Then we’ll be ready for them, babe, we’ll be ready.”
“We’ll be renegades is what we’ll be.”
“Yeah…one with a fast bike and the other a weapons specialist, I assume your twenty year career prepared you well?”
“Hell yeah,” she replied. “I can handle anything that fires ammunition and I’m a sharp shooter.”
“Damn, angel…you really are my ideal woman.”
Chapter Two
“We need to unload this money.” Shye sat cross-legged on the grass near the fire pit. “Do you think we can ride down to the reservation after dark?”
Trip nodded. “You’ll need to be extremely cautious. No doubt they’ll be watching the area, expecting you to visit your parents.”
“I will.” She watched in silence for a while as he cooked over the fire. “I’m very sorry about your brother. How did you discover that Pike is responsible? Why did you want me to think it was an accident?”
Leaning back on bent elbows with his legs stretched out on the grass, he stared up at her with hauntingly alluring eyes. “I rarely speak of this and it’s why I led you to believe his death was an accident. I didn’t want to involve you in my personal fight. I live a dangerous life.”
“Yeah and mine is chock full of rainbows and fairy tales,” she said with a sarcastic laugh. “I think I can handle hanging with you.”
He grinned, then winked. “I like your straight forward style…Shadow.”
She loved the way her Lakota name rolled off his tongue, as if he was making love to it as he did to her with his eyes. No man had ever affected her as he did. A mere touch, a fleeting glance—every move he made, every word spoken from those kissable lips made her tingle with excitement.
“I don’t know how to be anything I’m not.”
“Don’t ever change, babe. Not too many genuine souls around.”
“Some people are put off by that.” She placed a gentle hand on his chest. “I’m very sorry about your brother.”
He nodded his thanks. “My brother left me one thing in his will. Everything else went to his wife.”
“Are you bitter?”
“Nah, she was a good wife. Not easy being married to an undercover cop. She deserved it all, the house and the money. Sadly he didn’t leave her with a child. After the funeral she sold the house and hopped a plane to somewhere far away from here.”
“You told her to go, didn’t you?”
Openly impressed, he cocked one brow. “Don’t miss much, do ya?”
She shrugged while polishing off the delicious burger he’d cooked. Trip smiled and continued.
“Yeah, I told her to get the hell away. I knew if she stayed that the pricks would hunt her down searching for info she didn’t have.”
“Ah, the one thing your brother left you…his secrets.”
Again, the impressed look flitted through his eyes. “You t
hink like a warrior. I take it you didn’t spend much time playing with dolls while growing up?”
Shye laughed, recalling what her mother had said. “Nooo… Ina always told me I was too much like a boy, playing with weapons and eating like a bear.”
“Ina,” he repeated, the name rolled off his tongue sweetly. “Is that what you call your mother?”
“Yes, it’s our native tongue…Lakota. My father is Atewaye Ki.”
“Very nice.” An intrigued expression filled his eyes. “Well you are right. The one thing my brother left me was the key to a safe deposit box nobody knew about. Inside, I found a book with all his informants listed inside, the evidence he’d gathered on this little three ring circus in town and a tape of Pike bragging about killing others.” He paused to chug some water from a jug. “Ty was about to blow this thing wide open the night we found him with a needle in his arm. At least he left me with enough evidence to bury Draven when I catch the snake.”
“Didn’t he have a partner who could help you?”
Trip looked away. “He vanished the night Ty died. Nobody’s seen him since. My brother was smart to leave the evidence with someone not involved and the only person he could trust. He had too much invested to let this bastard get away. There’s just not enough manpower to track a trail once it goes cold. It took me a while to find an informant who’d talk. But if you keep at it you’ll find one who’ll cooperate to keep his ass out of jail. He wore a wire during a chat with Pike and got him talking. The prick had boasted over taking down pain-in-the-ass Viper with one little shot. Draven was pretty cocky over taking out a cop and vowed to get the other brother too.”
“You said the evidence left to you is enough to bury him. Why did you need more?”
“I promised Ty on his grave that I’d find his killer and now I have. He was in hiding until today.”
“What will you do when you catch him? Turn him over to the cops?”
Fierce resolution hung on his voice. “I can’t trust them with the evidence. Pike has too many dirty officials in his pocket. I don’t want to place another person in danger by leaving it with them so I have everything hidden in a very safe place. There’s no way I’m letting him slip through a loophole in the system after waiting this long to find him.”
Shye was all too familiar with loopholes and corrupt officials. Her parents lost their farm—a home that had been in her family for generations—in just such a way. She began to see a common thread forming between her and this hunky biker. He hadn’t come right out and said it but she sensed by the tone in his voice that Trip didn’t plan on bringing him in alive.
His past sounded as tumultuous as her present. She gazed at him for several long minutes while absorbing all he’d said. Flickering light from a weakening fire cast a warm glow as the sky darkened with night. She let her gaze drift over him as he lay seemingly lost in thought while staring upward.
With arms folded behind his head now, he was a sight to behold racked out on the ground. From his glorious black hair to his long lean legs and everything in between, he embodied masculinity at its finest and was sexy as hell. She stared longingly at the bulging biceps then sighed as her eyes took in his muscular chest and rippling six-pack abs beneath a clingy black t-shirt.
He turned his head, their eyes met and heat flushed her cheeks, having been caught gawking like a schoolgirl. Their two nights of intimacy floated through her memory while watching him simply lay there looking gorgeous.
“I can understand why you don’t trust the law.” She swept her hair to one side while staring back at him. “Sometimes the law just gets in the way.”
“Wise words from a beautiful woman.” He beckoned her with an outstretched arm to lie beside him. “Let’s relax a bit before riding down to the spread the wealth. We have all night.”
“Mm…good idea. When I’m in your arms I feel safe and the world just melts away.”
His voice lowered to a softly seductive growl. “Then come melt with me, angel.”
* * * *
Leaning back in the high back chair, Pike propped his feet on Carter’s desk.
The pudgy banker was sweating profusely. “What do you mean you lost her?”
“Hey…you wanted to know if she was the one stealing your money and now you know. So pay up, boss man.”
“I’ll pay when you bring her in. Besides, I’m low on funds at the moment. The little vixen has hit the vault every day for the past week. I still can’t catch her on camera and have no idea how she pulled off the video tricks that made me and Jill look like we’d taken the money.”
“Ironic that this woman suddenly starts robbing your bank yet you and your tellers are the only ones seen on camera.” He gave Carter a hard stare. “Maybe you’ve found a clever way to move money. You setting up a Swiss bank account? Getting cold feet? Planning on sneaking out of the country on us?”
“No, for Pete’s sake. I just spent a bundle getting that farm away from her to move operations out of town. Our business has grown too big for me and Gage to handle from our office. Sherriff Roone might be slow but he’s as straight up as they come. If we keep moving goods and in out the back door at this rate he’s bound to catch on.”
Pike twirled a pen in one hand while observing Carter’s body language. If the man had any intention of bowing out, he’d be taking a permanent vacation.
“There’s something strange about this woman. I swear she walked right through the wall. Then when I had her cornered, some freaking horse came running down the street and knocked me down.”
“A horse? You’re telling me that a horse ran into town and attacked you?”
“Hey!” Pike swung his legs around and sat upright. “I know what I saw. There’s a lot of Indians around these parts. Maybe one of theirs got loose. But I saw a big black horse run me down.”
Carter let out a sardonic laugh. “What next? Was Tonto riding its back?”
“Don’t mock me, ya fat little dirt bag or I’ll drop you right here. I’m telling you, there’s something uncanny about this woman you’re after. My price just went up to half a million if you want her brought in. I was hired to find out who stole your money not to chase ghosts.”
“You’re insane. Have you forgotten that if one of us goes down, we all go? Don’t forget who hired you and don’t underestimate me. If I mysteriously disappear like Ty, everything I know is on a disc in the care of an attorney whose name shall never pass through these lips.”
Pike rolled his eyes and sighed, annoyed that this small town swindler was smarter than he looked. “For now…but I want the hundred grand you promised for tracking the thief. What you do with the info is up to you. Just pay me and I’ll head on up to the farm and survey the new location.”
“Look, I need to keep enough money in the bank to cover customer accounts. Just give me time to find out what she did with it and I’ll pay you. I’m sure she found a good hiding place.” He dabbed his brow with a handkerchief. “Shye has managed to practically deplete my cash reserve. If we don’t catch her, I won’t even have enough to keep the bank open.”
“We have a deal going down tonight. You’ll pay me then.” He pushed off the chair. “I can’t be seen hanging around town, you know that. People here don’t know me. We don’t need to raise suspicion especially with recent events. You’re already under scrutiny and we don’t need Roone sniffing around.”
“So will you catch Shye before she wrecks everything?”
“Yeah…” he replied with a heavy sigh. “I’ll clean up your mess as always. I expect to be well paid when this is cleared up.”
“Just curious,” Carter muttered. “Was there anyone riding that horse?”
“No, there wasn’t a rider, just someone’s loose angry horse.” Pike shot him a foiled look. “Does it matter? The damn thing nearly pummeled me. Don’t tell me you buy into all that Indian legend shit.”
“Don’t you? You’re one of them.”
“No, I’ve never believed the dreams and vi
sions of old men. I’m only half Indian. My old man was a purebred but I never knew him. Been told I look like him but one night with a whore doesn’t make a father. Doubt he even knows I exist.” Pike slid a cigarette between his lips. “Don’t matter now anyway.”
“How’d Shye get away? Let me guess, she rode the horse out of town,” Carter sneered.
“Something like that—a steel horse.” He gripped the man’s throat with one hand and growled through clenched teeth, “She had a friend waiting.”
“Did you get a look at him? Know who he is?” His already nasal voice cracked.
“No…” he lied. “I was on the ground picking gravel from my teeth when they rode away.” Slowly he released his hold. “I’ll get the girl, you get the money ready. I don’t plan on becoming a public figure…it’s not my style.”
Outside the town was quiet. Everyone had gone in for the night. Pike stood with one foot resting on a concrete slab next to a streetlight and his bent knee supporting an elbow while he lit a cigarette. He thought about this woman called Shye and the havoc she’d apparently been wreaking in town. The list of accusations toward her was mounting quickly including but not limited to hacking a computer, assuming identities, and robbing the bank every day. He found it hard to believe that an entire town of people couldn’t catch one little Indian girl. Then again, his experience with her had been eerie. Even he had felt the icy chill of death descend upon him as that fiery black horse thundered over him.
Something supernatural surrounds this woman. He’d never invested much time or thought into the beliefs of his father’s people. According to his mother, who’d left him in an orphanage when he was only two years old, his purebred Cherokee father had never been told he had a son. Growing up as a bastard child had made him bitter. His mother claimed she did what was best. Pulling a faded photo and piece of paper from his wallet, he unfolded the letter, one of the few he’d received from her over the years until all contact ceased.
Shaking his head, he stared at the man who’d supposedly sired him. He couldn’t deny the strong resemblance and silently cursed both parents for their weakness. Because of them, he loathed weak-minded people without self control. Carter’s sniveling ways grated his nerves. If the man didn’t own the town, Pike swore he’d have no qualms over killing him. But the prick had money and now the land to expand their thriving business so he’d live a while longer.