Dark Warrior: To Tame a Wild Hawk

by Lenore Wolfe

  Mandy looked at Hawk. The look he gave her was wholly possessive.

  “I think I’m going to kill the next man who touches you.”

  She smiled at him. She couldn’t know how beautiful she looked standing there.

  “They’d hang you,” she told him, teasingly. “Then, I’d have to live my life without you, where all the Jakes and Kids in the world would be free to kiss me.”

  Hawk scowled and grabbed her by the shoulders. “The only lips you’ll know on yours will be mine.” He kissed her deeply. He kissed her possessively. “The only man to ever touch your exquisite body will be me,” he growled. “For you are my woman,” he touched her cheek gently, “my wife.” He picked her up and kissing her senseless, he carried her back up the stairs.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Let me go, you lily-liver’d pole cat,” a young woman screeched at the man trying in vain to hold her arm. She turned back to the man who held her full attention with a wide swing of her knife—that had everyone backing up with some haste. “Why I’ll cut you up and use you for bear bait, you fish-eyed, yellow-bellied snake.” Having slipped the grasp of those who fought to hold her back, she again leaped for his throat.

  Hawk and Mandy made their way inside one of the town’s bigger saloons. Jake had headed that way with Kid when they first entered town. Mandy knew he’d seen them enter. With the slightest tilt of his head, he acknowledged he’d seen them; Mandy felt Hawk’s return communication more than she saw it. She was impressed by the easy way they knew what each of the others was up to. She supposed they’d learned that during the war.

  They hadn’t said so, but she’d gleaned little bits of information from them, from things they’d discussed around the ranch. They had fought together during the Civil War. And from the sounds of it, they’d fought together ever since—at one thing or another.

  The four of them had come to town for that promised outing, which had never happened, but which Hawk had not forgotten. He’d surprised Mandy with it only that morning. She’d been delighted. Hawk and Mandy were to enjoy themselves, Kid and Jake to guard and make sure they did just that.

  They’d had lunch, had done some shopping and were heading toward Cord’s Mercantile when the crowd, and the commotion, had drawn them down the boarded walk, having been told who the woman was yelling at and curious about the woman herself who was yelling at the top of her lungs.

  “I’ll kill you for the lie’n, thiev’n murderer you are, McCandle,” she was screaming now. “There ain’t no place far enough, no ground deep enough, to hide you from me, you dung-covered swine. You’re gonna rue the day you stole my papa’s land and kilt him. I’m gonna cut you up and feed your eyes to the buzzards.”

  By this time, Mandy was trying to hide her mirth behind a gloved hand as she watched two men trying to get a hold of the young woman. Already one man was sporting a black eye and bleeding profusely from his nose. The other had a busted lip, and his hand was cut open. They were desperately trying to wrestle a six-inch blade out of her hands—and quickly getting nowhere.

  Ashley was backed against one wall and quite pale. For once in his life he was speechless. He watched, open-mouthed, while his men fought to get the woman under control; but it was to no avail.

  Mandy caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye just before Kid sprang over a short wall and grabbed the young woman from behind, around her middle.

  Hawk groaned and, taking Mandy’s elbow, he moved them to where he could better cover Kid. She didn’t have to see to know Jake had done the same.

  “All right, hellcat; give me the knife,” Kid told the girl. “Little girls shouldn’t play with knives,” which earned him a grunt when she slammed her elbow into his ribs. He managed to disarm her with a quick, downward yank on her arm, causing her to turn on him in full fury. She hit him square in the nose and kicked him in the shin with the point of her boot, in response to which he threw her over his shoulder and exited the saloon in all possible haste, considering she was beating him unmercifully on the back.

  “I want that little witch thrown in jail,” Ashley bellowed, finding his voice.

  “That won’t be necessary.” Mandy smiled sweetly as Sheriff Tucker came up beside her. “She works for me. I’ll pay for any damage she’s done here.”

  Ashley rounded on her in rage. “You saw her! She was trying to kill me.”

  Hawk chuckled. “Come now, McCandle, that little thing?” He grinned. “Surely you wouldn’t want us thinking you could be taken by such a small slip of a woman?” He grunted when he felt Mandy’s elbow in his side. “I thought not,” he added, when he saw Ashley relent. He took Mandy by the elbow so she couldn’t elbow him again, nodding at Jake to take care of things, and led her outside.

  Kid had managed to get the she-cat in the wagon, much to Hawk’s amusement and Mandy’s amazement, but when the girl flew at Kid for the third time, Mandy was done. “Enough!”

  The girl looked up in surprise. Mandy noted her beautiful, yellow, cat-colored eyes. The terms “she-cat,” and “hell-cat” with which Kid had graced her were very apt.

  “If you’re an enemy of Ashley,” Mandy told her, “you’re amongst friends. I need you out at The Northern Rose. That, lily-liver’d pole cat, as you called him, is out to take it.”

  “Really!” The girl smiled, and Kid was visibly shaken. Mandy rolled her eyes.

  “Well, then,” she thrust out a gloved hand. “You’ve got yourself a hand.”

  “Hired hand?” Kid bellowed. “You’re going to make her a hired-hand?”

  “Sure thing,” the girl turned her beautiful smile on Kid. “By the way, I’m Katherine, but everyone calls me Kat, and I’m a top-notch cow hand, crack shot and could skin the hide off a live grizzly.”

  “Not on your life!” Kid started...

  “You’ve got yourself a job,” Mandy interrupted.

  Kid looked at Hawk. Hawk shrugged and grinned back at Kid.

  Kat smiled, then frowned. “If you’re after McCandle, then why didn’t you let me save you the trouble in there—and skin him?”

  “Because, wild-cat,” Kid growled, “you would have hung on the next sunrise.”

  “Yeah, well,” a deep sadness flashed through Kat’s eyes, “but that wouldn’t have been so bad. He’d be dead, like I promised pa, and I would have avenged my family. Besides,” she shrugged, “I’m alone now, so you see my die’n wouldn’t have been so bad.”

  “No, I don’t see,” Kid bit out through clenched teeth. “It’s seems to me you’ve been given a second chance. You should live it the fullest.”

  “Besides,” Mandy broke in gently, “we’re going to get McCandle. All of us—together. McCandle, and his hands, will be the ones who go down. It doesn’t seem right, us going down with him, now does it?”

  Kat cocked her head, her intense, golden gaze studying Mandy for a moment. “Do you really think it’s possible? I mean bringing him down, really making him suffer?”

  “Yes, I do!” Mandy answered confidently. “Not only possible, but it’s in the bag.” Her aqua eyes narrowed. “I swear it.”

  Good,” Kat said brightly. “I can see you want him as bad as me. So you and I are going to get him—then, I’ll skin him.”

  Mandy laughed, and Hawk grinned. Kid just rolled his eyes.

  The wagon always seemed to take forever to Mandy. The sun’s unmerciful intensity made her wish she could unbutton a couple of the buttons of the stifling material from around her neck, which was beginning to feel as if it were choking the life out of her.

  Surreptitiously, she studied Hawk on the seat beside her. Every time the wagon hit a bump, and their legs brushed together, Mandy felt an all-new heat through the fabric of her dress that she was sure had nothing to do with the sun.

  She thought about all the changes in her life in such a short time, and sighed. At least she had hope. For the first time since papa died, there was real hope. Mandy glanced back at Kid and Kat, who were not getting on s
o well from the look of things.

  “I’m gonna scratch your eyes out,” Kat bellowed from the rear of the wagon.

  “Why, you little hell-cat, I swear, I’m gonna tan your backside,” Kid yelled back.

  Turning so he could be heard above their screeching and fighting, Hawk asked Kid, “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather ride that horse of yours?”

  “Like I said,” Kid shot back, “I don’t trust her not to scratch up the boards. I’m gonna stay with the little kitten till she’s tame and—ouch!”

  “You had that coming, Kid.” Mandy laughed.

  “Dang Kat, but you punch a hell of a wallop,” Kid exclaimed in amazement.

  Kat crossed her arms and glared mutinously at him.

  Grinning, Hawk turned back to the horses. “Gid-up there.” He slapped the reins. “I do believe Kid has met his match,” he confided to Mandy at a near whisper.

  Mandy agreed, smiling back at him.

  The hands spilled out of the bunk-house when the wagon rolled up. The wagon had no sooner rolled to a stop than young Tommy was there. He grabbed hold of the team and helped Mandy down.

  “How’d things go, Hawk?” old man Charlie said as he limped forward. “Any trouble?”

  “Only when we found wild-cat, here, trying to skin McCandle.”

  Kat peered at Charlie and appeared to take to him instantly, if the smile she bestowed on him, and the hand she thrust out, were any indication.

  He gave her a hearty handshake. “Glad to have you aboard...”

  “Kat,” she supplied.

  He gave her a toothless smile. “I’m Charlie. If you need anything, let me know.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I’m Nick, the foreman.”

  “Howdy,” Kat answered, touching the brim of her hat.

  “Hi, I’m Tommy.”

  “Good to know you, Tommy.” Kat smiled at him.

  Tommy looked dazed.

  Kid had had enough. He glared at them all and stomped off.

  Hawk was laughing by then. Mandy forgot all about Kid and Kat at the sight of it. She stared, first in amazement, then as a soft vortex of emotions flowed through her veins, she caught herself wanting to see his laughter for the rest of her years.

  Early the next morning, Hawk found Charlie and Kat braiding leather to repair some bridles, and Charlie telling Kat every tall tale his old, cow-poke’s forgetful mind could lay claim to.

  Kat was laughing; a full, happy laugh. Her laughter was husky—and extremely sexy if the look on Kid’s face was anything to judge by.

  Hawk spotted him, several yards away, watching Kat with an intensity that told Hawk that serious trouble lay ahead. He had never seen Kid serious about anything. He took everything with a smile, even charm, including his fighting. Kid obviously has it bad Hawk thought, shaking his head.

  He was going to enjoy watching this.

  That is, if he could keep Kid from killing every man Kat turned that smile on, including old Charlie.

  Hawk came to a stop in front of Charlie. “It’s time for the round-up.”

  Charlie looked up at him. “Yeah, that’s what Ned said last night.”

  Kat took the rope from him as he stood up. “You go on ahead, I’ll finish it.”

  “This will be the first year I’ve not been hankerin’ to get out on it,” Charlie continued, stretching the creaks out of his old bones.

  Hawk nodded. “Watch your backs.” His gaze included Kat.

  “And you, yours,” she shot back. “We’re gonna need you alive.”

  “We’re all going to stay alive,” Hawk answered. “We’ll spend the day making preparations, ‘cause we’ll be heading out at first light.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Waves of heat shimmered down on the prairie grass late the next afternoon. They’d begun the fall round-up. It was hot, dirty work. More so with the warm fall they were having. And having to keep looking over their shoulders wasn’t helping.

  Mandy untied her bandana and mopped the back of her damp neck with it. “Hawk, I’ve been wondering…”

  Hawk swallowed a groan and tried not to look at her. Her face was damp in the sweltering sun, and all he could think about was kissing her. He leaned over, studying the tracks beside him. “What?”

  “Everyone knows you as Lakota. Yet you talked about your Cheyenne family when you were so sick.”

  Dismounting, Hawk studied the tracks closer. “The warrior who found me was Cheyenne.” He frowned. There were horse tracks crossing the cattle tracks—and they were on Mandy’s land. “He died at the hands of the Crow when I was ten. He didn’t have a brother, so my mother chose to go back to her people. When I came of age, I became a Lakota warrior.” He looked up at her and clenched his jaw. Why did just looking at her make him want to haul her off her horse and find a nice, shaded tree to lay her down under? Blister it—he turned away.

  Mandy stared at the muscles rippling down his back. Even the thicker shirt he had on could not hide them. She pulled her mind from that hot trail of thought. Looking around, she tried to center her thoughts somewhere else, anywhere else.

  She knew the Cheyenne and Lakota were like brothers. They often spent summers together, and intertribal marriage wasn’t uncommon.

  She peered out across the plains. “Do you think we’ll have any trouble?”

  “Yes,” he answered, flatly.

  She looked back at him in surprise.

  Hawk remounted his dun-colored horse. “They’ll be here—and we’ll be waiting.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because I’d never miss an opportunity like this one.”

  Mandy shivered. The fighting would begin soon. Who knew how it would end.

  “I’m sending you home tomorrow.” Hawk’s gaze bore into her, his eyes, unblinking, his face, impassive.

  “What?!” Mandy twisted in the saddle to see him better. “No, you’re not. I work the round-up in the spring. I help the hands bring in cattle all summer long, and I work the fall round-up. I have every year since I’ve been here. And I’m not going to stop because of you.”

  Hawk only looked at her. His face so dispassionate it scared her. “You’re going home.” He turned his back and rode away

  Leaving Mandy no choice but to catch up.

  That evening they sat around the campfire eating supper. The fire crackled, showing blue hues deep within the orange and red. They’d headed for a grove of timber to camp for the night. The smell of pine filled the air as they swapped stories over a rattlesnake Charlie had killed that day.

  “Twern’t nothin’,” Charlie mused. “Why, back in fifty-five, I stumbled on the most confounded thing you ever saw. Why, it had three heads and lay at least nine feet long. I wheeled my horse and lit out of there like my ass was on fire. When I looked back, the dad-blasted thing was right behind us. Poor Keeter, he done run his fastest, but that snake was keeping up.” He sat back and lit his pipe.

  “Well?” Tommy sat up, his eyes wide.

  Charlie grinned, clearly pleased. “Why, I shot off two of his heads. Now he’s an ordinary rattler like the rest.”

  Tommy turned red. “What’d ya go’n do that for? Why, plenty around here would pay pure gold to see a snake like that.”

  There were plenty of guffs and ribbing around the fire for several minutes.

  “Hell. If you think that’s something,” Jake’s voice broke in, “back in South America, they’ve got a snake called an anaconda, what gets up to thirty feet long and bigger around than Jed there’s arm.”

  Tommy came up onto his knees, clearly excited. “Really? Is it poisonous?”

  Jake breathed a deep sigh, every eye on him. The quiet punctuated the night, except for the occasional noises from the cows. “Nope,” Jake answered.

  “Oh,” Tommy sat back, clearly disappointed.

  “They wrap themselves around a man, their coils covering him from head to toe. Then they squeeze the life out of him and eat him, swallow him whole.” />
  Tommy’s eyes got as big as saucers, his mouth forming an “O”. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

  “What’d ya go’n tell a fool story like that fer?” Charlie grated out. “Why look at the boy! Just how dumb do you think he is? Imagine telling a story like that!”

  Mandy glanced at Hawk. He smothered a grin. She tried—but couldn’t help it—she laughed out loud

  Charlie glared at her.

  Jake’s face split into a rare grin. “Easy, old timer.”

  Charlie tossed down his cup and grabbed his rifle. “I’ll take the next watch.” He walked off mumbling something about some people and their tall tales.

  Hawk lost the battle and grinned openly, and Mandy giggled.

  Jake grinned back. “Guess next time, I’ll know better than to steal his thunder.”

  They slept on the ground with nothing between them and it but a soogan quilt, and rose by four in the morning. Eating sowbelly and biscuits, they chased it down with hot coffee, thick as sludge. Each of them picked out a horse from the cavvy, which Ned had chased into a crude, makeshift corral. Hawk gave them the orders for the day, and they were mounted and riding long before the sun burned in the sky.

  They fanned out in large circles, coming back toward the middle with the cattle, and then doing it all over again. Near noon, they all rode toward the chuck wagon.

  Mandy felt hot, tired and dusty, but she couldn’t dwell on it with these guys around her. She’d never had so much fun at a roundup.

  “Oh bury me not, on the lone prairie,” Kid sang off key.

  Mandy winced.

  “Kid, I’m gonna string you up,” Jake growled.

  “And I’ll skin him for ya,” Kat added.

  “What?” Kid eyed them innocently. “We’re supposed to sing to the cows. It keeps them calm.”

  “The only thing your singing is doing is making them want to get the hell out of Dodge.”

  “We’re not in Dodge,” Kid grumbled.

  Hawk rode up beside Mandy and cupped her cheek. “How are you doing?