Bounty Hunter (13 page)

“I wanted to go to the police,” she murmured against his shirt. “But I got paranoid.
I couldn’t be sure who was in on it …”

His lips found the pulse at her temple. “We’ll get him, Annie. I promise you.”

She tugged at his arms with her hands, squirming inside his tight embrace. With great
reluctance
he released her, wanting to apologize for his actions, but unable to lie to her at
this point.

To his surprise she huddled closer to him. It took less than a second before his arms
closed around her again. It was clear she needed a shoulder, to feel protected.

His heart pounded so loudly under the sweet pressure of her cheek against his chest,
it took him a moment to realize she was speaking.

“What?”

“Thank you,” she repeated softly. “For this.” She looked up at him.

His heart swelled then tightened painfully at the look of admiration he found shining
in her eyes. He wanted to tell her how undeserving he was, but she didn’t let him.

“Your faith in me is more than I could hope for,” she said, ironically echoing his
own thoughts. “But I can’t let you interfere.”

“Why the hell not?” No way was he letting her push him away now.

“Because you’ll get hurt.”

Kane studied her closely. “I understand the risk, Annie,” he said tersely, silently
cursing himself for wishing it had been more than basic concern of one human being
for another. “I’m willing to take it. It’s my decision, and I take responsibility
for it.”

“But you don’t understand the risk. Not fully anyway.”

He realized then that there was something she hadn’t told him, something important.
He lifted her
chin and locked his gaze on hers. “Then tell me and let me be the judge.”

“The meeting I went to—” she broke off, her chin quivering.

“Annie?”

“I’m sorry, Hawk.” She took a deep breath. The sound was uneven and thready. “He … Sam
is … He’s a …”

“What? What?”

“This is so hard, especially …” She pulled in another lungful of air and blurted it
out. “Sam went to Twyler’s that night to attend a meeting. A meeting of an organization
called The Alliance.”

“What the hell is The Alliance?”

She reached up and placed her trembling fingertips on his lips as if in silent apology
for what she was about to say. “The Alliance is an organization of white supremacists.”
A lone tear escaped and tracked slowly down her cheek. “Sam is one of the leaders.”

SEVEN

Kane went completely still. His brain was numb for a moment as it absorbed the shock,
then exploded into activity. “That can’t be,” he muttered, as his thoughts boiled
down to one irrefutable fact. Perkins had hired a half-breed to find his wife. A man
with supremacy beliefs—a leader of them, no less—would hardly be hiring a nonwhite
person, no matter the necessity.

He didn’t realize he was crushing Annie against his chest until she began to struggle.
He loosened his arms automatically.

“Kane,” she said softly. When he didn’t respond, she laid her hand on his cheek. “Hawk?”

He immediately focused on her, on her eyes, which were huge with worry.
Oh, Annie, what have you gone and done?
“What?” he answered hoarsely.

“It’s true. I know I’m not mistaken. I listened to
them talk, to their—” she broke off, visibly shoring up another deep breath. “I heard
their plans.”

He realized then what he’d said a moment ago. Damn! He could hardly tell her why it
was so improbable that Perkins was a supremacist. “What plans?”

Another visible gulp. “They … they were uh, talking about … discussing how to … I
don’t know how to put this.”

Kane gripped her shoulders, fighting to keep his hold gentle and reassuring. “How
they were going to do what?”

She raised her eyes to him, her skin so pale in the moonlight. “How they were going
to get rid of all the … Indians. And … others. Minorities.”

The anger and revulsion that shuddered through his body made it next to impossible
to keep his words calm and even. For Annie’s sake, he tried. “And what did they decide?”
he asked. His tone was hardly emotionless. It was the best he could do.

“They argued. Joe wanted to fence off an area of Montana and … and move them all there.
Sam … well, he just wanted to—God, I can’t even say it.”

“Wait a minute, Annie. These aren’t real plans. This is the raving of a bunch of lunatics.
They can’t have any real hope of accomplishing any of this.”

“That’s what I made the mistake of thinking. I knew there was no way Sam truly could
be involved. I knew there must be a mistake. So, I waited for him in his car.”

“You
what
? Wait a minute, did anyone else see you?”

“I’m not sure. I didn’t try to hide. I know they weren’t aware I had listened in on
the meeting. I heard them before I knocked on the door. I was so stunned, I stood
there like a dumb animal, listening. Eventually I think I went a little crazy. I mean,
this was the man I’d pledged to spend my life with, talking like something … evil.
Like a monster. I remember thinking that if I could just talk to him, I’d discover
it was all some sick joke.”

“What happened when he found you in his car?”

“He … well, of course he was surprised.” Annie shook her head, shifting her focus
back to Kane’s shirt pocket.

“Was he upset?”

“I don’t really remember, I think I sort of barraged him with questions right off.
At first he tried to calm me down and assure me everything was okay. He wanted me
to get in my car and follow him home, but I wouldn’t. I wanted answers.” She snorted.

“I got everything but. He pulled the car around the corner to where I had parked,
but I wouldn’t get out. I kept demanding to know what was going on.” She stopped abruptly,
as if all the breath in her had suddenly been used up. She slumped heavily against
his chest.

Kane propped her chin up with two fingers until
she looked at him. “Did he hurt you, Annie? Threaten you?”

She shook her head in a slight movement. Her body was still limp, but she’d begun
to shake. She seemed unaware of it, her voice hollow as she continued.

“At first he tried to sweet-talk me, saying he wanted to move the date up … But I
refused to do that until he talked to me, really talked to me … Then he got so angry.
I’ve never seen him like that. He … he didn’t hit me, but it got very ugly.”

A heavy shudder rocked her, bringing Kane’s protective instincts to the fore. He tucked
her against him, rocking her gently, although he couldn’t say who benefited more from
the soothing motion.

His mind raced as he felt the tremors in her body—or was it his? He knew she hadn’t
imagined all this. Her recount had been too visceral. There had to be some explanation.
But Kane couldn’t see it. It was obvious that Perkins was so desperate to keep this
quiet that when he discovered he couldn’t control her, he’d tried to have her silenced
on a permanent basis. Something she’d said niggled at his brain, but he couldn’t make
himself concentrate.

Now he did shudder. With revulsion and disgust. “Bastard,” he muttered softly. “Bastard!”
he shouted.

Annie jumped at his furious blast, then huddled even more closely against him. “I’m
sorry,” he said
quietly, pressing his cheek against her hair and stroking a hand down her back. “So
that’s when you left him?”

“I’d never seen him like that. His face was so … contorted. And his voice … He’d always
had this even, moderate tone. So low-key. I thought it was so soothing. Nothing seemed
to ruffle him. He prided himself on always being in control. He liked to control.”
She laughed. It was a vacant, hollow sound. “Lord knows he controlled me, and I didn’t
even realize it.”

“Don’t say any more. It’s—”

“I used to envy him that,” she broke in, as if unaware he’d spoken. “I wished I could
be so steady, so confident. It was one of the reasons I agreed to marry him.”

“Annie—”

“But that night, that night his voice was so … cold.” She shivered, Kane knew she
was deep in the memory of that evening three months ago. “He was almost … manic. He
did threaten me I guess, but I still didn’t really believe he’d hurt me. I mean, people
use expressions like ‘I’ll kill you’ all the time. I didn’t take it literally.”

“Annie, stop—”

But she didn’t. He knew she had to get through this, once she’d started to purge herself
of this ugliness she had to keep on until it was all gone. He hated it. Hated that
he couldn’t take on this burden for her.

“I figured I’d move out for a while. Let him
settle down. Maybe see if he’d agree to go to a therapist or something.” She shook
her head, again the sound of her empty laugh echoed across the lawn. “Lord, I was
so naive. I can’t believe I actually thought—”

“Annie, of course you didn’t think he’d really want you dead. No one could fault you
for that. It’s not wrong to put your trust and complete faith in the man you take
for your husband.”

“Oh God, and to think how close I came …” she said distantly. Then, more strongly,
she added, “But I should have seen. I didn’t … that is, my feelings for him weren’t
that—” She broke off suddenly, then in a fervent whisper said, “I used to wonder what
he saw in me. Why he’d gone after me at all. I didn’t travel in his circles. We met
at a church function, and he made it his business to become a part of my life almost
immediately. It was flattering and overwhelming. Now I realize he’d probably purposely
looked for someone like me. Someone he could impress, someone he thought he could
mold into his vision of a perfect corporate wife. All his suggestions and casual comments …”

Kane didn’t try to make sense of her jerky confession. He could barely take it all
in. One sickening truth
had
wormed its way into his brain. And now that he’d given it a moment’s thought, he
knew at a gut level that he was right.

“
Find my wife, and I’ll make sure you never want for anything in your life
.”

Perkins’s words on the day he’d hired him echoed
through Kane’s mind. At the time he’d thought the man was being expansive about the
wealth he commanded, a man used to dangling the enticement of money to get whatever
he wanted.

In your life.
He’d had a man tail Kane out of town. A hired killer. Probably the same one he’d
sicced on Annie. Perkins had never had any intention of letting Kane have a life.
Perkins was every bit the monster Annie said he was. What he wasn’t was stupid. Kane
realized he could take Annie back right now and shout all over town that Sam Perkins
was an unbalanced racist. Who would the town believe? Their pure-as-snow local bank
president? Or a scorned wife and the half-breed she’d been living with out in the
middle of nowhere? An Indian that the supposed racist had hired.

“We need proof he tried to have you killed,” Kane said, only half aware he’d spoken
the thought out loud.

“Don’t you think I thought of that? And even if I had proof, who would I have taken
it to? Half of Hunnicutt was at Joe’s house that night, many of them powerful people.
I have no idea who else is in on it.”

Kane moved his hand down to cup her neck, tilting her head back. He locked his gaze
on hers, willing her to believe with his eyes as much as his words in what he was
about to say. “We’ll get him,
Da’bEntcotc.
He won’t get away with this.”

A soft smile twitched at the corners of her mouth. Her lips were softly swollen, as
if she’d been
biting them during her confession. The moonlight made her eyes appear the decadent
shade of the darkest of chocolates.

“I like it when you call me that, whatever it means.”

Kane’s body tightened. Her soft voice was like a warm balm against nerves battered
by the night’s revelations. “It means ‘little sun.’ ”

She lifted a hand to rake through her bright, tangled curls. “I’m not really a redhead,
you know.” She let out a soft laugh. “As a matter of fact, I’m probably the only woman
on earth with blond roots.”

Kane felt himself tighten in an entirely different way at the return of the warmth
to her voice. “Red or blond, I wouldn’t care. That’s not why I call you that.”

“Why then?”

One quiet request, and whatever restraint he’d held on to through her exhausting recitation
slipped through his grasp. He hardly gave it a thought as he slowly twined a strand
of her hair around his finger. As if time no longer had meaning, he lightly traced
the soft curl along the side of her jaw and down her throat. He let his eyes follow
the motion, drawing the long burnished strand down over her T-shirt, to where her
chest was pressed against his. He pressed the fiery tendril against his heart, then
reached for her hand, placing it on top. “Do you feel that?”

He knew his pulse raced beneath her hand. There was no denying that she felt it.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“You look at me, smile at me, even yell at me. And every time, this is what happens.”
He placed his hand over hers, then lifted it to his jaw. Locking his gaze on hers,
he pressed his cheek to her palm, knowing the bite of his new beard wouldn’t abrade
her callused skin. He hated that fact, wanted her to be as sensitive to the merest
touch of him as he was to her. He watched intently as her pupils dilated under his
unwavering stare. Lord, she was something. “Smile for me.”