Bounty Hunter (21 page)

“Annie, we need to get to Lucheck’s car and get him down to Dobs. I’m going to call
Brody and have him set things in motion.”

“Let’s go then. I want to get out of here.” She shivered slightly and rubbed her arms.

Kane clenched his fists. “There’s something I have to explain first.”

“Can’t it wait? I really—”

“No. Listen to me. I’ve tried to tell you this before. You have to know this.” Kane
paused and looked over his shoulder at Lucheck. He motioned for Annie to follow him
a few yards down the trail, out of earshot. They’d given the bastard enough of a show,
he’d be damned if he’d spill his guts in front of the lunatic.

“What is it, Kane?”

He turned to face her. “I don’t know how else to tell you this, so I’m going to say
it straight out. All I ask is that you let me finish.”

“You’re scaring me.” She folded her arms over her stomach. Kane felt his own clench
even tighter.

“I’m not here by accident, little sun. Sam Perkins hired me to find you. I’m a bounty
hunter.”

ELEVEN

Elizabeth felt the blood drain from her face. No. No! She wanted to scream the words
at him. She wanted to clamp her hands over her ears like a child and hum some tuneless
song so she couldn’t hear him. But there was no avoiding the truth.

She swayed and grabbed onto the trunk of the closest tree for support, trying desperately
to make sense out of what he was telling her. Then she recalled Lucheck’s words. “
We’re on the same side.
”

She looked up at him. “Why?” It was only one word, but it was filled with anguish.
She took little consolation in seeing the same emotion reflected in his eyes.

“Perkins told me you were his wife and you’d run off after a blowup about money. He
was afraid you’d come to some harm.”

“Why would he …?” He’s lying!” She felt
the hysteria she’d managed to hold at bay overtake her.

“I know, I know.”

“When did you know?” she said, her voice rising anyway. “Just what are you planning
to do now?” Quickly losing her battle with nerves, she didn’t stop to consider what
she was saying, just lashed out at him. “Why did you stay? To get me into bed? Are
you taking me back to him now?”

Kane grabbed her by the arms and gave her a little shake. “Let me finish, dammit,”
he said, his voice breaking for the first time.

Elizabeth choked on the hot tears that threatened to fall. She pulled from his grasp
and stood perfectly still.

“It took me a while to track you down.”

“How did you find me?”

“I searched your brother’s apartment. I found the picture of you and Matt taken at
the Lazy F.”

“But we were just kids!”

“I’d exhausted every other possibility. It was a lead. The Lazy F sign and the mountains
in the back gave me a place to start.” Kane should have told her he’d taken it, but
he didn’t. He’d thought to return it eventually, telling himself it was merely evidence
in a case. But he knew now that he’d taken it because the image in Perkins’s glossy
photo hadn’t jibed with the photo of the scrawny seven-year-old with pigtails and
scuffed knees.

“Why didn’t you take me back the day you found me?”

Kane exhaled on a deep sigh. It was such a loaded question. “Because I knew something
wasn’t right even before then. I was tailed when I left Boise, but I didn’t know why.
That’s the reason I ditched my truck for Sky Dancer. I lost Lucheck just south of
Coeur d’Alene.”
And then I met you
, he added silently.
And you stood there with your hair all curly wild and red, the sexiest damn freckles
sprinkled across your nose, sporting sponges for knee pads. And you stole my heart.

But he couldn’t tell her any of that. It was no excuse for what he’d done, and he
wouldn’t use something that was so precious to him as a defense.

“Were you afraid this other guy was going to get to me first and take your fee away
from you?”

“Never,” he said quietly. She’d either have to believe it or not.

“That sure of yourself?”

“The only thing I was sure of was that no spoiled, pampered wife would be doing the
back-breaking work you were doing because she was in a snit over money. When you told
me the truth, I realized that the man following me had no intention of letting either
of us come back.”

“Which was why you disappeared that night,” she said, more to herself than him. “I’m
surprised you believed me at all. I mean, why would a leader of a supremacist group
hire someone who wasn’t …?”

“White? I guess he figured he’d use me for the only thing he saw me as good for—namely
my
tracking skills—then dispose of both of us. He’s not stupid. He knew that if we somehow
turned on him and told our side of the story, it was doubtful anyone would believe
the accusations of a scorned girlfriend and a half-breed bounty hunter.”

She stared at him for a long moment. “I guess you’re right.” She waited a few seconds
longer, then asked, “Why didn’t you tell me all this before? After we …”

“Think about it, little sun. I tried. Right before you smelled the fire. There was
no time.” He held up his hand, certain what her next question would have been. “I
couldn’t tell you earlier. Answer me this; would you have let me help you if I had?”

She dipped her chin. “No.”

“Annie—”

“Why did you? Help me?” She let go of the tree and took a step toward him. “This is
your job. So why help me?”

“I could say it was because my life was in jeopardy too. Sam had no intention of letting
me collect that fee.”

“And would that be the truth?”

“No.”

She opened her mouth as if to say something, then shut it. Before he could continue,
she stepped by him. “We’d better get down there and find Lucheck’s car.” She saw Kane
glance back at Lucheck. “Should we bring him down now?”

“He isn’t going anywhere.”

“Fine.” She turned and picked her way down the trail.

Kane stood and watched her walk away. Away from him, from all he’d done—both right
and wrong—for her. He thought ahead to the call he planned to make. Brody would arrange
a transport for Lucheck and set the proceedings into motion to track down Perkins.

He didn’t know if he would have a chance to be alone with her long enough to talk
again. Or what he would say if he did. He’d done the only thing he could do for her—keep
her safe. He had nothing further to offer her. “Damn.” He started down the hill. “Damn,
damn, damn.”

Elizabeth paced across the dirt road toward the tiny Boundary Gap post office, then
back toward Dobs’s store. She was surprised she hadn’t dug a trench by now. Where
were the helicopters? She groaned inwardly.

Despite her resolve not to, she looked up the road to where Kane had disappeared in
the sedan almost an hour earlier. He’d woken Dobs—who was far less grumpy at being
woken up in the wee hours of the morning than she’d have guessed—and placed a call
to Brody Donegan. He’d left Lucheck tied up in the post office, then said something
about going back to check on the ranch. She had a sneaking suspicion Sky Dancer played
a part in his hasty retreat, but he hadn’t given her any time to ask.

She shivered, rubbing her arms as she walked into Dobs’s store. She knew she should
be feeling somewhat vindicated. Kane had told her and Dobs and Letty—who’d made a
surprise appearance shortly after Dobs—that by the time they got Lucheck to the authorities,
Sam should be in custody. With their testimony and Lucheck’s, Sam wouldn’t be walking
free.

Enough time for her to figure out what the hell she was going to do next? The sound
of tires crunching gravel drew her to the screen door. Kane was back. She stepped
outside.

“Annie?”

The softly whispered word cracked through the stillness like a whip. She spun around.
Kane was leaning against the side of the store.

She fought the urge to rub her arms again, feeling the sudden need to appear calm
and collected. This was the first time they’d been alone since their talk on the trail.
She said the first thing that came into her mind. “I wish they’d get here.”

“They will.”

She hated feeling so uncomfortable around him. Uncomfortable in a way she’d never
been with him before. It wasn’t at all pleasant this time. “Did you find Sky Dancer?”

His eyes widened a fraction, but his expression remained unreadable. “No.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I am too. But I haven’t given up yet. She’s a tough old mare. She’ll be okay.”

Elizabeth didn’t question his faith. Somehow she knew he was right. He shifted away
from the building suddenly, making her flinch. The grimace that flickered across his
features told her he wasn’t any more at ease with her than she was with him. Somehow
that hurt her even worse.

“Walk with me?” he asked, his tone neither inviting nor intimidating. “I need to talk
to you before the chopper gets here.”

This was it, she thought, her heart beginning to pound. She nodded and followed him
across the lot toward the road. They walked in silence for a while. She glanced over
at him. She knew from the tight line of his shoulders that he had something on his
mind, but she didn’t know what to say to him. So she said nothing.

“I collected my gear,” he said without preamble. “I also checked the house. It’s still
too dark to be certain, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. I’m sorry. I know there were
some family things you’d probably liked to have kept.”

This time Elizabeth did shiver. His tone was sincere and he was saying all the right
words, but there was an underlying flatness in his voice. As if she were no more than
an unfortunate victim he’d tried to help and now had to console. She shuddered again
as it occurred to her that basically, that description was fairly accurate.

Was that all she really was to him? Had he left a whole string of broken hearts behind
him wherever
he’d been? It should have made her angry. It made her want to cry.

She pulled in a deep breath to loosen the knot forming in her chest. “You’re leaving,
aren’t you?”

He studied her, then looked away, up at the waning night sky. Several long seconds
passed before he looked at her again.

“After I give my statements, yes. I’ll be back to search for Sky Dancer, but after
that …”

“You’ll go … where? To your next job? Where do you go, Kane? I know I asked you this
before. Do you have anywhere to call home?”

Kane felt his chest squeeze tightly. Home. “I have a small apartment in Pocatello.
I’m not there much. I … it’s rented out most of the year.” That and a P.O. box, he
thought. It had always been enough. He looked at her. The pain intensified. “I don’t
do well in one place. I don’t …” He let the sentence drift off unfinished.

“Fit in?”

“Maybe. I’m good at what I do, Annie. It’s enough.”

“Is it? Is it really?”

He didn’t think it was possible to feel worse than he already did. He was wrong. “Don’t
pity me, Annie. I chose this life. I have no regrets.” Except not being the right
man for you. If only … He shut off that train of thought. It led nowhere. Their time
had finally run out.

She shifted her gaze forward, continuing down the path of the road. “I don’t know.
I’d have said
this life chose you, not the other way around. You did the best with what you were
given. I don’t pity you for that, I admire you. But that doesn’t mean you can’t—”

“Little sun.”

She stopped and immediately looked up at him.

Kane knew she was in no shape to listen to anything more he had to say. But he knew
better than she that it was now or never. He trembled with the need to touch her,
taste her, just once more, but he didn’t dare. He was already asking far too much
of her by not walking away without another word.

“No matter what you think of me, I want you to know that once I’d met you, I’d have
never hurt you.”

“I know that. I think I always knew that. It just … I was so unprepared for your … confession.”
She stepped closer to him. “But I know you’d never have hurt me. You risked your life
for me.”

A sudden rush of sound brought both their heads up. The first helicopter had arrived.
Beams of light cut wide paths over the nearly deserted parking area as the large aircraft
swooped overhead. It began its descent, aiming at the wide section of road behind
them. The noise was so loud, Kane knew she wouldn’t be able to hear him.

He reached under his shirt and vanked the leather strip from his neck that he’d tied
on back at the bunkhouse. He motioned for her to lift her hair, which was whipping
wildly in the windstorm created by the helicopter blades. Leaning forward, he
tied it swiftly behind her neck. The small amulet, made of pulverized pine needles
wrapped inside a small leather pouch, dangled below her breasts. He scooped it up
and warmed it in his palm.

He slid a finger into the neckline of her shirt—his shirt actually—and dropped it
inside. He then lifted her hand and placed it over the small lump it made under the
soft cotton fabric, leaning down so his mouth was next to her ear.