Dark Warrior: To Tame a Wild Hawk (Dark Cloth) (18 page)

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

W
aves 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. Then he was 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 chuckwagon.

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?

She leaned into his palm. “I’m fine.” When they’d got up this morning, he had said no more about sending her home. She’d waited all morning, expecting him to send her packing at any moment. It made her tense.

“Why do you insist on coming out here?” he growled. “It’s hard work.”

“I can handle hard work, Hawk,” Mandy glared at him, pulling away.

He leaned over and kissed her anger away. “I know you can. So you can put away your claws. You work harder than most men. But you shouldn’t.”

“Will you two knock it off,” Jake growled, dismounting at the chuckwagon.

Charlie chuckled at Jake. “You need a woman.”

“Damn it, old timer. The last thing I need is a woman.”

Charlie was undaunted. “Sure ya do. It keeps a man from acting like a grizzly bear.”

Jake scowled at Charlie. “Where’s the grub?” he snarled at the cook.

Kid started singing, and Kat took out her skinning knife.

Charlie grinned.

“That’s it,” Matt said, “set him off and send him to me to eat, so he can shoot my damn fool head off if he doesn’t like the food.”

Hawk grinned. “You’ll just have to make sure it’s good.”

It was Matthew’s turn to growl.

Kat roped the steer’s horns, Pete his hind legs. Ned moved in with the branding iron.

Jake pulled another by its back feet in front of the fire, and he, too, got his brand.

Kid dropped his reins and, with knee pressure, guided his cutting pony through the cows. He indicated the calf he wanted, and his pony deftly pursued it, hardly disturbing the other cows. The calf, finding herself outside the herd, turned sharply to get back into the group, Kid’s pony wheeling with her and cutting her off. The calf wheeled, the pony right with her, until she gave up and ran out into the cut.

Kid dropped the noose nimbly around her feet, dragging her to the fire.

A gunshot told them company had finally arrived. The hands immediately went into action. Bawling calves, cows and steers stampeded. Hawk swore under his breath. Despite the best-laid plans, they went in every direction.

He pulled his Winchester and returned fire. He counted about a dozen men. They rode straight in through the camp. He muttered an expletive. They must have got the guard. He dropped two from their horses, diving from his horse for cover.

They roped the crude corral and pulled it over. Two of them pulled parts of it through the fire.

Ned dropped one before getting hit in the arm.

Jake rode straight through the cattle. Using knee pressure, he guided his cow pony while taking careful aim. His nerve undermined McCandle’s men, and they scattered. He calmly picked off three of them before they could turn around in the melee.

Kat cut them off and managed to drop two more before the rest slipped by her.

Mandy wrapped a bandanna around Ned’s arm and tied it off while Hawk rode out to take a look at the guard. He only shook his head when he returned.

“Okay, men,” he bit out, “we’ve got our work cut out for us. So let’s get to it.”

“What about Jed?” Mandy said, her voice rising with each word as realization dawned on her. This couldn’t be happening.
They couldn’t have killed Jed
.

Hawk looked long and hard at her. “Jake, I want you and Ned to take her home.”

She struggled to swallow her tears. “Heartless bastard.”

“Pete, you and Tommy take Jed’s body to town.” Hawk turned away. “Jake, don’t let her out of your sight,” he flung back over his shoulder.

Angrily, Mandy marched over and grabbed her mare’s reins. Turning, she stepped up into the saddle, tears streaming down her face. Without another word, she rode out.

“Mandy!” Hawk growled after her.

Jake looked at Hawk, shrugged, then rode out after her, with Ned right behind him.

Jake let her ride ahead of them to allow her privacy. When they camped, he cooked and handed her some food, but she never looked at them and she never spoke. When they reached the ranch at midmorning the next day, she went into the ranch house and flew up the stairs. Once there, she finally poured her heart out into a pillow.

How could this happen,
Grandmothers
? I’m completely blocked from sensing all danger! I sensed nothing!

But she could not hear them, and she knew they must tread carefully. The
Grandmothers
had been right, the danger was very real. Their power was just too great.

It was the next morning before she’d let Lydia come in to talk to her.

“Poor child.” She stroked Mandy’s hair. “I’m so sorry to hear about Jed. He’ll be sorely missed.

Mandy looked at the older woman’s red-rimmed eyes. “First Papa. Now Jed. Where will it all end?”

“I don’t know, child.”

“That bastard . . . .”

“Mandy, don’t speak like that. It isn’t proper for a lady to talk in such a manner.” She tucked Mandy’s hair behind her ear. “Now, Ned told me how angry you were with Hawk. But he also told me Hawk was having a time of it himself.”

“Hawk? Upset?” Mandy shook her head. “He started giving orders as though it never happened.”

“My dear, men show their hurting different from women. Hawk probably felt as though he’d let Jed down.”

“But that’s ridiculous. We were all right there. It just happened.”

“But Hawk probably feels as though it’s his fault, his being the boss and all. When you plan something and things go wrong, it leaves you feeling as though you failed somehow. And when someone’s killed—then, it can be really hard to live with.”

Mandy swallowed a sob. “Oh, no. And I made him think I blamed him.”
She got up. “I have to go back.”

“You can’t do that.”

“I must. Don’t you see? I can’t leave it like this. What if Ashley’s men come again? What if something happened to Hawk? I’d never forgive myself.”