Dragon Warrior (Midnight Bay) (7 page)

“I came home with only the clothes on my back. I gave everything I owned to some kid and his mother in Kabul.”

“Everything? But why?”

He shrugged again, and this time she knew he truly was indifferent. “I figured they needed it more than I did.”

Maddy looked deep into his storm-gray eyes. “Oh, Trace. What happened to you over there? Where’s the boy who chased me halfway home when he caught me watching him screwing Leslie Simpson in the woods and then threatened to cut off all my hair if I told anyone?”

“He left Midnight Bay ten years ago.” He enveloped her in a heartbreakingly fierce embrace. “And for the last three years, he’s been trying his damnedest to get back here in one piece.”

Maddy felt him suddenly tense; his arms around her coiling with energy, every muscle in his body poised to respond.

“Ye’d best be telling me you’re her
brother
,” a deep, threatening voice said from directly behind her.

Maddy gasped and tried to step back, but Trace held her firmly, threading his fingers through her hair to hold her head pressed against his chest. “Are you the bastard who put that bruise on her face?” he asked far too softly.

“Well now, I was just about to ask you the same question.”

Trace’s grip slackened ever so slightly, though he continued to hold her facing him. “Is this your boyfriend, Peeps?” he asked—loud enough for William to hear.

Maddy tensed. Damn. Saying yes would only encourage William, but saying no might get him beat up. And with both men being equal in strength and stature, and apparently
temperament
, well . . . things could get really ugly real fast.

Trace gave a chuckle, though it lacked any humor. “Are you still hung up on jocks, Maddy? I would have thought you learned your lesson with Billy.”

“Trust me, I did,” she muttered into his shirt.

“Then why does this . . . gentleman look like he wants to rip out my throat if I don’t get my hands off what he obviously considers his property?”

“Please don’t antagonize him, Trace.”

“Why? Because he might suddenly turn violent? Tell me who hit you.”

“I fell off the porch.”

“I don’t doubt you did—right after someone slapped your face. Tell me who, Maddy. I promise I won’t kill the bastard; I just want to have a little talk with him. Or,” he said when she said nothing, “at least give me your word that this guy isn’t the bastard.”

“He isn’t.”

He suddenly opened his arms, but when she started to turn, Trace took hold of her shoulder to stop her. “Okay then, prove it to me.”

She blinked at him. “Prove what?”

“That he’s your boyfriend.” He gave her a nudge. “Go on, prove it.”

“How?” she growled, fully aware that William could hear every damn last word of their crazy conversation.

“By kissing him.”

Maddy narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out what he was up to. “What in hell would that prove?”

Trace crossed his arms over his chest and relaxed his weight back on his hips. “Well for starters, it would prove you’re not afraid of him, which would go a long way in convincing me that it’s not his handprint on your face. And second, it would go an even longer way in convincing him that
I’m
not your boyfriend.”

Dammit all to hell and back! If she knew anything about Trace, it was that once he went off on a tangent, nothing short of a nuclear explosion could make him change course. “I am so going to make you pay for this,” she hissed, pivoting around and marching up to William. “I feel even a hint of your tongue, Killkenny, I will bite it off. You got that?”

“Yes, ma’am,” William said, his eyes sparkling like sapphires in the sunlight. He held his arms out from his sides. “Give me your best shot, lass.”

She so wanted to punch him in the stomach, if for no other reason than to wipe that grin off his face. Honest to God,
all
men were trouble, every damn last one of them. Maddy clapped her hands on William’s clean-shaven cheeks and yanked his head down; and with her lips pursed as tight as a clam hanging over a pot of boiling water, she pressed her mouth against his—all while trying her damnedest not to notice how really nice he smelled.

Or how really good he tasted.

Or how badly she wanted to stick her tongue in
his
mouth.

She tried stepping away the moment she felt his arms start to wrap around her, but she wasn’t fast enough. William canted her head into the crook of his arm and kissed her so soundly that a herd of bumblebees started buzzing around in her belly. Only before she could even think about poking him in the ribs he suddenly set her away, but then had to grab hold of her shoulders when her knees started to buckle.

“No wonder you’re still single after six years,” Trace said with a chuckle from right behind her. “That wasn’t a kiss, Peeps, that was an assault. Good thing at least one of you knows what you’re doing.” He extended his hand to William. “Trace Huntsman, Maddy’s cousin.”

“William Killkenny, Maddy’s
boyfriend
,” William said, tucking her against his side to return Trace’s handshake.

It was as she was trying to figure out just how much trouble that kiss was going to cause her that Maddy suddenly noticed something more than a handshake was happening. Apparently in some secret code only men knew, they reached some sort of unspoken agreement as their eyes locked and they both nodded ever so slightly.

Wonderful. Now there would be no dealing with either one of them.

Only semiconfident that her knees wouldn’t buckle again—seeing how that herd of bumblebees was still buzzing inside her—Maddy glanced toward the nursing home so neither of them would see her licking her lips. But she stopped in mid-lick when she spotted several sets of eyes staring out the window.

She immediately reared back. “Omigod,” she muttered, covering her face with her hands. “We have an
audience
.” She glared up at William when he chuckled, then turned her glare on Trace when he snickered. “This is not funny! It’s bad enough they’re after me to ask out every single male who walks in the door—regardless of
age
; I didn’t need them to see me kissing their new pet project.”

When they both only laughed harder, Maddy gave them one final glare and stormed limping toward the door. She suddenly stopped with her hand on the knob and looked back. “Oh, okay, dammit! You’re still invited to dinner tonight.”

Trace nodded. “Thanks, Peeps. William and I will be there at six sharp.”

Maddy’s chin dropped nearly down to her chest.

“I hope your brother will be home this evening,” William added, “as I am quite looking forward to meeting Rick.”

Maddy snapped her mouth shut then opened it again, but she couldn’t seem to so much as squeak. Her shoulders slumping in defeat, she turned around and quietly limped inside.

Chapter Five

W
illiam felt the evening was going quite well, considering the people crowded around Patricia Lane’s dinner table ranged in ages from nine years old to twelve hundred. Little Sarah, though, appeared more interested in the various conversations going on than in eating; Trace and Maddy were too busy catching up with each other to realize they weren’t the only people at the table; Rick was more interested in his food than in talking to anyone; and Maddy’s mother, Patricia, seemed quite interested in William—particularly regarding his interest in her daughter.

William could have bowed down to Trace for tricking Maddy into inviting him to dinner, right after he hugged him for daring the lass to kiss her
boyfriend
.

Kenzie had informed William that Maddy’s cousin was stopping by to visit her, so he’d had a good idea whose arms he’d found wrapped around her down by the river. But knowing the best way to size up a man was to threaten him, William had approached them rather aggressively. And not liking the idea of anyone’s arms around Maddy but his own, cousin or nay, the threat had for the most part been real.

Which Trace Huntsman had immediately realized.

As for sizing up his reaction, William had immediately decided he liked Trace. He’d been impressed not only by the man countering his threat by offering one of his own, but Trace had in turn sized up William by reading
Maddy’s
reaction.

William knew right then he was dealing with a fellow warrior, as well as with a man who was equally determined to find out who had slapped her.

“Mabel told me you were in the military with Kenzie,” Patricia Lane said to William. “Were the two of you in the same unit or something, and that’s what brought you to Midnight Bay? I’ve heard fighting together forms a strong bond between men.”

“Yes, we’re fellow warriors,” William said, smiling at the older though more reserved version of Maddy. “We’ve even been known to occasionally fight on the same side.”

That stopped Maddy and Trace’s conversation, making Maddy frown and Trace look thoughtful.

“I’m not going to summer rec tomorrow,” Sarah said, once again injecting a comment at a lull in the conversation that had absolutely nothing to do with anything.

“But you have to go to rec,” Maddy told her. “Gram’s going to Mrs. Bishop’s house to bake pies tomorrow, and you can’t stay home alone.”

The young girl lifted her chin. “Rick sleeps until noon and then watches TV when he gets up, so I won’t be alone. And I have to stay home because I’m going to be really sick tomorrow when I wake up.”

Maddy felt Sarah’s forehead as she eyed her daughter curiously. “You don’t have a temperature or look sick. I predict you’ll be just fine tomorrow morning,” she declared with a tender smile.

Sarah leaned away to glare at her. “That’s the problem with having a mother who’s a nurse—you think you know everything!” the girl cried, sliding back her chair and running out of the room.

“Let her go, Mom,” Maddy said over the sound of footsteps stomping up the stairs when she saw her mother push back her own chair. “I’ll talk with her at bedtime. I have an idea what’s bugging her,” she finished with a sigh, dropping her head in her hands to stare down at her plate.

“What’s summer rec?” William asked.

“It’s a program the town puts on for the kids while school’s out,” Patricia explained. “They play sports, do arts and crafts, swim, and sometimes take field trips.” She looked toward Maddy, who was still staring down at her plate. “Aren’t they going to Oak Harbor tomorrow, to the state park? Sarah’s been looking forward to that field trip all summer. Maddy, do you have any idea why she doesn’t want to go all of a sudden?”

Madeline lifted her head, and after darting a quick glance across the table at William, she looked at her mother. “I imagine it’s because Billy’s fiancée lives in Oak Harbor.”

“So?” Patricia said.

“So, all of Sarah’s little buddies also know his fiancée lives there, and the snotty little girls will start pointing out the bus window at every woman they pass and say, ‘Is that your new stepmom, Sarah? Cool, you can play dolls with her!’ Or maybe the snotty little boys will say, ‘Is that the hottie your daddy knocked up, Sarah? I heard my uncle say he must have balls of brass to be boinking something that young.’”

“Madeline Marie Lane, they’re only children!” Patricia cried. “They don’t know what a hottie is, much less what knocked up or . . . or boinking means. And I don’t appreciate that kind of language at the table.”

Maddy snorted. “I knew more about sex when I was ten than I do
now
. And trust me, they know exactly what those words mean, and they won’t be shy about explaining them to Sarah.”

“And this is why she doesn’t wish to go to summer rec?” William asked. “The other children are teasing her? But it’s not unusual for a divorced man to remarry.”

“The girl he’s marrying is
eighteen
,” Maddy growled. “She just graduated from high school
two months ago
.”

Rick tossed his fork onto his plate, shoved his chair back, and stood up. “And word is she’s
four
months pregnant,” he sneered. “Sissy never hid the fact she wasn’t interested in any of us high school boys, not when there were real men around, ripe for the taking. Look up
whore
in the dictionary, and you’ll find a picture of Sissy Blake.”

“Richard!” Patricia cried.

Rick glared at his sister. “Sarah’s not the only one getting teased around here.”

“Sarah is nine, Rick, not nineteen,” Trace said evenly.

William saw the teenager’s hands ball into fists. “Yeah, well, having my cousin broadcast a Mayday that he saw a mermaid in the Gulf isn’t helping, either!” Rick kicked his chair out of the way so hard it banged to the floor. He stormed out to the porch, slamming the door hard enough to make the windows shudder.

Maddy jumped to her feet to go after him.

William also stood up, intending to head her off.

But Trace—who remained seated—captured her by the wrist. “Let him go,” he said, gently pulling her back down into her seat. “I’ll check on him in town tonight, and keep him out of trouble.”

“I think they gather down at Pinkham’s gravel pit,” Maddy whispered, darting a worried glance at her mother before looking back down at her plate.