The Mavericks (20 page)

“Leave him there. I expect the coyotes will soon make sure there's nothing left to find.”

“You gotta take me to Redington,” the man pleaded. His hat had fallen off, revealing a head of thick, curly black hair.

“Why? They'd only hang you as a horse thief.”

“We didn't steal no horses,” the blond said again.

Zeke was about to ask Hawk what he wanted to do with the thieves until morning when he heard the sound of a woman's voice raised in protest. Josie! Hawk jerked his head in the direction of the wagon. Zeke was already moving. Where minutes before he'd moved with stealth, now he barreled his way through the brush, using his rifle to push aside thorn-laden branches that snagged at his clothes and skin from all sides. Why had he left Josie? What man would worry his head about horses when there was a woman like Josie around?

The sounds of the struggle grew louder when he rounded a tamarisk thicket. He burst through the underbrush to find Josie fighting off Gardner.

The moment Gardner saw Zeke, he swung Josie in front of him. “Stay back.” His pistol was pointed directly at Zeke.

Zeke skidded to a halt. “Don't be a fool. We caught your men, so there's no way you can get away with Josie.” Zeke moved back and forth, zigzagging, constantly in motion so Gardner was forced to keep twisting to hold his gun on Zeke.

“Close your eyes, Josie.” Zeke hoped Josie could figure out his message before Gardner did. “I don't want them open when I blind Gardner.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Gardner demanded.

The words had hardly escaped Gardner's mouth when Josie closed her eyes, threw her weight to one side, and jabbed Gardner in the ribs with her elbow. She succeeded in distracting him long enough for Zeke to grab a handful of dirt and toss it into Gardner's face. Coughing and clutching at his eyes with one hand, he fired wildly with the other, but Zeke was able to knock the gun out of his hand. A second fist sent Gardner to the ground. A third and fourth guaranteed he would stay there. Several more would probably have followed if Josie hadn't pulled Zeke back.

“You'll get in trouble if you hurt him real bad,” Josie said.

“I ought to kill him.”

“I agree, but there's no point in your getting hanged.”

Zeke got to his feet, brushed the dirt off his pants. “Do you have some rope I can use to tie him up?”

“You can't do that to me,” Gardner protested, still attempting to get the dirt out of his eyes. “I didn't do anything wrong.”

“What do you call trying to carry off a woman against her will?”

“I was just trying to protect her, and she misunderstood.”

“I've never misunderstood a man like you.” Josie handed Zeke a rope she'd gotten out of the wagon.

“A man in my position doesn't have to
carry off
women,” Gardner shouted when Zeke jerked him to his feet and yanked his arms behind his back. “I can have almost any woman I want.”

“Josie doesn't qualify as
almost any woman,”
Zeke growled as he bound the rope around Gardner's wrists.

“You'll regret this,” Gardner said. “I'll put a reward on your head.”

Zeke sat Gardner down on the ground and began to tie his feet. “Make it a big one. I don't want to mess around with boys looking for just enough money for a night on the town.” Zeke dragged him over to the wagon and began tying him to the wheel.

“I've got a dozen men on my ranch that can take you any time I want.”

“Tell them to look for me in Tombstone after Hawk and I drop off these ladies. Now I'm going to see if Hawk needs any help with your horse thieves.”

“I've got nothing to do with any horse thieves,” Gardner protested.

“Don't let him out of your sight,” Zeke said, turning to Josie. “If he tries to get away, put a bullet in him somewhere.”

“Will you be gone long?” Josie asked.

Zeke had gone through at least a dozen emotions during the last several minutes, all of them negative in nature, but he thought he just might have to thank Gardner before they hanged him. For the first time since they'd met, Josie didn't look or sound like she was angry at him. She actually sounded as though she would be anxious for him to come back as soon as possible.

Fortunately, a lifetime of caution came to his aid before he did or said anything stupid. “It shouldn't take long. Hawk had them at gunpoint before I left.”

“So Suzette is okay?” Josie looked relieved.

“More than okay. She looked delighted to be holding a rifle on Gardner's thugs.”

“
They're not my thugs!”
Gardner practically shouted.

“They're certainly not very good,” Zeke said. “If you were going to be alive long enough, I'd suggest you fire them.”

As Zeke hurried back through the brush, he couldn't decide which part of the situation they were in bothered him most. They were behind schedule returning to their ranch. If they delayed much longer, they faced the possibility that at least one of the mares would drop her foal. That would slow them down even more. He hoped the mares hadn't run far. Horses wandering unattended, even for a short time, were an open invitation to trouble. It would be better for Hawk to find them and bring them back tonight.

He was also concerned about the difficulty of getting the thieves to Redington. It wasn't going to be easy to escort five men, even if one of them was dead, while they also had to keep a lookout for the mares and protect the women. He and Hawk were good, but
that was stretching things. His biggest worry was that some more of Gardner's men might come looking for their boss. It seemed unlikely that five men on a ranch would know about a plan to steal valuable mares without someone else knowing about it, too. When the boss didn't return as expected, the natural thing for his hands would be to go looking for him. Nearly as unsettling was the possibility that tonight's gunfire would attract the attention of other men just as willing to try to steal the mares.

Then there were the women. But he didn't want to think about that. At the moment, it was simply more than he could handle.

About the last thing he expected to see when he emerged from the brush was Suzette standing watch over three men bound hand and foot and tied together. “Where's Hawk?” he asked, looking around for his partner.

Suzette didn't take her eyes off the men. “Gone to find their horses.”

“He shouldn't have left you alone with these men.” Zeke didn't bother to check the ropes. No man had ever escaped after Hawk had tied him up.

“They're tied up, and I have a rifle.”

“Do you know how to use it?”

“Of course.”

“Would you?”

Suzette gave the blond man a particularly angry look. “I wouldn't hesitate.”

“Are you sure you don't mind being by yourself?” he asked Suzette.

She nodded her head.

“Then I'll go after the mares.”

“Okay, it's settled,” Hawk said to Zeke. “Josie and I will take the men on to Redington, and you and Suzette will follow with the wagon and horses.”

Suzette was not happy about the arrangements. Not that she minded being with Zeke or that Josie would be with Hawk. She minded because Josie's experience growing up on a farm and knowing how to ride and handle a rifle made her more suited to help Hawk get the prisoners to Redington. She acknowledged the value of Josie's experience, yet still felt it somehow devalued her. Her reaction wasn't logical, but that didn't change how she felt.

“Are you sure you're comfortable riding ahead of me by yourself?” Zeke asked Suzette when he'd finished harnessing the mules to the wagon.

“Why shouldn't I be?” She didn't mean to sound argumentative, but being judged insufficiently experienced to help Hawk had hurt.

Zeke met her gaze. “Knowing how to find your way through the desert isn't exactly the same as singing and dancing—even though it might be less hazardous.”

She couldn't take out her frustration on Zeke. “It won't take any skill to follow the trail left by seven horses.”

“You'll be by yourself.”

“You'll be right behind me.”

“But you'll
feel
alone.”

Suzette decided right then that Zeke was a dangerous man. He saw too much, understood too much. Maybe that was why Josie was so afraid of letting him get close. Josie had secrets she didn't want to share, and a man like Zeke had a way of seeing into all the dark corners.

“I'll be okay.” Suzette swung into the saddle and prodded Zeke's horse into a trot until she reached the clearing where the mares waited. As soon as Zeke brought the wagon up, Hawk waved good-bye and he, Josie, and the prisoners disappeared around one of the many bends in the river. “Come on, girl,” she said to Dusky Lady. “It's time to hit the trail.”

In less than five minutes, the mares were strung out behind her in a line reaching back to Zeke and the wagon. They moved out of the trees on the open valley floor, which allowed her to see Hawk riding not far ahead, and all her feelings of hurt came rushing back. She did feel alone. She did feel rejected. She did feel she wasn't good enough, and telling herself it was all nonsense didn't change a thing. She'd thought the night spent in Hawk's arms had meant something. Yet after seeing him ride off as though nothing had happened between them, she couldn't help wondering.

Fortunately for her, her horse didn't need her guidance to weave among the cactus, catclaw, acacias, and mesquite, avoiding sharp needles and hooked thorns from protruding limbs. The strip of green that bordered the river was beautiful, but she couldn't imagine why anyone would want to live in this desert. It was hot, dry, empty, and unfriendly.

She was feeling out of sorts with the whole world, but that was her fault. She'd made it clear she wasn't looking for an emotional relationship. She'd said she wanted to enjoy the next few days, then go her own way with no hard feelings, so what did she expect Hawk to do? Hell, he was a man. Everybody knew men had no trouble falling into and out of temporary relationships. A man who'd reached Hawk's age without
being married had to be an expert at it. Which was one of the reasons she'd had the courage to sleep with him. Now that the game had started, she was wanting to change the rules.

That wasn't true. She didn't
want
to change the rules. Rather, the game was changing
her
.

She didn't want it to be a game. She wanted it to mean something. But how could it mean anything of importance if they could walk away from each other without a backward glance? Did she want it to mean something to Hawk but not to her? Did she need to feel that he didn't want to let her go, but would because that was what she wanted?

She wasn't sure what she wanted or why, but she was certain she was being unfair to Hawk. Yet knowing that and admitting it didn't keep her from being piqued that he'd gone off and left her. She'd never felt like this about a man, but apparently this feeling—whatever it was—didn't allow for logic. She couldn't want their time to be meaningful if she was prepared to turn her back on it in less than a week. She had to stick with her original plan or give up sleeping with Hawk.

But that was the trouble. She didn't think she could.

Josie looked at Gardner's back as he swayed on the horse to which he was tied. “Do you think he really owns part of the Birdcage?” she asked Hawk.

“Can't say.”

“Is he really rich?”

“Must be. He controls most of the land along Aravaipa and Copper Creeks.”

“Is that a lot?”

“More than you can ride over in a couple of days.”

Charging one of the owners of the Birdcage with trying to steal horses pretty much eliminated any chance they had of getting a job in any business he owned, and that dimmed their prospects of finding decent employment in Tombstone. She wasn't afraid she'd be unable to find a job. She knew enough about men to know they'd challenge the devil himself for a chance to get close to an attractive woman, but she wasn't willing to work in a place where the men had actual contact with her. She'd been through that before, and once was enough. It was like being embraced by a centipede with a hundred hands instead of legs.

“What do you think will happen to Gardner and his men?” They were approaching Redington.

“They don't have any judge here. The trial will have to be in Tucson,” Hawk said.

“Will we have to testify against them?”

“Can't say.”

She didn't know how Suzette could stand riding with Hawk all day. She'd only been with him for one morning, and he'd talked more in the last five minutes than in the previous five hours. She'd tried to get him to talk about Zeke, but he'd said if she wanted to know anything about Zeke, she'd have to ask him. Only a man would say something as stupid as that. Any woman knew if you wanted to know something about a man, the last person you'd ask would be the man himself. As far as she knew, there wasn't a man in the world who knew the truth about himself.

Which brought her back to Zeke. It seemed nearly everything did. She'd met the man less than a week ago, and already her life seemed to be divided into two pieces, before and after. She wondered if all women
felt this way when they met a man they couldn't forget, much less ignore. No man should be that important to a woman. They were too undependable, too selfish, too . . . male.

So why was she still thinking about Zeke? He had been a bachelor for so long, he wouldn't know how to settle down if he wanted to. Wandering all over the West shooting it out with outlaws was no way to prepare for being a father, much less a dependable husband. And what was she doing thinking about husbands and fathers in the first place? She didn't want a husband. And since she couldn't have children without one, she'd made up her mind to do without them, too.