Tip of the Spear (5 page)

“Right.”
Hinto worked around criminals for a living. He knew the more information he had
on a bounty, the better chance he had of nabbing the guy. If he wanted Thais
out of his system, he reasoned the more he knew about her, the better. “When
you got into town, did you register with the UTO?”

“The
office that enforces the Nature Laws?”

“Good.
At least you know what they are.”

“No.
I did not register. I don’t need permission to travel through these lands,” she
said, her shoulders stiff, her posture defensive.

Hinto
shook his head. “You don’t know shit about the Territories, do you? The UTs are
dead serious about the land. And when I say
dead
, I mean hanging dead.”

A
woman who knew as little as she did about UTs wouldn’t last long in the
Territories, even if she did fight like a goddamn pro. He was surprised she’d
lasted this long. Why he should care was beyond him, but educating her about
life in the Territories would at least fill the daylight hours. Tonight could
be spent instructing her in
other
things.

“What
do you know about the Territories?” he asked.

She
scowled. “Is this a test?”

“This
is called conversation. Unless you’d rather do something else to while away the
time?” His leer left her no doubt about what he’d rather be doing.

She
growled, “You touch me and you die.” Her knife appeared in her hand between one
blink and the next.

“You’re
fast, that’s good. And from what I saw the other day, both accurate and deadly.
We’ll need that.” He paused and stopped Beast. She stopped beside him and
tensed, as if preparing herself for battle. “Let’s get something straight,
right now. I could be on you like green on grass before that knife came
anywhere near me. But you don’t need it. I don’t rape women. I don’t need to. I’ve
done a lot of killin’ in my time, but hurting a woman’s just not right.”

“Why?
Because the warrior in you cannot fathom a fight with a ‘weaker’ opponent?” she
asked with scorn, her grip tight around the handle of her sharp blade.

“Because
my mama taught me better than that,” he said quietly. “You want a fight, I’ll
give you one. But not for sex, and not for that knife. I’ve got my own, and
it’s twice as big.”

“Bigger
isn’t better.” The cunning in her gaze told him he’d have a tough time subduing
her without a few marks, if it came down to it. Then what she’d said
registered, and he couldn’t help laughing.

“Honey,
bigger is always better. Course, I’ve heard harder trumps bigger, but what the
hell do I know?”

The
puzzlement on her face spoke volumes. The woman could handle herself with a
knife, but the Territories and sex seemed to confuse her.
A fucking virgin.
His
dick filled out beneath his fly, the thought of introducing Thais to sex too
enticing for his peace of mind. It took every bit of willpower he had to bring
his lust under control and sit under her heavy stare.

After
a moment, she nodded and sheathed her knife. She urged her mount into a trot,
and he nudged Beast to follow her. The sight of her ass in the saddle had him
pushing Beast to ride beside her.

“The
Territories.” She nodded imperiously, looking all around her at the red and
orange-leaved trees, the tall grasses and indigo mountains in the distance. “Tell
me more.”

 “I’m
sure you already know this, since you’re not at all new to the area,” he said
with sarcasm, pleased when she scowled at him. “Close to a thousand years ago the
whole of this land used to be united. Then the Great Storm hit. People
disappeared, and it was thought to be the End. Except hundreds of years later,
all of a sudden, we just popped up like seeds takin’ root and settled the land.
East of the Divide became the East. West of the Divide became the Territories. There
are six of them.”

She
nodded. “NorthWest, Big Sky, Last Territory, Cali , Four Corner, and Temeco.”

“Yeah.
Except we call Last Territory
L.T.
, like we call the Impact Zone
I.Z
.”

She
frowned and mumbled something he couldn’t understand.

“What’s
that?”

“Continue
about the Territories. I like this conversation.”

I’d
rather use that mouth of yours for something other than talking.
He
sighed, aggravated with a libido suddenly raging out of control. “Before the
Great Storm, people—and excuse my language—fucked up the land pretty bad. If
the Great Storm hadn’t hit, we’d probably be dying from all the pollution,
disease and trash filling the towns. The few folks left after those giant sky
rocks hit decided to start new.

“They
made the Nature Laws, laws which have stood for hundreds of years now. No pollutants.
No unauthorized firearms or electronic devices, which none of us can handle
anyway. Never saw the sense in that stipulation. No mining, farming, or cutting
down trees without UTO permission.”

Thais
bit her lip, and he wanted to soothe the soft flesh with his mouth. “So your
people created laws to save the land?”

Your
people?
“Yeah, I guess. If you don’t register with the UTO when
you visit a town, or you violate the Nature Laws, you hang or get shot,
whichever the UTs prefer. It’s that simple.”

She
nodded slowly. “That makes sense.”

“You
agree with that?”

“Why
not? Our history tells of outsiders stealing our lands and killing our forests.
They came to us with fire makers to steal our treasures and capture our people.
But we survived. And then the Time of Dying came, and they bothered us no more.”
She frowned, and he thought he saw a flash of anger in her green eyes.

 “The
Time of Dying, huh? A great way to describe the time after the Great Storm.” He
thought about all Kitty had told him when he’d hounded her earlier this morning.
“You’re looking for a woman like you, with a picture of a flower on her face.”

“Yes.”

Guaranteed
she’s not from the Territories either.
From the look of Thais,
he didn’t think her an Easterner, especially since crossing the Divide normally
killed anyone stupid enough to brave the danger. Perhaps the rumors were true
about people still living beyond the borders. “Are you from beyond the border?”

Her
face closed. “Where I am from is not your concern.”

“What
you don’t know about the Territories will get you killed,” he said bluntly.

“I
am from Temeco. Satisfied?”

Not
by a long shot. She lied and didn’t care that he knew it. He found himself
respecting her grit. “Satisfied? Not yet,” he muttered.
But I will be. You can
count your pretty little ass on that.  

Chapter Three

Thais
wasn’t sure what she’d done to irritate Hinto. It seemed everything she said
drew a certain tone from the man. Annoyance, and something more. Something she didn’t
like, yet couldn’t look away from.

“You’re
so curious about my life. What about yours?” she asked, expecting him to avoid
the question. From what little she’d seen in her time away from home, people
shied from sharing information. Even Kitty, who professed to like Thais, would
only
trade
what she knew about Pilar and Bartel, rather than give it.

Hinto
glared at her, his eyes bright despite the shadow of his hat’s brim. The wind
blew, the scent of pine and grass and man filling her with a strange impatience.
Black hair drifted across his cheek and traced the planes of his hard face. Unlike
the Territory men who’d invaded her home, Hinto had bronzed skin honed by the
sun. Like her people.

“Hell,
compared to you I’m an open book.”

“I
don’t understand.” What did he mean about books? And why didn’t he slide that
silken strand of hair from his firm lip, where it had caught?   

“I
have nothing to hide,” he clarified but said no more. To her relief, the wind
blew his hair back from his face again, before she’d done something insane like
touch him.

Silence
descended as they rode toward the western mountains. Though very different from
her rainforest, the land here shone with beauty. Large, black and purple
mountains butted against the clear blue sky. Puffs of clouds, a sight she never
tired of seeing, lingered overhead. Birds, so different from the colorful
variety at home, flew from tree to tree, feeding their young and building nests
while deer and wild dogs kept their distance, barely visible through the trees.

The
mare beneath her snorted and shook her head at Hinto’s vore, which ambled a bit
too close.

She
shot Hinto a glance and found him staring at her. Heat pooled in her loins, an
uncomfortable and unwelcome sensation. She shifted in the saddle and nearly
shot off her horse when that place between her legs flared with heat.
What
the hell was that?

“What?”
she snapped at him when he continued to stare. Her cheeks burned. “You said you
have nothing to hide. Then speak.”

He
grinned slyly, as if he knew what bothered her. “All you had to do was ask.” He
warned Beast to behave and continued. “My mama died when I was a kid, victim to
a fever that killed her and half the town. My dad settled the rest of us in Shine.
We have a ranch there. It’s wild but beautiful.” The expression on his face as
he looked at her could only be described as hungry.

“You
miss your home,” she breathed, annoyed that it took her a moment to relax under
that look.

“I
do. Probably as much as you miss yours.” His insightful words soothed a part of
her wishing for distance. A strange kinship to have with a foreigner and man.

“You
are a tracker, Kitty said.”

“I
prefer bounty hunter. I find men and bring them to justice.”

“To
justice? Bounty hunters work for gold.” If she recalled correctly. There was so
much to learn in this place. Every town and territory had its own set of rules.
It gave her a headache trying to remember it all.

“Anyone
can hunt for currency.” He snorted. “There are too many men out there doing
whatever they damn well please. Between the corrupt marshals and the UTO that
only cares about violations against the land, what’s right often gets lost
under piles of gold.”

His
bitterness surprised her, and she realized he wasn’t such an open book, as he
wanted her to believe. Something in his past had hurt him. Again, a common bond
they shared.

“Tell
me about Morrow,” she said to change the subject.

“Anyone
ever tell you you’re bossy? Tell me this, tell me that,” he mimicked, drawing
an unwilling smile from her. “Oh my God, a smile? Say it ain’t so.”

She
pursed her lips but couldn’t stop grinning.

“Damn,”
he rasped then shook his head. “Morrow, right. The town, if you can call it
that, is a lot smaller than Little Valley. It’s got one bar, one church, and
one store. Lots of miners, and lots of criminals trying to get their hands on
anything they can. How the damned town wound up close to the railroad I can’t
say. But don’t expect we’ll find any law enforcement to help us with Gregor. The
place still doesn’t have a UTO.”

“And
this trip will take how long?”

He
glanced at her mount then at her. “Four days at the most. You don’t sit well on
the horse, but you’re holding your own.”

“Don’t
sit well? What exactly does that mean?” She took affront to his criticism. Just
getting on the Goddess forsaken beast had been a feat in itself. If horses had
been meant to be ridden, they’d have been found in the jungle. Then again, her
mare had proved reliable thus far.

“You’re
too stiff. You need to lean back a little, to roll with your horse’s gait. Don’t
fight it so much. Take Beast. He’s huge, ragged, and has no sense of timing.”

Beast
snorted, and Thais had the idea the vore understood exactly what Hinto said.

“But
he can run a helluva lot faster than I can. He’s tireless, dependable, and so
smooth you wouldn’t believe he’s a product of the Divide.”

“How
so?”

“Vores
used to be horses, you know. He looks like your mare, doesn’t he? Except for
the fact that he’s at least four hands higher and has sharp teeth and eyes that
glow in the dark. When the Great Storm hit, the sky rocks not only killed most
of the world, they affected the beasts in it as well.”

“Ah.
And some men too, I’ve heard.” Monsters lived in the Divide—a stretch of land
between the Territories and the East that few had ever crossed and lived to
tell about. Dark things traveled those twisted lands, things better left alone.
She could only hope Bartel hadn’t passed into the East in his quest to hold
onto the queen’s crown.

She
noticed Hinto’s silence. “What?”

He
cleared his throat and glanced away from her. “Nothing. We have a few more
hours before we reach the pass. But we can break sooner, if you want.”

“No.
I want to cover as much ground as we can before dark.”