Mercenary's Woman (9 page)

64
                             
MERCENARY'S WOMAN

might never have happened," he said
forcefully. The heat
in his eyes made her shiver. "A man is physically
stronger
than
a woman. There are some exceptions, but for the most
part, that's the
honest truth. Unless you've trained for
years, like a policewoman or a federal
agent, you're not
going to be the equal of a man who's drunk or on drugs
or just bent on
assault. Law enforcement people know how
to fight. You don't."

She shivered again.
Her hair was disheveled. She felt
bruises on her arms where she'd been
restrained by those
men. She was still stunned by the experience, but
already a little of the horror of what might have happened was getting to her.

He let her wrists go
abruptly. His lean face softened as
he studied her. "But I'll say one thing
for you. You've
got grit."

"Sure. I'm tough," she laughed
hollowly, brushing a
strand of loose hair
out of her eyes. "What a pitiful waste
of self-confidence!"

"Who the hell
taught you about canned self-defense?" he asked curiously, referring to
the can of spray on the
ground.

"There was this
television self-defense training course
for women," she said defensively.

"Anything you
spray, pepper or chemical, can rebound
on you," he said quietly. "If the
wind's blowing the
wrong way, you can blind yourself. If you don't hit the
attacker squarely in
the eyes, you're no better off, either.
As for the whistle, tonight there would have
been no one close enough to hear it." He sighed at her miserable ex
pression and shook his
head. "Didn't I tell you to run?"

She lifted a high-heeled foot eloquently.

He leaned closer.
"If you're ever in a similar situation
again, kick them off and try for the
two-minute mile!"

DIANA
PALMER

She managed a smile for him. "Okay."

He touched her wan,
drawn face gently. "I wouldn't
have had that happen to you for the world," he said bit
terly.

"You were right, I brought it on
myself. I won't make
that mistake again,
and at least I got away with everything
except my pride intact," she said gamely.

He unfastened her seat belt, aware of a
curtain being
lifted and then released in
the living room. "I sent Dallas
straight
here as soon as I got the message," he explained,
"to watch out for Jess and Stevie. You should
have let me
know about this night
meeting much sooner."

"I know."
She was fighting tears. The whole experience
had been a shock that she knew she'd
never get over.
"There was a third man, on the porch. He said that Lopez
wouldn't like what
they were doing, calling attention to
themselves."

He stared at her for
a long moment, seeing the fear and
terror and revulsion that lingered in her
oval face, watching
the way her hands clenched at the shirt he'd fastened
over
her
torn bodice. He glanced at the window, where the cur
tain was in place
again, and back to Sally's face.

"Come here,
sweetheart," he said tenderly, pulling her
into his arms. He cuddled her close,
nuzzling his face into
her throat, letting her cry.

Her clenched fist
rested against his black undershirt and
she sobbed with impotent fury. "Oh, I'm
so...mad!" she
choked. "So mad! I felt like a rag doll."

"You do your best
and take what comes," he said at
her ear. "Anybody can lose a fight."

"I'll bet you never lost one," she muttered tearfully.

"I got the hell
beaten out of me in boot camp by a little
guy half my size, who was a hapkido master.
Taught me

66

MERCENARY'S
WOMAN

DIANA PALMER

67

a valuable lesson about
overconfidence," he said deliber
ately.

She took the
handkerchief he placed in her hands and
wiped her nose and eyes and mouth. "Okay, I get the
message," she said on a broken sigh.
"There's always
somebody bigger
and you can't win every time."

"Nice attitude," he said, approving.

She wiped away the
last trace of tears and looked up at him from her comfortable position across
his lap. "Thanks
for the hero stuff."

He shrugged. "Shucks, ma'am, t'weren't nothin'."

She laughed, as she
was meant to. Her eyes adored him.
"They say that if you save a life, it
becomes yours."

His lips pursed and
he looked down at where the jacket
barely covered her torn blouse. "Do I get
that, too?"

"Too?"

He opened the shirt
very slowly and looked at the pale flesh under the torn blouse. There was a lot
of it on view.
Sally didn't protest, didn't grab at cover. She lay very still
in his arms and let
him look at her.

His pale eyes met
hers in the faint light coming from
the house. "No protest?"

"You saved
me," she said simply. She sighed and
smiled with resignation. "I belonged to
you, anyway.
There's never been anyone else."

His long, lean
fingers touched her collarbone, his eyes narrow and solemn, his expression
serious, intent. "That
could have changed, tonight," he reminded her
quietly.
"You
have to trust me enough to do what I tell you. I
don't want you hurt in this. I'll do anything I have to, to
protect you. That includes having a man
follow you around
like a visible
appendage if you push me to it. Think what
your principal would make of
that!"

"I won't make
any more stupid mistakes," she prom
ised.

"What would you
call this?" he mused, nodding toward the ripped fabric that left one
pretty, taut breast completely
bare.

"Cover me up if you don't like what
you see," she
challenged.

He actually laughed.
She was constantly surprising him.
"I think I'd better," he murmured
dryly, and pulled the
shirt back over her, leaving her to button it again.
"Dallas
is at the window getting an education."

"And I can tell
how much he needs it," she said with
dry humor as Eb helped her back into her own
seat.

"That makes two of you," Eb told
her. His eyes were
kind, and now full of
concern. "Will you be all right?"

"Yes." She hesitated with her
hand on the doorknob.
"Eb, is it always
like that?"

He frowned. "What?"

She looked up into
his eyes. "Physical violence. Do you ever get to the point that it doesn't
make you sick inside?"

"I never
have," he said flatly. "I remember every face,
every sound, every
sick minute of what I've done in my
life." He looked at her, but he seemed
to go far away.
"You'd better go inside. I'll take you and Stevie out to
the ranch Thursday and Saturday and we'll
put in some
more time."

"For all the
good it will do me," she managed to say
nervously.

"Don't be like
that," he chided. "You got overpow
ered. People do, even 'big, strong'
men. There's no shame
in losing a fight when you've given it all you've
got."

She smiled. "Think so?"

"I know
so." He touched her disheveled French knot.
"You wore your hair down that
spring afternoon," he

68

MERCENARY'S WOMAN

DIANA PALMER

murmured softly. "I remember how
it felt on my bare
chest,
loose and smelling of flowers."

Her breath seemed to
stick in her throat as she recalled
the same memory. They had both been bare to the
waist.
She
could close her eyes and feel the hair-roughened mus
cles of his chest
against her own softness as he kissed her
and kissed her...

"Sometimes,"
he continued, "we get second chances."

"Do we?" she whispered.

He touched her mouth
gently. "Try not to dwell on what
happened tonight," he said. "I
won't let anyone hurt you,
Sally."

That felt nice. She
wished she could give him the same guarantee, but it seemed pretty ridiculous
after her poor
performance.

He seemed to read the
thought right in her mind, and
he burst out laughing. "Listen, lady, when I get
through
with
you, you'll be eating bad men raw," he promised.
"You're just a
beginner."

"You aren't."

"That's true.
And not only in self-defense," he added
dryly. "You'd better go in."

"I suppose so." She picked at
the buttons of the shirt
he'd loaned her.
"I'll give it back. Eventually."

"You look nice in it," he had to
admit. "You can keep
it. We'll try
some more of my clothes on you and see how
they look."

She made a face at him
as she opened the door. "Eb,
do I have to go and see the sheriff?"

"You do. I'll
pick you up after school. Don't worry,"
he said quietly. "He won't eat you. He's a nice man.
But
you must see that we can't let Lopez's
people get away
with this."

She felt a chill go down her arms as she remembered

who Lopez was. "What will he do if I
testify against his
men?"

"You let me
worry about that," Eb told her, and his
eyes were like green steel.
"Nobody touches you without
going through me."

Her heart jumped right up into her throat
as she stared
at him. She was a modern
woman, and she probably shouldn't have enjoyed that passionate remark. But she
did.
Eb was a strong, assertive man who would want a
woman to match him. Sally hadn't been that woman at
seventeen.
But she was now. She could stand up to him
and
meet him on his own ground. It gave her a sense of
pride.

"Debating if it's
proper for a modern woman to like
being protected?" he chided with a wicked grin.

"You said
yourself that none of us are invincible," she
pointed out. "I don't
think it's a bad thing to admire a
man's strength, especially when it's just saved my neck."

He made her feel
confident, he gave her joy. It had been
years since she'd laughed so much, enjoyed
life so much. Odd that a man whose adult years had been imbued with such
violence could be so tender.

"Okay now?" he asked.

She nodded. "I'm okay." She
glanced toward the road
and shivered a
little. "They won't come looking for me?"

"Not in that
condition they won't," he said matter-of-
factly. "And they're very lucky,"
he added, his whole face like drawn cord. "Ten years ago, I wouldn't have
been so gentle.''

Both
eyebrows went up at the imagery.

"You know what
I was," he said quietly. "Until com
paratively recent years, I lived a
violent, uncertain life. Part
of
the man I was is still in me. I won't ever hurt you," he

70

MERCENARY'S WOMAN

DIANA PALMER

71

added. "But I have to come to
grips with the old life
before I can begin a new one. That's going to take
time."

"I think you're saying something."

"Why, yes, I
am," he mused, watching her. "I'm giv
ing notice of my intentions.''

"Intentions?"

"Last time I stopped. Next time I won't."

Her mind wasn't
quite grasping what he was telling her.
"You mean, with those men...?"

"I mean with
you," he said gently. "I want you very
badly, and I'm not walking away this
time."

"You and what army?" she asked, aghast.

"I won't need an
army. But you might." He smiled.
"Go on in. I'm having the house watched.
You'll be safe,
I promise."

She pulled his shirt closer. "Thanks, Eb," she said.

He shrugged. "I
have to take care of my own. Try to
sleep."

She smiled at him. "Okay. You, too."

He watched her go up
onto the porch and into the house,
waiting for Dallas, who came out tight-lipped
with barely
a word to Sally as he passed her.

He got into the truck with Eb and slammed the door.

"What happened
to Sally?" he asked, putting his cane
aside.

"Lopez's men
rushed the truck when she had a flat. I
don't know if it was premeditated," he
added coldly.
"They could have lain in wait for her and caused the flat
The tire was almost
bald, but it could have gone another
few hundred miles."

"She looked uneasy."

"They assaulted
her and may have raped her if I hadn't
shown up," Eb said bluntly as he backed
the truck and

pulled out into the road. "I want to have
another look, if the ambulance hasn't picked them up yet."

"You sent for an
ambulance?" Dallas asked with mock
surprise. "That's new."

"Well, we're
trying to blend in, aren't we?" came the
terse reply. He glared at the tall
blond man. "Difficult to
blend in if we let people die on the side of the
road."

"If you say so."

They drove to where
Sally's pickup truck was still sit
ting, but there was no sign of the two men.
The house nearby was dark. There wasn't a soul in sight.

As Eb digested that,
red lights flashed and a big boxy
ambulance pulled up behind the pickup truck,
followed
closely by a deputy
sheriff in a patrol car.

Eb pulled off the
road and got out. He knew the deputy,
Rich Burton, who was one of the department's ablest
members. They shook hands.

"Where are the victims?" Rich asked.

Eb grimaced. "Well, they were both
lying right there
when I took Sally
home."

The deputy and the ambulance guys looked toward the flattened
grass, but there weren't any men lying there.
   
"Unless one of you needs medical
attention, we'll be on our way," one of the EMTs said with a wry glance.

"Both of the
perps did," Eb said quietly. "At least one
of them has broken bones."

The EMT gave him a
wary look. "Not their legs, by
the look of things."

"No. Not their
legs."

The EMTs left and Rich
joined Eb and Dallas beside
the truck.

"Something's
going on at that house," Rich said qui
etly. "I've had total strangers stop me
and tell me they've
seen suspicious activity, men carrying boxes in and out.