Rocky Mountain Cowboy (47 page)

As he leaned across her and untied the ropes securing her feet, Jenny scooted backward, up against the head rail, never taking her eyes off the man below her. He was immense, even seated. Jenny guessed well over six and half feet, weighing
over three hundred pounds, much of it solid muscle. She wouldn’t stand a chance in a struggle with him. She wondered if Hawk would. Maybe, but only if he could catch the man by surprise.

“Cold, sweet thing?” Joe put his big hands on her shoulders and gave her a long speculative look. “I think maybe I could warm you up real nice.”

Jenny could see what he intended. She knew she couldn’t escape him, but the lustful intent in his eyes made her desperate. Rolling sideways, she fell off the bed and scrambled to her hands and knees. She caught him off guard, and took advantage of his momentary surprise to lunge for the door.

But for a big man, Joe was fast. He reached for her just as she got to her feet, catching the hem of her red leather jacket. It came off with a fierce tug. He tossed it aside and tackled her around the waist. In one surprisingly fluid move, he flung her over his shoulder and took two big strides
back to the bed.

The springs of the tiny bed nearly broke under their combined weight as he threw her down and fell on top of her, his weight trapping her beneath him and robbing her of breath. Tucked into his belt, something hard and metallic poked into her stomach. Jenny assumed it was a gun and started to reach for it, but Joe grabbed her wrists and held them pinned over her head in one beefy fist. With his other, he yanked her blouse from her jeans and tore it open.

Tiny pearl buttons flew everywhere, and Jenny cried out as she struggled frantically to free herself from the giant. It was a useless waste of her energy. There was no budging him. He was going to sexually assault her, and there didn’t appear to be anything she could do to stop him. Tears filled her eyes. She squeezed them shut as he pushed aside her blouse and went to work on her jeans. Terror and revulsion made her fight anyway, especially when she felt him freeing himself from his own pants. She tried to bring her knee up. He anticipated the move, countered it, and laughed. In spite of her resolve not to give him the satisfaction, she started to cry.

Amused by her frightened struggles, Joe captured her face in one large hand, squeezed, then lowered his mouth to hers. Jenny did the only thing she could do. She bit him. He howled, then backhanded her hard across the mouth, splitting her bottom lip open. Tasting her own blood, she fought the loss of consciousness that threatened. A blast of cold air told her that someon
e had come in through the door.

“Goddamn it! Get the hell off her!” Steve Walker roared as he charged the man on top of her, grabbing him by the back of his shirt, trying to pull him off. “You scum! I knew I shouldn’t
have left her alone with you.”

Jenny used the slight distance between her and her attacker to wiggle her arms free of her blouse. Rocking on her back, she shoved against his massive chest with all her might. Between her and Steve, they managed to throw him off of her, but Joe went for the gun in his belt as soon as he cleared the bed. Spinning to face Steve, he fired at him. The close range shot knocked the wrangler back several feet. He landed against the wall. Jenny screamed and and swung off of the bed. Blood was soaking the upper half of Steve’s body, rapidly turning his white shirt bright red.

Fearing for his life, she grabbed her discarded blouse and rushed toward Steve to staunch his rapid loss of blood. Before she reached him, though, Joe caught by her hair and yanked her backwards to him, making her scalp throb. On her feet, she fought him furiously, cursing loudly, kicking and slapping at him, even biting where she could sink her teeth in.

∞∞∞

On the front porch of the cabin, Hawk heard a gun fire, then Jenny scream. Everything inside him went stone cold. The walls were thin enough that he could hear curses and scuffling. Lifting his rifle to his shoulder, he
lifted one leg and kicked open the flimsy wooden door.

With a rapid sweep of the room, he quickly surveyed the scene before him. Relief flooded him as he saw that it was Steve lying in a pool of blood, not Jenny.

Caught in a cross-arm lock against the big man, she looked so small and vulnerable. Fury clenched every muscle in Hawk’s tightly held body as he surveyed her bleeding lower lip, her unzipped jeans, her barely clad torso. Her beautiful face was marred by a large red mark, as if she had been slapped. Tears welled in her huge brown eyes, making her long lashes wet and spiky, yet there was a tiny smile for him, relief etched clearly in every beloved feature.

Love welled inside him so forcefully, it rocked him to the core. The man before him was a giant. Hand to hand combat was something he needed to avoid if he could.

He glanced at Steve who was slumped against the far back wall, unconscious and bleeding heavily from a gunshot wound to his chest or shoulder. There was so much blood, he couldn’t tell where the bullet had entered. The wrangler was obviously in bad shape and needed a doctor as soon as possible. And if he could be kept alive, he might be a good witness against Brad Caldwell. That was about all the sentiment Hawk could spare for his former employee. It was clear he had been the one to actually kidnap Jenny. She wouldn’t have allowed the goon holding her within shouting distance of her.

Hawk held his rifle
firmly braced against his shoulder, his finger on the trigger, pointed squarely between the eyes of Jenny’s captor.

“Seems we have a standoff here, cowboy. Bet you thought I was just going to hand over your sweet little partner here to you, huh?” The man’s free hand held a big handgun pressed against Jenny’s neck. “Seems Caldwell wants you killed, along with your sweetie.”

Hawk wasn’t about to give up his weapon until he absolutely had to. If he kept a cool head and controlled the fury and fear raging through him, he’d get a chance sooner or later to get Jenny and himself out of this dangerous situation.

Overjoyed to see him, armed and poised so heroically before her, Jenny breathed deeply in and out in an effort to regain some measure of calm. Hawk was stone still. Whatever he was feeling or thinking was completely masked behind his hard
expressionless face. She knew she had to do something, but wasn’t sure what with Joe’s gun jammed in her neck. If Hawk surrendered his weapon, Joe would kill them both.

“I sold the land to Brad. Killing us isn’t necessary. It’ll just get the sheriff involved.”

“Not if it looks like Walker did it. Hell, he’s going to bleed to death anyway, and I’m good at setting up a murder scene— in this case a three-way one. He shoots your girlfriend. You shoot him, then he kills you before he dies. No complications. All tied up nice and pretty. Plus, I hear you fired the worthless shit, even suspected him of being responsible for all the problems you been having on your place for months. Lots of motive and now opportunity.”

“Oh god!” Jenny moaned softly. It was the perfect set up, and Brad Caldwell would never be suspected of being behind all this.

Laughing at her distress, Joe moved his free hand up to fondle and squeeze Jenny’s breast. She felt completely exposed in only her bra. She shut her eyes, which forced her tears to slide down her cheeks. It sucked being helpless and humiliated and used as a pawn to goad Hawk!

“She’s a hot little piece, Larson,” Joe taunted. “Babysitting her was fun. Too bad there’s no time to enjoy her some more, but....” He shrugged. “Maybe I’ll save her for last.” Joe then raised the barrel of his pistol to Jenny’s temple. “You can drop that rifle now. I’ll be the only one using it.” When Hawk hesitated a moment too long, Joe growled, “Do it! Then kick it over here to my feet!”

Hawk had no choice but to comply, but he never removed his eyes from the man before him as he gave his rifle a single kick. Jenny knew he was waiting for a momentary lapse of attention. She cleared her mind and tried to remain as alert as she could. She’d have to get out of harm’s way for Hawk to have a chance of taking the giant down.

Steve moaned and stirred against the wall.
Conscious again, he looked at the trio before him and tried to reach for the rifle beside Joe’s feet. Joe spun around to kick it away, and his attention was diverted just long enough for Hawk to have his opportunity. He reached behind his head, into the back of his parka, pulled out his long hunting knife, and threw it at the man across from him.

Jenny felt
its hiss, then the splatter of blood as it sprayed one side of her face. She turned her head to see the knife stuck in Joe’s shoulder. As he grabbed for the blade with a howl of pain, he dropped his handgun.

Freed, Jenny fell to the floor and scrambled on her hands and knees as far away as she could get. In the sudden frenzy of movement, she saw Hawk dive
at Joe’s legs, hit him in the knees, and take him down. The big man hit the floor with a thud that shook the wooden boards.

“Jenny, get out of here!” Hawk yelled at her as he struggled with Joe for his knife. “Go outside, to the truck!”

He wanted her to leave him? No way. She looked for Hawk’s rifle. He and Joe were rolling back and forth over it. She couldn’t get at it, so she looked for the handgun. It had slid across the floor and was lying near the bed. She reached for it, grabbed it, pushed to her feet, and gripped it with both hands.

Just as she was about to fire it over the heads of Hawk and his assailant, the cabin door opened again. To her immense relief, Hank walked through, armed with his own rifle. She ran behind him, but stayed by the door as he strode over to his boss and the man he was fighting with. Hank jammed his rifle barrel into Joe’s thick neck.

“Move again and I blow your head off!” he announced.

Hawk immediately scrambled to his feet, then bent and picked up his rifle. He kept it trained on the big man still lying on the ground.

“I, on the other hand, might just blow your damned head off anyway,” he told the man staring at him as they both panted for air. “Give me an excuse.” Without taking his eyes off him, he told Hank to get some rope. “Use the stuff on the bed he used on Jenny. Let’s show him how cowboys hogtie a steer.” Still breathing deeply after the intense struggle, Hawk leaned down close to his face, his rifle never wavering from the man’s forehead. “You do know what a steer is, don’t you, buddy?” He gave the bodyguard a nasty smile. “It’s a castrated bull. We cowboys know how to castrate a bull real well. What do you say, Hank? Shall we give him a demonstration?”

Joe’s eyes
nearly bulged out of their sockets as Hank used the rope to hogtie his hands and feet behind his back. When he was finished, Hawk leaned down and brutally yanked the knife from Joe’s shoulder, causing him to scream. With a smile on his face, Hawk positioned the blood stained knife between the bodyguard’s legs, angled toward his penis.

Hank grinned at Hawk and jammed the rifle into the man’s forehead. “I like the way you’re thinkin’, boss. Let’s give the slime bag who took your partner a taste of his own medicine.”

Hawk’s short hard laugh held no humor. Positioned on one knee before Joe, he stared at the open fly on the big man’s pants, then flicked it with the tip of his knife. “One little snip and you won’t ever attempt to rape another woman.” His fingers unfastened Joe’s belt and yanked his trousers down, along with the briefs under them. “Did you rape my partner?” Hawk snarled viciously.

Joe shook his head frantically. “No! Christ, no!” The tip of the blade touched his limp member. “I swear. Ask her!” A dark wet stain dampened the man’s trousers.

Jenny had moved to kneel beside Steve and was pressing her torn white blouse to his bleeding wound. She had been watching the three men before her with wide eyes. “He didn’t have time, Hawk.”

He looked over at her
and nodded, but it took several long moments before the rage left his features. Disgust replaced it as he pushed to his feet and gave the man on the ground one last look. “Let’s get this scum to the sheriff and Steve to the hospital before he bleeds to death,” he said coldly. “I want him to live to testify against Brad.” Then he turned to Jenny and extended a hand. “Come on, honey.” Tenderness wiped away all the violence from his face. She let him pull her to her feet, and went into his open arms with a cry of relief.

Hawk held her close and fiercely tight for several long moments. Finally, he stepped back to remove his sleeveless parka, then his flannel shirt. With swift efficiency he dressed Jenny in both. From his pocket, he then withdrew a white handkerchief. He wiped as much blood from her face as he could. His fingers moved gently over her cut swollen lip. After inspecting every inch of her tear-stained, blood-streaked face, he bent down and kissed her, softly, tenderly.

When his lips left hers, he captured her hand in his and turned to his foreman.

“Hank, thanks for following me up here. It was the right call. I don’t think I could have taken him alone.” Hawk patted his foreman on the shoulder, and Jenny
stepped over to kiss his cheek.

All the gratitude flustered Hank. “I don’t know,” he mused, winking at Jenny. “I think she was about to blow a hole in this guy with his handgun.”

Hawk hooked an arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple. “Let’s throw this guy in the back of your pick up. I’ll take Steve and Jenny. Follow us to the hospital. We’ll call the sheriff from there.”

“Hey, I’ll freeze in the back of your truck!” Joe protested at their feet.