Night Hawk by Beverly Jenkins Read Free Book Online Page B

world shifted.
    â€œYou need another woman,” Rand offered sagely, as if he knew Ian had been thinking about Tilda.
    â€œNo, I don’t. Never letting that happen to anybody I love ever again.” Tilda was killed by a member of a gang Ian had been riding with. It took him a year to track down Bivens, the man responsible. The bounty on Bivens said dead or alive, so Ian sent him to hell.
    â€œAnother woman will heal you just like Betsy healed me.”
    â€œYou’re awfully philosophical these days.”
    â€œBetsy says the same thing.”
    The two friends shared a smile, and a past few could imagine.
    â€œWe had some fun, didn’t we?” Rand asked in a wistful tone.
    â€œThat we did.”
    â€œBet you never thought an Edinburgh-educated lawyer would wind up robbing banks just so he could eat.” Rand was one of the few people who knew Ian’s life story.
    â€œNot in a hundred years.” But the prejudice in places like the large cities on the East Coast had let him know early on that making his living as a lawyer would rarely be allowed. Within six months he’d used up nearly all the funds he’d brought with him from Scotland, so he took the last bit of it and purchased a train ticket west. As luck would have it, he found himself on a train to Denver sitting next to a man of color who introduced himself as Neil. They struck up a conversation, and over the course of the next few hours, Ian told him his tale of woe. Neil was easy to talk to and listened well. Ian had been enjoying his company when all of a sudden Neil stood up and announced a robbery. In reality he was Neil July, one half of the outlaw siblings known as the Terrible Twins. In fact, the twins had members of their gang positioned in seats throughout the train. After they finished relieving the passengers of their valuables and the train of its gold, the smiling Neil asked Ian if he wanted to join them. A lover of adventure his entire life, Ian didn’t hesitate. He rode with the twins and their lawless associates on and off for the next five years. “The law degree came in handy when I represented Neil in his fight against the railroad last fall.”
    â€œHeard about that, too.”
    â€œMay I have more water please, Mr. Tanner!”
    Rand called back to her. “Sure can!” He looked over at Ian. “Your turn.”
    Ian stuck the cigar in the corner of his mouth and got to his feet.
    When he reached the top of the ladder, she was standing below him looking up. He sensed she’d been expecting Rand because her eyes widened with surprise for a moment and she put a firmer grip on the towel she had wrapped around her body. Her transformation from filthy to fresh was so dramatic, the cigar fell from his lips. He saw her hop out of the way so she wouldn’t be burned by the glowing tip and then look up at him as if he’d lost his mind.
    â€œSorry.” But he couldn’t stop staring.
    â€œSomething wrong?” she asked tightly.
    Realizing his eyes were stuck on the smooth tops of her breasts rising discreetly above the towel, he shook himself free and looked away. “No. How does this contraption work?”
    â€œPour the water in the barrel.”
    He complied.
    â€œThank you,” she said. “That should be the last barrel. I don’t think I’ll be needing any more water.”
    Ian knew he’d been dismissed but he couldn’t seem to move. She was so clean that her bared shoulders and arms outside of the towel glowed like newly minted copper, as did her face. When he first saw her back at the Dowd depot, he’d sensed the beauty beneath the dirty coating, but he had no idea she was beautiful enough to turn a man into stone. And below his belt he was just that—stone hard.
    â€œYou leaving or not?”
    â€œSorry,” he mumbled. He climbed back down the ladder and beat a hasty retreat.
    Later, when Ian availed himself of