Raven's Prey by Stephanie James (Jayne Ann Krentz) by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page B

He wasn't about to tell her how strange it had seemed to pretend to everyone he met that she was his errant woman. He didn't want her to know about the times he'd been alone in the Cessna between villages when reality and fantasy had begun to merge; about the times he'd begun to wonder what the hunt would have been like if she actually were his runaway bride. The last time someone had advised him not to beat Honor too severely he had found himself nodding gravely and agreeing to accept the advice. The old man who was giving it had been pleased, smiling toothlessly and clapping him on the shoulder.
    "You will see, my son," the old man had said cheerfully. "It will be worth your while to go easy on her. She has spirit and a good heart. A wise man does not break the spirit or harden a softhearted woman. Not if he knows what's good for him."
    By the end of the week Judd was asking himself over and over again just what sort of woman he was hunting. Could she really fool so many people? Possibly. Look what she'd managed to accomplish last night. She'd wrangled a promise of two days' grace out of him—and that was after she'd pointed a gun at him and gone for his eyes with her nails. Automatically his fingers went to the angry red line on his cheek.
    "I think," he said softly, "that it's time you started feeding me the great fairy tale. I'm ready to listen now."
    Honor stiffened resentfully and then reminded herself to take it one step at a time. After all, by rights she should have been stuffed into the Cessna this morning and halfway back to Arizona by now. One step at a time.
    "It's not a long story, really, but the basic fact, the one I can't prove here in this village, is that the two men who hired you aren't related to me in any way. Their names are Leo Garrison and Nick Prager and they want me back so that they can silence me."
    "You're going to stick by the paranoia theme?" Judd asked caustically, finishing his tortilla and egg combination.
    "You said you'd listen with an open mind!"
    "Have you got the makings for coffee?"
    Honor subsided with a groan. "Yes. Instant. Be sure to boil the water well first. I've been lucky so far. I'd just as soon not get any intestinal problems now."
    "Don't worry." He ran water from the bathroom sink, the only source, into a pot and set it on the burner. "Go on with the story. I promise not to interrupt again." But please don't make it totally impossible for me to believe, he found himself pleading silently as he put the water on to boil. Hell. Why was he thinking along those lines? He had no real intention of believing her in the first place. She was merely a job and he badly needed the two grand she would bring. Think of her as a couple of thousand on the hoof, he instructed himself bleakly. A pretty little mare he'd roped and was going to sell.
    No, not a mare. That analogy reminded him too vividly of the advice of one of the Mexicans he had talked to during the search. "Treat her as you would a gentle, spirited mare, son, and you won't go wrong."
    Did gentle, spirited mares ever point guns at people?
    Honor sat for a moment, moodily gathering her thoughts into the most logical sequence. Two days wasn't much time to convince a man like this of anything, let alone to talk him into leaving her behind in Mexico when he'd contracted to take her back to the States.
    "All right," she began grimly, "here it is in a nutshell. Leo Garrison is undoubtedly the one who told you he was my father. I can see how he'd be very convincing. Used to be in the foreign service, you know. An embassy type. And he looks the part, too. Tall, distinguished, with all that snowy white hair and those wise blue eyes. And all that charm he honed to a fine point on the embassy cocktail circuit. He's the kind of man people like and trust on sight. I can't blame you for believing everything he told you. I once believed in him implicitly, myself. He assumed a fatherly role toward me right from the start..."
    "From the start