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“Is talk like that necessary? We were friends once.”
“Friends don’t send friends to jail.”
“I didn’t send you to jail. A judge and jury did.”
“But you told your father where to find me.”
“To save your life! To keep Murdock Marsden from ordering someone to hunt you down like an animal and kill you in cold blood. I won’t apologize for that.”
He didn’t respond, at least not with words. He did, however, close the few yards remaining between them. The lazy, almost insolent stride gave her ample time to confirm that he hadn’t wasted his time in prison, but had made full use of the gym. Beneath the black mat of chest hair, there wasn’t an ounce of spare flesh on him. Every inch of exposed skin was glistening, toned muscle. He’d been something to look at as a young man of twenty-two. Now at thirty-six, without a strand of gray in his black hair, she had no words to describe him, beyond breathtaking. But, dear Lord, his face... The hardness and bitterness in those sharp, sculpted features were too much to endure. In his eyes she saw a man who’d suffered every day of the fourteen years taken from him. This was a man whose entire aura vibrated outrage.
It took all of her courage to stand her ground, and she couldn’t deny a brief impulse to place her hand on her revolver. Making matters worse, when he stopped a spare foot away from her, she had to tilt back her head thanks to her father’s dratted hat blocking her view.
“When’d you cut your hair?”
The question came as a surprise, but it was better than others he could have asked. “When I entered the Detroit police academy.”
It shouldn’t have been possible, but his expression grew more grim; nevertheless, once again he took his time with this closer inspection. He lingered longest on her mouth. Once he’d told her that she had a heartbreaker smile and that her kisses alone could make him come. Older and wiser now, she knew men said things like that to women all the time to get them into bed. But Hugh hadn’t. She’d been the one doing the begging—for what had seemed like forever. He had turned her down each and every time because she’d been only seventeen then. Turned her down, although he’d said himself that there would never be anyone else for either of them.
He’d wanted to wait, and had shown the discipline to do so.
Until her eighteenth birthday.
Taylor almost sighed with relief when he again lowered his gaze to her badge.
“If you’re a Detroit cop, what are you doing wearing that one?”
“I quit.”
“Why?”
“Personal reasons.”
“Must have been a whopper to throw away what could have been a nice pension.” He slowly reached out and fingered the shiny metal. “This won’t bring you anything near that.”
It was unbearable to think of how close his fingers were to her breast. Could he see her nipple hardening? “Sometimes money can’t be allowed to matter.”
Hugh let his hand fall to his side. “I heard that your old man hurt his leg. Is he all right?”
“He will be in six weeks or so.”
“What happened to Sandoval?”
“The town got fed up with his bullying ways. My father had to let him go.”
“And no one else wanted the job?”
“I’m the most experienced.”
That had him lifting one straight eyebrow. “How much do you have?”
“Too much.”
As expected, that had him searching her face again, this time focusing on her eyes. For a small eternity he just looked, and she knew he was reading and gauging, but she wasn’t quite the open book she used to be. She did, however, let him see her regret...and that she refused to be intimidated by him. Neither emotion seemed to impress him.
“Qualified or not, you shouldn’t have come back,” he said at last.
Taking hope in the quieter note she’d picked up in his voice, she allowed herself to continue with what she’d come to say. “You shouldn’t have, either. People are nervous, Hugh.”
“Afraid the half-breed may go on a bloodthirsty rampage?”
She hated hearing him talk that way. Except for snobs like the Marsdens, no one around here had ever said anything derogatory regarding his heritage. Even now, she’d been given no hint that people’s concern was ethnically motivated.
“Let’s just say you have friends here who are concerned that you might have some form of revenge on your mind.”
“Now what right does a guilty man have to think of revenge?”
She wasn’t going to fall into that trap. But he wasn’t going to like what she had to say next any better. “My father—The chief says he wants assurance from you that you plan to leave before anything happens that we’ll all regret.”
“Tell him not to hold his breath.”
“No one wants any trouble, Hugh.”
“Right. That’s why you came to see me wearing a gun.”
“It comes with the badge, you know that.”
“Go away, Taylor. Get off my mother’s property and get out of this sorry excuse for a town. It’s not the place you remember. Maybe we were kidding ourselves to ever think it was better.”
“I wish I could leave, but it’s too late. I already gave my word that I’d stay.”
He twisted his compressed lips into a smirk. “You gave me your word once. We found out fairly quickly what that was worth.”
Had she thought him hardened? He was ruthless.
So be it. Let him understand that I’ve changed, too.
“Congratulations,” she snapped. “Now you’ve proven that you can sound like a bastard. But the message stands. There’s to be no trouble. Understood?”
“Oh, I understand, all right.” Without warning, he took hold of her belt and jerked hard, slamming her pelvis against his. “You try understanding this. If you ever come near me again wearing that gun, you’d better plan on using it!”
Two
“Hugh!”
At the sound of the reproving female voice, Hugh released Taylor and slowly backed a step, then another, away from her. Only at that point did he feel it safe to face his mother. Only then did he begin to trust his emotions again.
As expected, his mother strode quickly across the СКАЧАТЬ