Tucker's Claim. Sarah McCarty

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СКАЧАТЬ and the gleam of light off his silver hatband. But he didn’t need to see to know what Tracker looked like. He knew the man’s face as well as he knew his own. When the Mexicans had ridden out that day so many years ago, only eight residents were still breathing. Eight boys. The weight of the bullet around Tucker’s neck seemed to increase the way it always did when he thought back to those days. They’d banded together, to survive. Learned to become meaner and deadlier than anything that tried to take them down, to the point they’d earned the name of Hell’s Eight. If they hadn’t drawn the attention of the Texas Rangers no telling how they would have ended up. They’d been buck wild, taking their revenge with lethal efficiency, but they had been given the choice to become Rangers and they’d taken it, earning a touch of respectability and gaining a broader purpose. Hell, there were even some who’d probably say the Hell’s Eight were downright civilized these days. He smiled. Comparatively.

      “After a walk on the wild side, the widow’s going to wander back to respectability, and then where are you going to be?”

      Where he’d always been—on the outside looking in. “Looking up a new bed partner. What are you doing here?”

      “Just passing through. I thought we’d check on you and Sam.”

      “We?”

      “Shadow’s here somewhere.”

      He bet. “Sam is over at Bella Montoya’s place.”

      “So I heard.”

      He wasn’t sure he liked the tone in Tracker’s voice. While everyone considered Sam the wild card of Hell’s Eight, Tucker had always felt that Tracker and Shadow were the unpredictable ones. “What else did you hear?”

      “I heard he married up with a little spitfire.”

      Tucker smiled. “That’s one way to describe Bella. Others would say she’s passionate, funny and completely devoted to Sam.” He wanted that point made. “And they’re not married yet.”

      “She good enough for Sam?”

      “What are you planning on doing if she’s not?”

      “Steer clear?”

      “That would be wise. Sam’s a bit touchy about his Bella.”

      Tracker grunted. “Fell hard, did he?”

      “Like a rock slide.”

      Tracker shifted the bundle. “She make him smile for real?”

      Tucker understood what prompted the question. They’d all watched helplessly as Sam’s real smile had faded to fake over the years. And they’d all come to the conclusion that what it would take to bring it back would be the right woman.

      “I don’t remember him ever smiling more.”

      “Good. I’ll have to wander over there and see if she’s got what it takes to love a man like Sam.”

      Tucker remembered how Bella had thrown herself after Sam when he’d tumbled over that cliff, how she’d clung and refused to let go, pitting her tiny weight against the force of gravity to keep him here in this world, to the point that she’d almost gone over with him, as she waited for help to arrive. “She’s got what it takes.”

      Tucker’s left eyebrow went up. “You sound convinced.”

      “I am.”

      “Then there’s going to be quite a wedding in a couple months.”

      “Yup. Bella’s an heiress in her own right.”

      “That must have stuck in Sam’s craw. He’s an independent SOB.”

      “Might have, but along with her big ranch came a pack of trouble.”

      Tracker laughed, the vicious scar on his cheek glaring white in the predawn. “That would have cheered him up.”

      The only thing Sam loved more than Bella was a challenge. “It did lessen the sting.”

      “Did he really threaten to kill her mother?”

      “Her and the entire crew at the Montoya ranch when Bella went missing.” It was Tucker’s turn to shrug. “They underestimated his devotion to Bella.”

      In the shadows, there was a glimmer of Tracker’s smile. “People always underestimate Sam.”

      “Yeah, well, this time it was Sam who underestimated Bella’s people. You’re going to like them, Tracker. They’re almost tough enough to be Hell’s Eight.”

      “Heard that, too.” Tracker shifted the bundle he held tucked against his side and took another step forward. The first rays of sunrise touched his face. The jagged scar down his cheek almost glowed red with the light. For a moment, Tucker was thrown back in time to the small town where he’d been born, heard again the battle cry of the invading Mexican army, relived the terror, felt the bullet slam into his chest as his knife slid into the stomach of his opponent. Saw Tracker standing over him, blood pouring down his face, a feral smile on his lips as he tossed aside the man who’d shot Tucker.

      Tucker reached up and grazed the bullet hanging on a rawhide string around his neck. His lucky charm. His impetus to never forget. The smell of blood lingered in his memory long past the fading of the mental image.

      Tucker motioned to the bundle Tracker carried. “What’s that?”

      Tracker grinned. The scar crinkled. He was not a handsome man, but he was a fierce-looking one, full of strength and power. And his smile definitely had the tendency to put the fear of God into people.

      “Desi sent you a present.”

      The bundle wiggled. “It’s not my birthday.”

      Suddenly, Tracker cursed and held the bundle away. It whimpered.

      “What?”

      “I think the damn thing peed on me.”

      It was a puppy. Tucker had a way with animals and was known for his ability to train them. “What’d you expect him to do when you were holding him like that?”

      “Not use me as an outhouse.”

      Tucker could see a red-brown muzzle and long floppy ears. There was no mistaking the pup’s heritage.

      “Looks like Boone’s a daddy.” A wave of homesickness washed over him, thinking of the rawboned hound back at the Hell’s Eight compound that everyone had written off as lazy and worthless, but had turned into the hero who’d saved Caine’s wife’s life. “Who’da thought he’d ever work up the energy to court the ladies?”

      Boone had always been the laziest hound around. Turned out, he’d just been saving his energy for when it really mattered. Or at least that’s the story Desi touted in the aftermath.

      Tracker folded his arm across his chest. “Desi’s kind of disgusted. The one saving grace for Desi is the only dog Boone wants is Daisy. Won’t have any other dog and won’t let anybody else СКАЧАТЬ