The men shifted away as the steady clop,clop, clop of a horse approached. Her mare sidestepped as the otherhorse invaded her space.
Shea tried to hold the animal in place, butthere wasn’t much she could do against hundreds of pounds ofdetermined horseflesh.
Abandoned by even her horse, Shea glared atthe ground. Maybe he wouldn’t remember her. They’d only metbriefly, and he’d been focused on Fallon for most of that time.
“What do we have here? A girl?” an amusedvoice said above her. When she didn’t respond, he added, “Glaringat the ground won’t make me go away.”
Fine then. She’d glare at him instead. Mightas well get it over with anyway. At least this way, she’d know; heeither recognized her or he didn’t.
No comprehension registered in his eyes, justa mild interest.
Perhaps she was safe.
Recognition dawned. He gave a shout.
Shea frowned even harder at him as he threwhis head back and roared with laughter.
Witt and Dane gave her equal looks ofpuzzlement. The wheels spun in their brains as they looked at her,then at him and then back at her.
Witt lifted his hands slightly inquestion.
She’d told him about Fallon’s men in thecanyon, so he knew how she’d escaped.
Curious as to what had caught Darius’sinterest, his companion prodded his horse forward. By the look onhis face, he didn’t understand why his friend found her soamusing.
“Cale, you won’t believe who this is,” Dariusfinally said, his laughter winding down, though humor still glintedin his eyes.
“Especially if you don’t stop laughing like aloon,” Cale complained acerbically, drawing his horse to a stop.“You’re supposed to be intimidating these dirt grubbers. I don’tsee how this is going to instill fear in their hearts and terror intheir minds.”
“This is her.” Darius tilted his head towardsShea.
“Her?” Cale frowned.
“Her.”
Cale’s eyes went sharply to Shea as hescanned her up and down, realization settling in. “You mean?”
Darius grinned and nodded.
“I’ll be damned.” Cale settled back in hissaddle and looked at her with amazement. “Guess this village hassomething to recommend it after all.”
“I take it Fallon will be pleased with thistribute,” another man said, joining the two. He was brown.Everything about him was some variation of the color. He had brownhair, brown eyes and his skin had been tanned a deep walnut by thesun. With his addition, there were now three men on horsebacksurrounding Shea.
She kept her attention trained on them,acutely aware of the unrest behind her as Paul and Sid beganmuttering in discontent.
All of the men in front of her had scars onvarious parts of their bodies and carried swords in scabbards attheir sides. They were muscled, but it was the kind that came fromlifting a sword and riding a horse everyday rather than the kinddeveloped from plowing fields and harvesting its bounty. Given theair of danger each man exuded, even Darius who seemed to find humorin everything, it was obvious these weren’t the sort of men youcould piss off and expect to walk away unscathed.
She hoped Paul and the others took that intoconsideration.
Darius smothered a grin when she lifted herchin and glared at all three of them. She’d never liked peopletalking about her.
“You made quite an impression last time,little spider. Fallon doesn’t like it when his toys gomissing.”
Confusion must have shown on Shea’s facebecause Darius gave her a long look before continuing. “Entire armyhas orders to bring you in if they come across someone meeting yourdescription. It just so happens I was there that day and knowexactly what you look like.”
Cale’s slight smile made a shiver rush downShea’s back as he eyed her with hooded eyes. “I imagine Fallon willreward us well for this.”
“So our tribute meets with yourapproval?”
