Monsters.
CHAPTER 21
Hawk awoke with a groan. Crazy Horse was hunkered down at his side, his long fingers moving over Hawk’s skull. His head throbbed with pain, but he sat up to discover that he remained in the little forest alcove, and he was now surrounded by his friends.
“Where is she?”
“Gone. Sloan and the others went for the horses. We’ll start after them.”
“Who?”
“Crow.”
“Crow. Here in your camp?”
“Dead Crow. They will be dead Crow, very soon, I vow it,” Crazy Horse said. “Can you ride? We will go for your woman. There is no shame in your not coming when your head is battered. Strange, they didn’t make sure you were dead. They didn’t take your scalp.”
“They didn’t take the time,” Hawk commented, coming carefully to his feet. Crazy Horse steadied him when he would have staggered. He was completely perplexed and worried sick. It was his fear, far more than the pounding in his head, thatwas making him feel nauseated. “Damn, what the bloody hell is going on here?” he swore.
“The horses,” Crazy Horse said.
Sloan, He Dog, Willow, Blade, and Ice Raven were mounted, along with a dozen warriors who had joined them as they bridled their horses. Sloan led Tor for Hawk while He Dog led Crazy Horse’s mount.
“You’re sure you can ride?” Crazy Horse began, but Hawk had already swung himself atop Tor’s back, a fistful of mane in his hand. Crazy Horse leaped atop his own mount, and they started out, Blade leading. He had already tracked the enemy across the river, a futile attempt to lose trackers who knew the Black Hills as well as the Sioux.
They rode fast across the river, picked up the trail again, and galloped hard across the terrain toward an outcropping of hills and brush. Willow raised a hand. Blade leaped down from his horse when the trail seemed to split. Hawk started to follow. Sloan caught his arm.
“What the hell happened?”
“Damned if I know. This is insane behavior?—”
“On your part, too,” Sloan said gruffly. “You can usually hear a twig snap in the next territory. If you hadn’t been so damned busy manhandling your wife?—”
“I wasn’t manhandling my wife!” Hawk exploded, amazed to realize that he was in such a blind fury he was ready to tear into the one man who was not only a solid friend but an associate who knew the world of red-and-white he lived in as he knew it himself.
Sloan arched a brow. “I wasn’t manhandling my wife,” Hawk repeated more quietly. “I was simply—completely involved with her.” He groaned. “Damn it, Sloan—” he began, then he shook his head, squared his shoulders, and hurried toward Willow,hunkering down close to the ground to study the tracks with him in the pale glow of moonlight. “To the left,” he said.
Willow nodded. The trail of hoofprints had split, but they were deeper to the left. They’d gamble that meant there was a horse in that party bearing the weight of two riders.
They leaped back on their horses. “We’ll get her,” Sloan assured him. “We’re breathing down their necks now.”
“I don’t know how long I was out—” Hawk began.
“Not long,” Sloan assured him.
“How do you know?” Hawk demanded.
Sloan glanced at Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse shrugged. “I went to find you. Cougar-in-the-Night suspected your wife knows how to cook better than she did. He left when you did and came back with Earth Woman. Earth Woman dumped the spices into the food. I was looking for you when I heard a woman screaming.”
Hawk thought that he would die if something happened to Skylar. Go mad, bury himself in ashes, tear his hair out. It was his fault. He never should have let down his guard. He had survived the war and every danger on the plains by never letting down his guard. She’d seeped into his blood. And it was dangerous.
Because in discovering that he needed her, he was going to lose her. He couldn’t. Wouldn’t.
Damn, by every concept of heaven and hell, he wouldn’t lose her now. He’d kill every Crow in the West if that was what it took to get back.
“Ahead!” Crazy Horse cried suddenly. “Just ahead! Listen!”
They kept up a brisk pace.The Indian riding with Skylar had held her tightly at the beginning of the ride, but then his holdhad begun to ease somewhat. She tried to wriggle from it. If she could test his hold, she could perhaps break free when the right time came.
