“He’s the one. I’m sure of it. I don’t know how, but I know that he sent the Crows?—”
“Skylar! The man is a crippled United States senator from Maryland! I’d heard he’d suffered some kind of an accident, and he’s still in a wheelchair. He’s probably in a wheelchair permanently. He can’t command renegade Crows. He can’t hurt you.”
She wrenched her hands free from his. “You’re wrong! He can hurt me. He’s been hurting me. The truth! You always wanted the truth. Well, I’ve given you the truth now, but I was right. I knew that you wouldn’t believe me.
“Believe what, Skylar? Why would a senator want to hurt you? I don’t understand?—”
“He killed my father!”
“Skylar, slow down!” he exclaimed. He’d never seen her like this. Never. Even when he had burst into the stagecoach and dragged her to the cabin. She seemed more frightened now than she had been of the Crow. “Skylar, you’ve got to?—”
“Sabrina!” she gasped suddenly. “Oh, my God, if he’s got her—he can’t have her. No, he came here because he hasn’t quite gotten his hands on her yet. He knows that she’ll come to me. He knows somehow that I’m here?—”
“Skylar, he’s come because of the Black Hills.”
“No!” She wrenched free of him, pushing past him. “I’ve got to go. I’ve got to find out if she’s reached Gold Town, if Henry has heard from her?—”
“Skylar—”
“You can’t begin to understand what he can do!” she exclaimed, pausing just briefly to stare back at him. She shook her head. “He is the worst kind of monster because most men never see his evil!”
“Skylar, wait. Keep talking to me. I have to understand what is going on, what has happened.” She didn’t seem to hear him. In a blur of soft color, she was gone. “Skylar, damn you, stop! Listen to me?—”
She wasn’t stopping.
He tore after her.
She was swift, graceful, and as fast as a cougar. She was down the stairs by the time he reached the top of the landing. She moved silently, looking into the dining room before she quickly let herself out the front door. She was just seconds ahead of his descent to the ground floor.
“Lord Douglas!”
He paused.
Senator Dillman had rolled himself back into the foyer. He was a man possessing a certain dignified charm. He had a rueful smile that made him seem trustworthy, one with the common man. Level eyes, a square jaw. A voice that quietly filled space and seemed to command it.
“Senator Dillman, you’ll have to excuse me?—”
“You’ve married my girl, eh, sir?”
“I beg your pardon?”
Dillman sighed deeply, looking down. “She didn’t tell you anything about herself? She ran away, you know.” He looked around, assuring himself no one else was within hearing distance. “She’s my stepdaughter. She pushed me down the stairs and ran away.”
“What?” Hawk snapped out, all courtesy forgotten in his astonishment.
Dillman inhaled. “Your father was a fine man, a very fine man. I’m sure you’re one and the same. I’m so sorry to tell you this, but the girl has been filled with delusions since she was a child. Her father was killed during the war. I was with him. I didn’t die. She blamed me. I tried. All those years since, God knows I tried! But I married her mother, you see. She couldn’t forgive me for living when her own true father was dead.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Skylar, Lord Douglas. Your wife.” He shook his head sorrowfully. “Sir, I am ever so sorry. She’s gone completely mad. Her mother’s death sent her over the brink, I believe. I wanted to get doctors for her. The best money could buy. I tried to keep my patience with her, but we quarreled, and she has tremendous strength, tremendous strength! She sent me flying down the stairs, but she is my stepdaughter, my dear departed Jill’s beloved flesh and blood. I couldn’t call the police. But I knew that I had to find her. Help her.”
Hawk crossed his arms over his chest, staring at the man. He had felt the lull of the man’s voice, his persuasion. It was easy to understand why he was such a successful politician. He was so convincing.
“She’s afraid of you,” he said bluntly. “Why?”
“Why? God alone knows, Lord Douglas! Have you been listening, sir? The girl is delusional, poor, poor creature!”
The worst kind of monster, Skylar had told him.
