The Complete Mackenzie Collection Read online

  “No!” Dottie sobbed the word. “Bobby!” she screamed. “Please, come down!”

  “I can’t! I’ve got to kill her! She likes him, and he’s a dirty Indian! He killed my father!”

  Dottie gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. “No,” she moaned, then screamed again. “No! He didn’t!” Pure hell was living in her eyes.

  “He did! You said—an Indian—” Bobby broke off and began dragging Mary backward.

  “Do it,” Clay said quietly.

  Wolf braced the barrel of the rifle in the notch of a sapling. It was small but sturdy enough to be steady. Without a word he sighted in the cross hairs of the scope.

  “Wait,” Dottie cried, anguish in her voice.

  Wolf looked at her.

  “Please,” she whispered. “Don’t kill him. He’s all I have.”

  His black eyes were flat. “I’ll try.”

  He concentrated on the shot, shutting everything out as he always had. It was maybe three hundred yards, but the air was still. The image in the scope was huge and clear and flattened, the depth perception distorted. Mary’s face was plain. She looked angry, and she was tugging at the arm around her shoulder, the one that held the knife to her throat.

  God, when he got her back safe and sound, he was going to throttle her.

  Because she was so small, he had a larger target than would normally have been presented. His instincts were to go for a head shot, to take Bobby Lancaster completely out of life, but he’d promised. Damn, it was going to be a bitch of a shot. They were moving, and he’d limited his own target area by promising not to go for a kill.

  The cross hairs settled, and his hands became rock steady. He drew in a breath, let out half of it and gently squeezed the trigger. Almost simultaneously with the sharp thunder in his ear he saw the red stain blossom on Bobby’s shoulder and the knife drop from his suddenly useless hand even as he was thrown back by the bullet’s impact. Mary staggered to the side and fell, but was instantly on her feet again.

  Dottie sagged to her knees, sobbing, her hands over her face.

  The men surged up the hill. Mary ran down it and met Wolf halfway. He still had the rifle in his hand, but he caught her up in his arms and held her locked to him, his eyes closed as he absorbed the miracle of her, warm and alive against him, her silky hair against his face, her sweet scent in his lungs. He didn’t care who saw them, or what anyone thought. She was his, and he’d just lived through the worst half hour of his existence knowing that at any moment her life could be ended.

  Now that it was over, she was crying.

  She’d been dragged up the hill, and now Wolf dragged her down it. He was swearing steadily under his breath, ignoring her gasping protests until she stumbled. Then he snatched her up under his arm like a sack and continued down. People stared after them in astonishment, but no one moved to stop him. After today, they all viewed Wolf Mackenzie differently.

  Wolf ignored her car and thrust her into his truck. Mary pushed her hair out of her face and decided not to mention the car; they would pick it up later. Wolf was in a rage, his face set and hard.

  They had almost reached the road that wound up his mountain before he spoke. “What in hell were you doing in town?” The even tone didn’t fool her. The wolf was dangerously angered.

  Perhaps she wasn’t as cautious as she should have been, but she still wasn’t afraid of him, not of the man she loved. She respected his temper, but she didn’t fear him. So she said, just as calmly, “I thought seeing me might trigger him into doing something stupid, so we could identify him.”

  “You triggered him, all right. What he did wasn’t nearly as stupid as what you did. What did you do, parade up and down the streets until he grabbed you?”

  She let the insult pass. “Actually it never came to that. I intended to talk to Pam first. I stopped at the store to ask Mr. Hearst if she was home and bumped into Dottie. She acted so strange and looked so worried that it made me wonder. She almost ran out of the store. Then, when I saw her turn onto Bay Road, I remembered Bobby, what he looked like. He came out on the porch and looked at me, and I knew he was the one.”

  “So you made a citizen’s arrest?” he asked sarcastically.

  Mary got huffy. “No. I’m not stupid, and you’d better not make another smart remark, Wolf Mackenzie. I did what I thought I had to do. I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but there it is. Enough was enough. I couldn’t take the chance someone else could be hurt, or that he might start taking shots at you or Joe.

  “I drove to Pam’s house and called Clay. I had no intention of confronting Bobby, but it didn’t work out that way. He followed me to Pam’s and heard me talking on the phone. So he grabbed me. You know what happened then.”

  She was so matter-of-fact about it that he tightened his hands on the steering wheel to keep from shaking her. If she hadn’t been crying just a few minutes ago, he might have lost his tenuous control on his temper.

  “Do you know what might have happened if I hadn’t come back to the barn for something and noticed your car was missing? It was just chance I was there when Pam called to tell me Bobby had grabbed you!”

  “Yes,” she said patiently. “I know what could have happened.”

  “It doesn’t bother you that he came close to cutting your throat?”

  “Close doesn’t count except in horseshoes and hand grenades.”

  He slammed on the brakes, so enraged he could barely see. He wasn’t aware of shutting off the motor, only of closing his hands on her slender shoulders. He was so close to pulling her across his knees that he was shaking, but she didn’t seem to realize that she should be frightened. With a faint sound she dived into his arms, clinging to him with surprising strength.

  Wolf held her and felt her trembling. The red haze left his vision, and he realized that she was frightened, but not of him. With her normal damn-the-torpedoes attitude, she’d done what she’d thought was right and was probably trying to put up a calm front so he wouldn’t be alarmed.

  As if anything could ever alarm him more than seeing an unbalanced rapist hold a knife to her throat.

  Frantically he started the truck. It wasn’t far to his house, but he didn’t know if he could make it. He had to make love to her, soon, even if it was in the middle of the road. Only then would the fear of losing her begin to fade, when he felt her beneath him once more and she welcomed him into her delicate body.

  Mary brooded. It had been four days since Wolf had shot Bobby; the first two days had been filled with statements and police procedures, as well as newspaper interviews and even a request from a television station, which Wolf had refused. The sheriff, not being a fool, had hailed Wolf as a hero and praised the shot he’d made. Wolf’s military service record was dug up, and a lot was written about the “much-decorated Vietnam veteran” who had saved a schoolteacher and captured a rapist.

  Bobby was recuperating in a hospital in Casper; the bullet had punctured his right lung, but he was lucky to be alive under the circumstances. He was bewildered by everything that had happened and kept asking to go home. Dottie had resigned. She’d have to live the rest of her life knowing that her hatred had taken seed in her son’s mind and caused the entire nightmare. She knew Bobby would be taken away from her, at least for a time, and that they would never be able to live in Ruth again, even if he was ever a free man. But wherever Bobby was sent, she intended to be close by. As she’d told Wolf, he was all she had.

  It was over, and Mary knew that Wolf would never be treated as an outcast again. The threat was past, and the town was safe. Just knowing who it was and that he’d been caught made a lot of difference in Cathy Teele’s recovery, though what had happened would always mark her life.

  So there was no reason why Mary couldn’t return to her own house.

  That was why she was brooding. In those four days, Wolf hadn’t said a word about her remaining with him. He’d never said a word of love, not even during their wild lovemaking after he’d snatc