Against the Wind Read Online Free PDF

violent person, but she had the sudden overwhelming desire to fling herself on this hard-eyed, long-haired stranger and beat some sense into him. The gun at his waist and the knife at his hip stopped that thought, and with a great effort she drew together the shattered pieces of her calm. “All right,” she said. “If you won’t let me see Samuel I suppose I have no choice but to leave.”
    That smile again, that damnable, nasty little smile appeared as he shook his head. “You’re not going anywhere.”
    Maddy hadn’t spent years coping with the extraneous threads of the Greater Hollywood Help Network for her to quail before the likes of Jake Murphy. If she could outmaneuver General Ortega and Lizard Eyes, she could outmaneuver him. “You can’t have it both ways,” she said patiently. “Either you let me see my father or you let me leave. One way or the other.”
    He was entirely unmoved by her attempt at logic. “There’s a third alternative. You stay right here until I find out what brought you here. As long as Ortega thinks his current plan is working then he won’t be busy thinking up something new. Better the devil you know …”
    “You can’t keep me here!”
    “Of course I can,” Jake said. “For as long as I want. This is an armed camp, Allison Henderson, and I’m commander-in-chief. You’ll stay right here until I decide you’re harmless and let you leave.” He held out his strong right hand, the one that had trained the gun on her with such unstudied aplomb. “Come along, lady. Maybe you can convince someone else of your claim. I doubt it, though, and if I were you I wouldn’t even try.”
    She continued to watch him warily. “Why?”
    “Because being Samuel Eddison Lambert’s daughterwould have distinct disadvantages. We’re an armed camp for a reason, lady. The Gray Shirts of your General Ortega would like nothing better than to have Lambert dead. He’s an embarrassment to the government and affront to all their lip service about human rights. They would love to have him murdered by the bloodthirsty insurgents.”
    “But the rebels …”
    “The rebels have been fighting an impossible war for six years now. They need a martyr. I don’t think any of them would go to much trouble to stop the government from disposing of Sam. If the U.S. government got mad enough it might stop sending all that nice money to President Morosa, and the death squads might stop. It’s been proven that the murder of one American citizen causes far more outcry than the slaughter of thousands of San Pablans.”
    “And which side are you on? The government or the rebels?”
    Jake grimaced. “I’m on Sam’s side. For all the good it does him.” He shook his head, the long hair moving in the stifling breeze. “So you might think twice about trying to convince all and sundry that you’re Sam’s daughter. A young American female would make just as good a martyr as a saintly old man.”
    “I would think that would suit your purposes very well,” Maddy snapped. “The rebels would have their American victim and I’d be out of your way. Why don’t you just turn me over to them?” For the moment she trusted Lizard Eyes more than she trusted this cold, dangerous stranger.
    “Don’t tempt me,” he ground out, that hand fastening on her elbow with a grip just short of painful. “If youdon’t watch your step you may have no say in the matter.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Just that people aren’t always what they seem,” he murmured. “Come along and I’ll introduce you to some of the others. But I wouldn’t take any of them at face value, if I were you.”
    “Not even you?” she couldn’t help asking as she was half dragged toward the looming old hacienda.
    Jake Murphy glanced at her with those fathomless hazel eyes. “Especially not me,” he said.
    She was the last thing he needed right now, Jake thought with a barely controlled fury. It took every effort of concentration on his part not