Dark Warrior: To Tame a Wild Hawk (Dark Cloth) Read Online Free PDF

instant!”
    The hand around her waist squeezed tighter, and she flew into a wild fury. “Damn you, I said unhand me this instant!”
    “Mandy!” Cord sputtered.
    “I’m sorry. But if this foul brute doesn’t release me . . . .”
    McKinney swung the gun first at Cord, then back. “Be still!” He actually laughed, and once more placed the gun against Mandy’s head.
    Mandy didn’t know if it was the laugh, completely out of context with its surroundings, but she felt the warning clear to her toes and quieted. McKinney was insane.
    Hawk raised his brow, and she knew he asked if that was the best she could do. She shrugged her shoulders but, apparently, it was enough. Hawk’s gun cleared leather in the blink of an eye. The shot clipped McKinney’s ear. “Let go of her, McKinney.”
    McKinney didn’t even blink. “Huh-uh, me and this pretty little thing are going to have a real good time.”
    What happened next was a blur. McKinney swung Mandy, leveling his gun at Hawk as he dove for cover. The bullet blasted into a jar and glass shattered everywhere. Cord dove to the floor, and Meg beat a hasty retreat behind the mounds of fabrics. Then she saw Cord take after Meg—and breathed a sigh of relief that he meant to keep her friend safe—she could concentrate on the gunman—and Hawk.
    Mandy’s ears roared from the gun’s loud explosion so near to her ear, and her eyes watered from gun smoke.
    “You don’t even know why you’re here, Mister!” McKinney bellowed this like a madman, hauling Mandy off the floor in his rage.
    The switch in demeanor, from calm to rage, scared her more than his soft, southern voice. She didn’t know which personality was worse: McKinney, calm and insane—or enraged.
    “You don’t even know why I led you here.” He looked down at his clothes, repulsed. “You’ve been a damn pain in my ass. Look at me! I haven’t had a bath, or a decent meal, since I took this damn job. I’m going to have to kill you, Mister!”
    “Why did you take this job?” Hawk asked this from behind the counter of canned goods. “Who put you and your renegade friends up to visiting that particular plantation?”
    McKinney laughed at this, the calm, southern gentleman firmly back in place. He shrugged. “It was war. It was easy money.”
    There was a poignant pause. “You all took turns with a young, pretty blonde there,” Hawk’s voice was flat. “You used her up and left her to die.”
    “So what?” She felt McKinney shrug. “It was—just a job.” McKinney grinned. “A job meant to get you—here. And it worked.” McKinney shifted Mandy’s weight against his hip. She knew he was now looking for an angle. “You shouldn’t have let it matter so much. Now look where you are.”
    “I could have killed you an instant ago,” Hawk drawled, softly. “But it’s funny. I wanted you to know why you’re about to die.” He didn’t say anything else for several seconds, and for the first time, Mandy felt the unease in McKinney.
    “Do you even remember the six-year-old boy you tied to a tree because he tried to help his ma? I found him two days later. They were dead—all but the little boy. He died in my arms from the wounds you and your men had inflicted on his body.” Hawk paused, then bit out, “Six years old. Did you see him as a threat?”
    “I remember.” McKinney shrugged. “The woman was real good. The kid? Well—the kid—was a pest.”
    Hawk walked out from behind the wall of supplies—his gun leveled at McKinney. It was clear he was through talking.
    McKinney laughed. But it was equally clear he was grasping for the same level of levity he’d used earlier. He seemed to realize this at the same moment Mandy did, and switched tactics. “You stupid fool! The only question is, why was it so easy to get you to come back here? What could the woman, and the boy, possibly mean to you?”
    Mandy waited for an answer. She wanted to hear his answer, but it never came.
    Hawk’s face