Renegade Read Online Free PDF Page A

Beckett?”
    Major Creel. God damn it . Tonight’s surprises were just piling up, and Mac didn’t think he wanted to hear the next one. This was the Major Eugenia had warned them about? The man who patrolled Edisto like he owned it? The man who’d sworn to personally catch whoever was moving un-tariffed goods from the St. Helena Sound up to Charleston?
    Goddamn it.
    But the Major didn’t look like he was here to make trouble. In fact, his face had fairly lit up when Becks had smiled up at him, and he swung down from his horse to greet her. “I stopped by the house to wish you a good evening, Miss Middleton, but your mother said that you were out—” He glanced down at her muddy feet. “—on a walk.”
    Becks laughed, but it sounded forced, even to Mac. “Through the pluff mud, Major? No, we’ve been crabbing.”
    “Really?” Creel switched his now-carefully blank gaze to Mac. “And did you catch any?”
    “Oh, yes.” Becks continued, as the two men stared at one another. Mac kept his expression carefully neutral—bored, almost. “Incoming evening tides are always lucky, you know, even this early in the spring.”
    The other man’s glare was almost threatening now, and neither of them were paying attention to her anymore. Mac knew enough about how men acted around women to know what was going on here: Creel had—or wanted—some kind of claim on Becks, and saw Mac as competition for her… affections.
    He could use that. If there was one thing Mac was good at, it was stealing women’s interest.
    She had to be aware of the tension between the two men, but Becks kept talking. “And I’d say tonight was as good as any. We’ve got enough for a fine soup tomorrow.”
    That finally drew Creel’s attention back to her. “Really? And you know I love your Lola’s crab soup. Tomorrow, you say?”
    He wasn’t being subtle at all, and Mac watched Becks’ smile freeze slightly. “Ah. Well then… you should join us for supper tomorrow, Major.”
    He bowed slightly. “Thank you, Miss Middleton. I’d be honored. And now…” He turned back to Mac. “Perhaps you’d introduce me to your… crabbing partner?”
    Mac saw her hesitation, and smiled. He’d snuck onto her land and she didn’t know a thing about him, but she was still reluctant to denounce him. Either she downright hated Creel, or Mac’s charm had worked better than he’d hoped.
    Smoothly, he took her hand, and smiled at Creel. Wrapping his fingers around hers, he drew them to his lips. He heard her suck in a shocked breath just before he dropped a kiss on her knuckles, pretending an intimacy calculated to raise Creel’s ire. It worked.
    “Well, Major.” Mac made his drawl particularly nonchalant, just to irritate the other man. “It seems that you haven’t done your research.”
    Creel’s posture was stiff, and he didn’t even bother to hide his anger. “I beg your pardon?”
    “After all, I know who you are. I made it a point to find out who else was courtin’ Becks.” Creel sucked in his breath at the insinuation that Mac was courting her, and that made Mac’s smile genuine.
    His hand still holding hers, Mac pulled Becks a little closer. He must have caught her off guard, because she stumbled a bit. Welcoming the opportunity to put his arm around her, Mac caught her.
    And then he looked down at her. In the light from the lantern, he could see her eyes, and Lord, they were just as interesting as the rest of her. They were blue, but unlike anything he’d seen before: the color of a clear sky around the pupils, darkening to a deeper blue around the outside of the iris. The contrast was striking, and he thought it fitting.
    His distraction must have helped his illusion that he was courting Becks, because Creel had started sputtering. But before the man could say anything—although whether it would have been to insist he wasn’t sweet on Miss Middleton, or to denounce Mac, he’d never know—Mac tore his gaze away from the