Lone Rider Bodyguard Read online

  “We’re all accounted for.” Jess’s gaze swung from Tye, now giving the mare a slap on the rump that headed her and her foal away from danger, to where Bradley was taking the hose from an exhausted-looking Paul Johnson. “Which means whoever’s still in there must be the bastard who set this fire.”

  He shook his head. “If it were up to me I’d think twice before risking my life or the life of anyone else here to try to save the scumbag. But fifteen years ago my old buddy Tye never had to look behind him to know I was backing him up. I guess some things just don’t change.”

  His shoulders lifted ruefully. The next second he was moving toward the barn, and, looking ahead of him, Susannah saw Tye doing the same.

  Her chest constricted in fear, but even as she saw Jess draw alongside his companion both men halted. Horror filled her as she saw what had stopped them.

  The fiery and barely recognizable shape of a man staggered from the barn, the screams that had been issuing from his throat rising in pitch as he ran. Tye and Jess started forward in unison, but as they reached for him he shrugged them off with the same frantic strength the maddened horses had exhibited earlier. Tye shouted something, and Susannah saw Kevin Bradley redirect the powerful jet of water coming from the hose in his hands toward the burning man.

  The blast was enough to knock him off balance even as it extinguished the flames engulfing him. His last two stumbling steps brought him to within feet of her before he fell to the ground.

  He wasn’t going to live, she realized immediately. No one could, after suffering the burns he had. Her first recoiling reaction to the sight of him fled, and with it any thought of blame for the evil destruction he had wrought here tonight. Whoever he was, whatever he had done, he was minutes—possibly seconds—away from answering for his crimes to a higher power than any to be found in this world, and he had to know that.

  Without thinking she fell to her knees beside him and started to put out a hand, intending to touch him on his arm, but then she realized that there was no way of telling where his charred clothing ended and his flesh began.

  “‘The Lord is my shepherd….’”

  They were probably the most familiar of all the old familiar words, but to her that had never robbed them of their comfort. Instinctively she went on, her voice barely audible.

  “‘I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still—’”

  “Dammit, that’s Vince Rosario. He had a brother here.” Bradley’s tone was hard. Looking up in momentary distraction, Susannah saw him standing over her and the burned man. He thrust his face closer. “You used your little brother as a lookout on your second-storey jobs until he got caught and was sent to the Double B to be straightened out, right?”

  “Please.” She cast a beseeching glance at the hired hand. “This isn’t the time.”

  “Rosario showed up once to spring his brother out early. Del told him if he did, Tommy would have to serve the rest of his sentence in juvenile detention,” Johnson corroborated. He looked at Tye uncertainly. “Should I call an ambulance?”

  “He’s past that,” Tye said quietly. Hunkering down beside Susannah, he nodded at her. “Go on if you want, but I doubt he can hear you.”

  She shook her head somberly. “That doesn’t matter, Tye.” She lowered her gaze to the man Bradley had identified as Rosario, intending to continue, but to her shock he opened his eyes.

  “Sister?”

  The one-word query was little more than a painful croak, but the desperate urgency in Rosario’s tone was unmistakable. After only the slightest of hesitations she gave a tiny nod.

  “‘Beside the still waters,’” she said softly. “‘He restoreth my soul.’”

  “The valley of the shadow of death.” A terrible rasping sound came from him, but whether it was a laugh or a sob it was impossible to tell. “I always said I wouldn’t be afraid when my time came, but I was wrong. I’m afraid, Sister. I want to make confession.”

  “You—you need a priest for that,” Susannah said helplessly.

  He gave no sign of having heard her. “Tommy didn’t want to have any part of me when he came back from here—said his time at the Double B had showed him he could do something worthwhile with his life. I blamed Hawkins for turning him against me and I swore I’d make him pay for what he’d done.”

  “You were the one who attacked Jimmy Smith?” Tye’s expression darkened. “You caused the accident that injured the senator’s nephew?”

  Rosario’s gaze lost focus and he drew in an effort-filled, rattling breath. “I made a deal with the devil, Sister,” he gasped. “Is it too late for me? Can you still say a prayer for my soul?”

  Susannah saw Tye frown, saw him open his mouth to question the man further. Swiftly she forestalled him. “Of course I’ll pray for you,” she promised, compassion flooding through her. “We’ll pray together. You know the words, don’t you?” She picked up where he’d left off. “‘I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they—’”

  “He’s not finished, Sister. He won’t stop until he’s destroyed everything.” To her dismay she saw he was trying to lift himself up on his elbows. “He wants the baby, too, and he’s—”

  He fell backward. “He’s back,” he whispered hoarsely. “Tell Hawkins the old people were right—Skinwalker’s back. And he’s stalking again.”

  For a second longer his gaze remained locked on hers, as if he was willing her to understand his cryptic message. Then she saw one final, shuddering spasm pass through him, saw the last pinpoint of light in his eyes flicker and extinguish.

  “He’s gone.” Despite what he’d said earlier, Jess sounded shaken. “Hell of a way to die.”

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Bradley asked sharply. “That son of a bitch just tried to burn the place down. I say he got what he deserved, dammit.”

  Ignoring them, Susannah scrambled to her feet. Running back across the yard to the SUV, she wrenched open the door of the vehicle, her heart pounding so hard she could barely draw in a breath. Danny looked up solemnly.

  She swept him into a fierce embrace. Behind her she heard a footstep, and she whirled around to see Tye standing there. Before he could speak she attacked.

  “What baby, Tye? What other baby is there at the Double B?” Her words shook with unconcealed fury. “There isn’t one, is there? Danny’s the only baby here!”

  “Suze, calm down for a minute and listen to me.” As he spoke he took a step toward her. Swiftly shifting her son to a one-handed hold on her hip, she put up a shaking hand to keep him away.

  “Rosario said he wants the baby. That has to mean he wants Danny.” With an effort she steadied her voice, but she did nothing to soften the implacable accusation in her tone.

  “I need to know what’s going on, Tye, and I need to know now. Who’s the Skinwalker…and what does he want with my son?”

  “SKINWALKER’S just a legend.”

  She didn’t believe him, Tye thought in weary frustration—no more than she’d believed him the previous half-dozen times in the past three hours that he’d said the same thing. But why should she? This whole mess was no one’s fault but his, and since Vincent Rosario’s dying words had revealed to Susannah that the man she’d trusted hadn’t been entirely honest with her, it seemed she’d decided she couldn’t accept anything he said. He tried a new tack.

  “You tell her, Jess. Remember the stories we used to scare ourselves spitless with around the campfire when Del had us out riding herd? Remember Old Man Morgan warning us about the walking stones and the canyon ghost? Hell, even when we were kids we didn’t really buy into any of it.”

  “Gabe Riggs did,” Jess said unhelpfully. Tye glared at him and the other man shrugged defensively as he poured himself another cup of coffee, rejoining a silent Susannah at the kitchen table. “Well, he did, no matter how he pretended to scoff at the old beliefs. One day he couldn’t find that piece of turquoise he always car
ried, and he said if he didn’t find it by nightfall Skinwalker would come looking for him. Maybe that’s why he hasn’t shown up here yet.”

  “He hasn’t shown up because Del hasn’t been able to locate him,” Tye growled. “Apparently Riggs quit Recoveries International and dropped off the face of the earth after that hostage-rescue fiasco last year. Virgil Connor hasn’t been able to get away, either, but all that means is he can’t just walk out in the middle of an official FBI investigation to help an old friend, no matter how much he’d like to. That’s not the point.”

  He tried to meet Susannah’s eyes but deliberately she looked away, and the gesture, small as it was, made him feel even more like a heel. When he continued his tone was rougher than he’d intended.

  “Del put out the call to a few of us ex-Double B’s, Suze. He said there’d been trouble and he was worried it might escalate to the point where he’d have to shut down the ranch, or at least send his current crop of boys home early. In the end that’s exactly what he did,” he sighed, raking a hand through his hair. “A young Navajo horsebreaker who worked for him was found unconscious and badly beaten on the west quarter of the property, and right after that there was an accident involving one of the teens. With only a week or two before the end of their time here, he felt he couldn’t take the risk.”

  Immediately he realized how badly he’d put it. He knew what she was going to say before she spoke.

  “Like you risked my baby, Tye?” Her refusal to meet his gaze had stung, but the cold glance those golden-brown eyes now flicked over him cut like a whiplash. “Sheriff Bannerman offered to arrange protection for me and Danny, and without even consulting me you turned him down. I’d like to think your past history with him didn’t have anything to do with that, but whatever your reasons, they weren’t good enough.”

  She took a breath. “You say this Skinwalker’s a legend—a bogeyman only little ones would be frightened by. It appears to me Del Hawkins put some stock in the story, if he called on you, Jess, and this Gabe Riggs and Virgil Connor you’re talking about.” She frowned. “You were all sent to the ranch as teens?”

  “Virgil was a street fighter. Gabe hot-wired cars. Tye was an all-round general hell-raiser.” Jess grinned sheepishly. “Me, I was an angel by comparison. I just hacked into computer systems to see if I could.”

  “You hacked into your school’s computer and changed all your friends’ marks to passing grades—for a price,” Tye corrected him. “Who knew then your criminal expertise with computers would eventually be put to good use? Crawford Solutions,” he added in response to Susannah’s blank expression. “Its software is in every computer in the country.”

  “A self-made millionaire,” Jess agreed complacently. “Nerds rule.” His grin disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. “But if it hadn’t been for Del, things would have turned out a whole lot differently for all of us, Susannah—which is why Tye put his bodyguard business in California on hold when he heard the ranch was in trouble, and why I came as soon as I could. I’m only glad to have had some small part in putting a stop to the incidents.”

  “A stop?” Although it was Jess’s last comment she was responding to, Tye saw the dark honey gaze turn his way again. “How do you figure the incidents have stopped, after what Vincent Rosario said? The man was dying. Lord forgive me, he thought I was the nearest thing to a priest he was going to get and he was making his final confession.”

  “And he was out of his head not only with guilt, but with the pain,” he reminded her, as gently as he could. “You’re right, I should have told you how things were here and let you decide whether you wanted to take Bannerman up on his offer. But he’s only got three deputies, and his two most experienced people had been assigned to gather evidence at Greta’s, which would have left Billy Parker guarding you.”

  “Parker…” Jess’s brow wrinkled. “Where do I know that name from?”

  “Moose,” Tye sighed. “Moose Parker. Remember that football game the Double B boys played against the locals the year we were here?”

  Jess’s frown was replaced by a disbelieving grin. “Hell, yeah. They figured all they had to do was point Moose in the right direction and he’d annihilate us, except somehow he got off course and ploughed into the goalpost in the first five minutes. He’s a deputy now?” He shook his head. “No wonder Bannerman showed up alone to take down the particulars of the fire before the coroner removed Rosario’s body.”

  “Tye filled you in on my situation, Jess, so you know I was married to a con man.” Susannah’s voice was soft, but Tye thought he detected an ominous undertone beneath the sweetness. “At least Frank Barrett didn’t have a sidekick helping him out. The two of you are about as pretty a pair of snake-oil salesmen as I’ve seen, but I’m near running out of patience. I don’t want to hear about the sheriff or someone called Moose or a football game that happened fifteen years ago—I want to know why a man I watched die today used up his last breath in warning me against a legend. I want to know why a tough Vietnam vet like Del Hawkins took that legend seriously enough to mention it when he asked for your help.”

  “Because Skinwalker’s not just a legend to the people who lived in these parts long before I came along. I’d be a fool not to respect their culture.”

  Tye jerked his attention to the doorway and the man standing there. Del, his ramrod-straight bearing more a clue to his military past than a hint of the disability that forced him to steady his weight on a cane, met his eyes before turning to Susannah.

  An astonished Susannah, Tye noted with surprised curiosity. Her lips were parted and the gaze she directed at the lean man approaching her was wide—a far cry, he thought wryly, from the narrow look she’d been favoring him with only seconds ago. Seemingly his and Jess’s stories about their former mentor had fired her imagination.

  “I spoke with Sheriff Bannerman before I came here and he told me I had visitors. Brought me up to speed on the excitement I missed, too. We didn’t have a chance to get introduced last night,” Del said easily, extending his free hand toward her. “I was away most of last week but before I left Tye told me he’d turned obstetrician on the highway, and that his bedside manner had been so bad his patient had taken off on him. Greta filled me in a little more this morning, until a martinet of a head nurse read her the riot act about getting some rest, so I feel I already know you. Susannah Bird, right? I’m Del—”

  “You’re Del Hawkins. I—I feel like I know you, too.”

  Susannah had pushed back her chair and was standing, her whole attention focused on the man in front of her. Tye frowned. After the fire she’d changed out of the dress she’d been wearing and into another before tending to a hungry Danny’s needs, and now she was smoothing her palms on the well-worn cotton skirt as if she was nervous. The garment was shape-less—she’d seemed embarrassed when she’d explained earlier that she still couldn’t get into the few pre-pregnancy clothes she had with her—but even under the excess fabric it was possible to see the tense set of her shoulders.

  There’s something going on here, he thought sharply. Something about meeting Del has her on a knife edge, dammit. But why?

  He got his answer soon enough.

  “You’re the Lieutenant Hawkins who was part of Beta Beta Force in Vietnam,” Susannah said unsteadily, “a four-man covert operations group. Up until nearly the end of that war the four of you were like brothers, and you each had a design of two bees fighting to the death tattooed on your left biceps. I suspect that’s why you called the ranch the Double B.”

  Susannah’s attitude had roused his interest, Tye admitted grimly, but the expression on Del’s normally unreadable features riveted him. The older man’s face seemed drained of all color, his gaze dark with some strong emotion. When he spoke his voice was rusty.

  “I should have known. You’ve got his hair and his eyes, sweetheart. Your father—how is he? Does he know you’re here?”

  She shook her head, and Tye saw her lips tremble before s
he answered. “Daniel Bird’s been dead and gone these fifteen years, Mr. Hawkins. My son bears his name now. But I’m sure he knows I went looking for you when trouble came on me.”

  She took a hesitant step forward. Before she could take another Del had wrapped her in a one-armed bearhug and was crushing her to him. Just as at that long-ago foaling, Tye was dimly aware that Jess was clearing his throat and averting his face, overcome by the same feeling he was experiencing—of having intruded on a private moment.

  “My Granny Lacey said Daddy always told her and my mama that if they were ever in need of help and he wasn’t there for them, they should look you up,” Susannah whispered against Del’s chest. “It’s taken me a time to track you down…but here I am.”

  Chapter Six

  “I usually take my after-supper coffee on the front part of the porch, but until we tear down what’s left of the barn and raise a new one the view from here gets my vote.”

  Del settled back in one of the back verandah’s rustic varnished-log chairs and exhaled. “I like to watch the sun setting over the desert, anyway. No matter how hectic the day’s been, looking at all that space kind of puts everything back into perspective for a man.”

  Susannah, Danny snoozing in her arms, smiled. “That phone call to Greta helped, too, didn’t it?” she said. “I know hearing her voice made me feel better. What time are you leaving in the morning to go visit her at the hospital?”

  As she asked the question, from the front of the house came the sound of Jess’s quick laugh and the diffident tone she already recognized as the one Tye used when he was wryly amused. She heard their footsteps mounting the porch steps and her heart skipped a beat or two in her chest.