Read Online Dark Warrior: Kid (Dark Cloth Series Book 2) by Lenore Wolfe - Free Book Online

fears. She glanced wildly toward Jake. But the look in his cold, steel-grey eyes did nothing for her there, either, to help calm her.
    Now, in full panic, the pain knifing its way through, blinding her vision, she tried to force her way up, Hawk moved to hold her down.
    “No, you don’t,” he said. “I don’t know what full-hardy thing got into your head now, or what made you ride straight into town the way you did, and I don’t care. But you’re going to lie there until you’re well.” His cool hand touched her forehead, gentle now. “We’ll find him,” he promised.
    And Kat latched onto that promise—as she descended into darkness.
    She had no idea how long she’d been out, when her gaze found Jake’s steely-gaze on Hawk. “Now look what you did?” he said.
    She tried to lick her lips. She mustn’t have been out too long, cause Jake sat there watching for her to open her eyes.
    Hawk had the grace to glance away. He leaned in, clearly worried, and Jake let up just in time to see Mandy fly into the room, rounding the bed in a fury.
    “What happened?” she demanded.
    “She damn near got her fool head blown off,” Hawk answered, then actually seemed remorseful.
    “Yep,” Jake agreed, “then Hawk, here, tried to scare her to death.”
    Mandy glared daggers at Hawk, then turned her glare on Jake. “Nothing could scare Kat to death.” She said, then turned her baleful glare back on Hawk. “But I’ll bet you did try to scare her to death.”
    She turned and lay her hand gently on Kat’s head, examining her bandage. She carefully lifted the edge, trying to peek beneath, to see how bad the wound had damaged her head.
    “Doc said it’s just a scratch,” Hawk said. “But he also said she’s going to have a hell of a headache, and she’s likely to be sick to her stomach.”
    Jake glanced across the bed and down the hallway. “Yeah. And he wasn’t at’ll happy we insisted on coming in here,” he reminded.
    Mandy glanced up, surprised. “You seem worried about that,” she said. That might have been a teasing tone on any other day, but today she only turned back to Kat. “Where’s Kid?” she asked suddenly, her brow furrowing.
    Jake scowled. “He’s missing.”
    “What?” she said, glancing at Hawk.
    This time, Hawk scowled.
    “One minute I spotted him moving along the wall near the mercantile,” Jake said, “and the next, he was gone. We’ve turned the town upside down, but he’s gone.”
    “Where’s that gunman?” Mandy demanded.
    Hawk swore under his breath. “He’s gone too,” he said.
    Mandy stared at Hawk, on fine brow arched in question, then turned to stare at Jake, making him shift under the weight of it.
    “Well,” she said, clearly as confused this could have happened, as they were, “did Kid follow him out of town?”
    Jake glanced down at Kat, then back at Mandy. “No, ma’am. There are tracks of that no account gunslinger’s horse, just outside of town, but no sign of Kid.”
    Mandy looked up from where she fussed around Kat. Throwing her hands in the air, she said, “What? Then he has to be here, somewhere....”
    Hawk shook his head, heading toward the door.
    Jake’s steely-grey gaze followed him. “How’d you know that turning toward Kid saved her life?” he asked him.
    Hawk turned back, meeting his gaze with his own golden one. “It was the first thing Meg said, when Cord came upon her cradling Kat’s bloody head in her lap,” he said. “He thought she was dead at first—so did Meg.” He put his arms around his wife, as she trembled at his words. “Cord was the one who followed the gunslinger out of town. He sent a man to come get me. I was out on the range searching for cattle.” He glanced down at Mandy. “How’d you know to come here?”
    She tipped her head back, gazing up at her husband. “Cord, himself, came and got me, when he lost the trail. But he didn’t know anything about Kid—or he’d have told me.”
    They both turned to