Read Online Magnificent Passage by Kat Martin - Free Book Online Page B

uncle’s side. Just a few more feet. He saw the big painted brave hurl a lance. The lance whistled by, a blur of feathers and paint. The shaft impaled his uncle to the wagon. Uncle Marty’s blood oozed into the desert sand.
    Covered with blood and sick with the sight of death around him, Travis raised his eyes to a thickset, dog-faced warrior glistening with sweat and blood and paint. Travis could hear his own heart pounding. He glanced from the Indian to his uncle’s lifeless body, then back to the warrior, who whooped victoriously.
    Travis clenched his teeth and attacked. He pummeled the Indian’s chest, scratched, and clawed, but the squat warrior knocked him aside, a quick, sharp blow hurling him into the dirt at the Indian’s feet.
    The man bent over Travis before he could rise, pulling his hands behind his back and binding them with a rawhide thong, then tying his flailing feet. With a loud hoot, the warrior lifted him easily. He dragged him toward a spotted horse and carelessly flung him across the animal’s withers. He could feel the animal’s sweaty coat, the bony back pressed into his middle. The Indian swung up behind him.
    Travis struggled against the leather that bound his hands, felt it cut into his flesh, but couldn’t make it budge. He could see painted warriors stripping the wagons, hear their gruesome shouts of triumph with every new discovery.
Then they began scalping and mutilating the bodies of the dead.
    The wagons were burned to blackened skeletons, and vultures circled the last wispy black tendrils of smoke that rose into a lighted sky before the brave who had captured him crossed the first ridge.

    A noise pierced the haze of his dream. His bowie flashed. Travis grabbed the intruder’s foot, jerked him heavily to the ground, rolled on top, and shoved the blade beneath the man’s chin.
    The intruder’s high-pitched gasp and weak struggle brought Hawk fully awake. He stared into huge green eyes, luminous with fear. Silky strands of chestnut hair cushioned his hands.
    â€œDamn you, woman! Are you trying to get yourself killed? Don’t ever do that again. Not to me or any other man worth his salt!” He could feel the girl tremble beneath him, her bosom rapidly rising and falling against his chest.
    â€œI . . . I . . . You looked like you were having a bad dream. I just wanted to . . . I was just trying to help.”
    Hawk could barely concentrate on the girl’s words. God, she was a beauty. Her face glowed softly in the yellow rays of dawn. Full red lips, slightly parted in surprise, exposed her delicate pink tongue.
    Beginning to feel the stirrings of arousal, he rolled away. He pulled the girl to her feet. Her face looked pale, and her riding habit was covered with dust and twigs. He took a deep breath, a little unsettled at what had happened.
    â€œI’m sorry. All right? Just don’t do me any more favors.
You might wind up dead. I’d have a helluva time explaining that to your father.”
    She brushed herself off, her fear receding and anger flaring in its place. “You try to kill me, and you’re worried about my father?”
    Hawk ignored her. The sky was pinkening with first light. It was time they were away. “Look, lady, you’d better get your bedding rolled up. We’ll be leaving as soon as we eat.”
    Mandy set her jaw and marched back to her sleeping pallet. How dare he treat me this way, she thought. Visions of the big man, his dark eyes flashing, his hard body pressing against hers, intruded on her anger. He was an odd man, that one. She wondered what his nightmare was about. He seemed to be struggling with some unknown enemy, fighting for his very life. She’d only meant to help him, the ungrateful lout. Well, she wouldn’t make that mistake again.
    Hawk watched as the girl knelt and straightened her bedroll. He smiled and shook his head, remembering the rush of warmth he’d felt with