King of the Mountain Read Free

the matter with you?”
    Realizing she’d misread his intentions, she dropped her arm and turned her face to the darkened window, staring out in embarrassed silence. She clasped her hands together tightly in her lap to stop their shaking and wondered if she’d ever conquer her fear of—
    “You thought I was going to hit you.” Comprehension had gentled his voice.
    Obstinately she remained mute. She didn’t want his sympathy, she only wanted him to drop the subject.
    “Didn’t you?” he demanded more forcefully.
    “Just drive, will you?” She sighed wearily, wishing she could crawl into a hole and close it up after her.
    “With pleasure.” He shifted gears and stepped on the gas, racing the car as if he couldn’t wait to get rid of her.
    The car shot forward like a missile, and she gripped the cushioned seat beneath her for all she was worth. “But just to set the record straight,” he added testily, “I want you to know I’ve never hit a woman and I never will.”
    As much as she hated to admit it, she believed him. He was a maniac behind the wheel but he wasn’t mean. His earlier actions convinced her of that.
    “I’m sorry I acted like such a ninny.”
    To her relief, he eased up on the gas going into the next curve. “I shouldn’t have reached over there and grabbed at you the way I did.”
    Surprised by his ready admission, Kitty didn’t know how to respond. Her ex-husband had never accepted responsibility for his actions. Quite the opposite, in fact. By the time she’d worked up the courage to leave him, he’d almost convinced her that his explosive rages were her fault.
    But her confusion turned back to anger when she remembered how old Lead Foot over there had accused her of driving too slow. Just like a man, she fumed. Blaming a woman for his own—
    “Well?”
    “Well, what?” she snapped.
    He drove one-handed as they neared the bottom of the mountain. “What’s with the neckerchief?”
    “I want the coal baron to see red when I walk into the union hall.” But not until she’d seen to it that the sheriff gave this road warrior she was riding with a ticket for reckless driving.
    “The coal baron,” he repeated thoughtfully.
    “Benjamin Cooper,” she clarified tartly.
    Thunder grumbled in the distance.
    “You make him sound like Simon Legree.”
    “I meant to.”
    Behind them, the mountain brooded darkly; ahead of them, Cooperville dripped in a cold mist blowing down off the knobs.
    He shot her a piercing glance that put her on the defensive. “Do you know the coal baron?”
    “Not personally.” She’d come too far to back down now. “I’ve heard things, though.”
    “Like what?” he pressed as they went from shadow to streetlight.
    “That he has a degree in mine engineering, for one.” She studied his hawklike profile, her memory quickening with every passing mile.
    “And for another?” His rough-edged drawl refocused her attention on the man in question.
    The wind howled a warning.
    She paid it no heed. “That he’s never lifted anything heavier than a pencil or a negligee.”
    He didn’t respond, but the groove that arced from his nose to his mouth deepened in amusement. Not until he’d pulled to a stop in front of the sheriff’s office and turned to face her did she notice that his eyes were glittering like knife blades.
    That wasn’t all she noticed, either.
    He had her cornered now and was watching her with the patience of a predator. A dark memory from the past blended with the present. A dangerous moment. She experienced a dizzying sense of déjà vu, and a feeling of being hopelessly trapped. She realized she was extremely vulnerable.
    Through sheer force of will she rid her face of any telltale expression and looked him squarely inthe eye. But way down deep she wondered how she was going to get out of this without losing any more than she already had.
    “I’m sorry,” he said, sounding anything but, “I didn’t get your name.”
    “Kitty