Mercenary's Woman Read Free Page B

guessed he was
once in the military. She wasn't sure how she felt about it A man who'd been in the military might still
have a soft spot or two inside. She was
almost certain that a commando, a soldier
for hire, wouldn't have any.
    "You're very quiet," Jessica said.
    "I never
thought of Ebenezer in such a profession," she replied, moving to
look out the window at the November landscape. "I guess it was right there in
front of me, and I didn't see it. No wonder he kept to himself."
    "He still
does," she replied. "And only a few people know about his past. His men do, of
course," she added, and there was an
inflection in her tone that was suddenly different.
    "Do you know any of his men?"
    Jessica's face tautened. "One or two.
I believe Dallas Kirk still works for him.
And Micah Steele does consulting work
when Eb asks him to," she added and smiled. "Mi- cah's a good guy. He's the only one of Eb's old
colleagues who still works in the trade. He lives in Nassau, but he spends
an occasional week helping Ebenezer train men when
he's needed."
    "And Dallas Kirk?"
    Jessica's soft face
went very hard. At her side, one of her small hands clenched. "Dallas was badly wounded in a firefight a year ago. He came home shot to
pieces and Eb found something for
him to teach in the tactics courses. He
doesn't speak to me, of course. We had a difficult part ing some years ago."
    That was intriguing,
and Sally was going to find out about it one day. But she didn't press her
luck. "How about fajitas for supper?" she asked.
    Jessica's glower
dissolved into a smile. "Sounds lovely!"
    "I'll get right
on them." Sally went back into the kitchen, her head spinning with the things
she'd learned about people she thought she knew. Life, she considered, was
always full of surprises.

DIANA PALMER

Chapter Two
    Ebenezer was a man of his word. He
showed up early the next
morning as Sally was out by the corral fence watching her two beef cattle
graze. She'd bought them to raise with the
idea of stocking her freezer. Now they had names. The white-faced Black Angus mixed steer was called Bob, the white-faced red-coated Hereford
she called Andy. They were pets. She
couldn't face the thought of sitting
down to a plate of either one of them.
    The familiar black
pickup stopped at the fence and Ebe nezer got out. He was wearing jeans and a
blue checked shirt with boots and a light-colored straw Stetson. No chaps, so he wasn't
working cattle today.
    He joined Sally at the
fence. "Don't tell me. They're table beef."
    She spared him a resentful glance. "Right."
    "And you're going to put them in the freezer."
    She swallowed. "Sure."
    He only chuckled. He paused to light a
cigar, with one
    big booted foot propped on the lower rung of the fence. "What are their names?"
    "That's Andy and that's...Bob." She flushed.
    He didn't say a
word, but his raised eyebrow was elo quent through the haze of expelled smoke.
    "They're watch-cattle," she improvised.
    His eyes twinkled. "I beg your pardon?"
    "They're attack steers," she
said with a reluctant grin. "At the
first sign of trouble, they'll come right through the fence to protect me. Of course, if they get
shot in the line of duty," she
added, "I'll eat them!"
    He pushed his Stetson
back over clean blond-streaked brown hair and looked down at her with lingering amuse ment. "You haven't
changed much in six years."
    "Neither have
you," she retorted shyly. "You're still smoking those awful things."
    He glanced at the big
cigar and shrugged. "A man has to have a vice or two to round him
out," he pointed out. "Besides, I only have the occasional one, and never
inside. I
have read the studies on smoking," he added dryly.
    "Lots of people who smoke read those
studies," she agreed. "And then
they quit!"
    He smiled. "You
can't reform me," he told her. "It's a waste of time to try. I'm
thirty-six and very set in my ways."
    "I noticed."
    He took a puff from
the cigar and studied her steers. "I suppose they follow you around