Hallie's Hero

“He’s my son.”

“Your—that’s impossible. You couldn’t be—I mean, when…how?”

“I do put the cards down once in a while, darlin’. And as to how, I’d demonstrate but I don’t think you want to give the boys at the Silver Snake another spectacle.”

Hallie flushed and opened her mouth to snap back at him, but Jack took a step closer so she could feel the heat of him. She faltered and stepped backward, uneasy with the expression in his eyes, which made her wonder if she’d misjudged his determination to suddenly become a rancher.

“Paradise is where Ethan’s grown up, so Paradise is where he stays,” Jack said. He looked straight at her. “And Eden’s Canyon is mine and it’s going to stay mine. Like it or not.”

Hallie stood by the window in the front room of the ranch house, her hands fisted at her sides, and forced herself to look at the stretch of fine grazing land beyond the knobby wooden corral fences. The brilliant sunshine hurt her eyes, but at least it distracted her from thinking about Ben and what his latest escapade had cost her.

Outside her window, grasses knee-high and thick rolled in green, gold and brown over the flat plains of the Rillito Valley. On either side of the valley, the mountains, painted in reds and browns, jutted up in crags and peaks, guarding the rich grassland. Her grandfather had left behind a dirt farm in Missouri to stake his claim on this piece of wild Arizona territory. He’d built the sprawling cedar-and-adobe house near the river, started breeding Mexican cattle and made a modest fortune before Paradise was even a thought.

Hallie couldn’t imagine living anywhere but here, or doing anything but ranching. She was good at it, if nothing else. She would never be the pretty, graceful, quiet kind of woman that men courted with their Sunday-best manners and sweet talk. But she told herself she didn’t care. She didn’t need nice ways and soft words to break a wild mustang or round up a herd of cattle.

She did, however, need Eden’s Canyon.

A timid knock at the door turned Hallie from the window. The girl who poked her head into the room was not much younger than Ben, with smooth pale hair and round blue eyes that dominated her thin face. Hallie had given Serenity Trent a haven and a job at Eden’s Canyon more than two years ago, and only regretted that the girl still crept around as if she expected someone to holler at her just for being in the room.

Hallie motioned her inside. “What is it, Serenity? What’s wrong?”

Chewing at her lower lip, Serenity glanced over her shoulder. “It’s—”

“Jack Dakota. Don’t worry, sweetheart,” he said, winking at Serenity as he pushed the door wide and walked inside as if he had a right to be there. “Miss Hal knows Ethan and me.”

Serenity, her face bright red, appeared ready to crawl under the rug. Ethan hung back, his face set in a sullen scowl as he clutched a ragged carpetbag close to his side. Only Jack smiled at Hallie, taking the whole mess in stride as if it were of no more consequence than an afternoon picnic. She ground her teeth together, feeling the itch to string him up the first opportunity she got.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“Moving into my house.”

“It is not your house.”

“I thought we’d settled this.”

“We didn’t settle anything!”

“Well, the bank and I did,” Jack said. Becoming slightly annoyed at her stubborn refusal to face the truth, he held the deed papers in front of her nose. “These look familiar?” He pulled the papers back when she made to snatch them away. “I didn’t want to leave Ethan at the saloon any longer, and I didn’t fancy staying in town after my little misunderstanding with Redeye. So I’m here, to stay, at my house.”

They glared at each other before Serenity interrupted the charged silence by touching Ethan on the shoulder. “I’ve got some gingerbread in the kitchen. Would you like some?” She gave him a gentle prod in the right direction, and after a glance at Jack, Ethan left with her.

Jack nearly protested, but he didn’t like arguing with Hallie in front of the boy. “Who is she?” He nodded toward Serenity.

“My housekeeper. And before you say anything, she might be young but she works hard, and she knows more about this ranch than you ever will.”

“Is that a challenge, Miss Hal?”

“It’s Hallie, and the only challenge I have for you is to see how fast you can ride out of here. You can’t stay.”

“Well now, darlin’, I think it’s the other way around,” Jack drawled.

The color rose in her face and he smiled, slow and easy. She’d left behind her ugly hat, and her hair, a color somewhere between maple brown and honey, looked as if chickens had been scratching in it. He wondered if she knew it, let alone cared.

“If you just expect me to walk out of here and leave it all to you, you’d better be backing those papers up with a rifle,” Hallie said, fighting to keep her voice level, when inside she felt like screaming at him.

“That’s up to you. I came here ready to do some bargaining.”

“Bargaining? Ha! Why do I get the feeling your idea of a bargain is what’s best for you?”

Jack ignored her. “I’ve thought of a way you and your brother can stay at Eden’s Canyon.”

“You leave and sell my land back to me.”

“You stay and work with me.”

This time Hallie did laugh in his face. Work with him? Was he crazy? “I wouldn’t work for you if I was down to my last dollar and starving.”

“Good thing, because I’m not looking to hire you,” Jack said. Leaning back against the wall, he looked her up and down with that infuriatingly smug smile. “I’m asking you to be my partner.”

Chapter Two

“Your what?”

“I think you heard me,” Jack said, looking her up and down with a deliberate appraisal that made Hallie’s cheeks burn. “Though judging from your face, you would’ve thought I’d asked you to be my partner in bed, not business.”

“I’d rather bed a scorpion!”

“Suit yourself, darlin’. But unless you can die from pleasure, my bite isn’t poisonous.”

Hallie fought to keep from completely losing control of her temper. She’d worked with men all her life, but she’d never known any man who, after less than an hour’s acquaintance, could aggravate her with just one look. “This is a home, Dakota, not a saloon. I don’t allow talk like that under my roof.”

“You don’t strike me as the prim and proper kind, Hal.” Jack pushed away from the wall. Pulling off his black Stetson, he tossed it onto a nearby chair with an insolent flip of his hand. “But it’s my roof now,” he said, slowly walking toward her, “and under my roof, I’ll say and do as I please.”

“Why, you low-down, good-for-nothing—!” After everything that had happened, Jack Dakota was one calamity too much. Goaded to the breaking point, Hallie swung a fist in the direction of his jaw.

Jack easily caught her wrist in midmotion, holding her at arm’s length while she twisted to free herself. “If you’ll calm down long enough to think this over, I’m sure you’ll see it my way.”

“Over your dead body,” Hallie muttered at him. She stopped her useless struggle, and the moment he relaxed his grip, whipped her hand out of his grasp. Retreating a few steps, she rubbed her wrist, glaring at him.

Jack cautiously lowered his hands, not fully convinced the little wildcat wouldn’t attack him again. “Look, Hal, before you go for your guns, consider that I could just tell you to pack your bags and get off my ranch.” Fire flared in her eyes again and he held up his palms in warning. “But I’m trying to offer you a deal that’s more than fair, under the circumstances.”

“You expect me to believe you play fair?” Hallie said. She laughed, the sound grating and bitter even to her own ears. “You and I obviously have very different ideas of fair, Dakota.”

Jack shrugged off the insult. “Whatever you want to accuse me of, lady, you can’t call me a cheat. Everything I’ve won and lost, I’ve done so fair and square. I’m making you a straight offer. I’ve got the money to keep this place going, and you’ve got the experience. I’m willing to be your partner, and that’s the best you’re going to get from me or anyone else. But it’s your choice. You can stay or go, but right now, the boy and I are settling in.”

Before she could stop him, Jack strode past her and out the door in the direction Serenity had taken Ethan. Hallie stayed rooted in place and counted to ten, her hands flexing into fists at her sides as she tried to get some control of her stampeding emotions. Then she followed in his wake, catching up with him just as he stepped into the kitchen.

Serenity and Ethan, sitting at the kitchen table with plates of half-eaten squares of gingerbread in front of them, both looked up as Jack and Hallie came in.