Free Outlaw by Elizabeth Lowell

Understand?" Slowly Milt nodded.
     
    Ten opened his hands and stepped back, his body both relaxed and perfectly balanced. "You're going to start thinking about this, and drinking, and pretty soon you'll be sure you can take me. So think on this. Next time you come after me, I'll strip you, pin a diaper on you, and walk you through town wearing a pink bonnet. Know something else? You won't have a mark on you, but you'll be marching double time just the same." Ten jerked his head toward the Rover. "Make sure I don't hear about you again, kid. I purely despise bullies."
     
    Milt backed away from Ten and reached for the Rover's front door with more eagerness than grace. Ten watched. He was about to congratulate the two men in the Rover on their good sense in staying out of his way when he saw that the reason they had sidelined themselves wasn't good sense.
     
    Diana had stepped down from the truck and was standing in the rain, sighting down a rifle she had braced across the hood of the truck.
     
     
    7
     
     
    With outward calm Diana watched the Range Rover slither and slide down the shale, retreating from September Canyon as quickly as the rain and rough terrain allowed.
     
    "You can put it away now. They won't be back."
     
    Ten's voice made Diana realize that she was still crouched over the rifle, sighting down its blue-steel barrel, her hands holding the weapon too tightly. She forced herself to take a deep breath and stand upright.
     
    "May I?" Ten asked, holding out a hand for the rifle.
     
    Diana gave the rifle to him and said faintly, "It will need cleaning. The rain is very...wet."
     
    Ten didn't smile, simply nodded his head in agreement. "I'll take care of it."
     
    "Thank you. It's been years since I cleaned a rifle. I've probably forgotten how."
     
    "You sure didn't forget how to use one," Ten said as he checked the rifle over with a few swift movements. He noted approvingly that there was a round in the chamber. He removed the bullet and pocketed it. "Thanks."
     
    Diana looked at him and blinked, trying to focus her thoughts.
     
    "For aiming the rifle at them rather than at me," Ten explained, smiling slightly. "It's nice to know you think I'm one of the good guys."
     
    "I—they—you didn't need me," she said, rubbing her hands together.
     
    "Three against one? I needed all the help I could get."
     
    Diana shook her head. "You could have made veal cutlets out of that pothunter before his friends could have taken a single step to stop you. Why didn't you?"
     
    "Never did like veal cutlets," Ten said matter-of-factly, opening the truck door. "Get in, honey. It's wet out here."
     
    "I'm serious," she said, climbing up into the dry cab. "Why did you hold back? You certainly didn't with Baker...did you?"
     
    Ten went around the truck and got in behind the wheel. He sensed Diana's intent, watchful, rather wary eyes. Wondering if Diana were still afraid of him, Ten watched her from the corner of his eye as he began wiping down the rifle and shotgun. Despite the vague trembling of her hands and the paleness of her skin, he began to realize that she wasn't afraid of him; she was simply caught in the backlash of the adrenaline storm that had come from her brush with pothunters.
     
    "Why?" Diana persisted, rubbing her arms as though she were cold.
     
    "Baker is a brute who only understands brute force," Ten said finally. "If I had pulled my punches with him, he would have been back for more. That kid Milt was different. He's a swaggering bully. A coward. So I showed him what a candy ass he really is when it comes to fighting. He'll be a long time forgetting."
     
    "Will he be back?"
     
    "Doubt it." Ten turned around and locked the weapons back into the rack. "But if he does come back, he better pray Nevada isn't on guard."
     
    "Nevada?"
     
    "My kid brother. He would have gutted Milt and never looked back. Hard man, Nevada."
     
    "And you aren't?"
     
    Turning, looking at Diana over his shoulder, Ten