Free Savage Impulses by Danielle Dubois Page B

everything out of
his quick dark eyes, but she could see that his gun was out of its
holster. It was pointed at the ground, but she had an idea how fast
he could be with it.
    “Your woman's a runaway whore,” Black
informed him.
    Marigold winced away from the words that Jake
had used against her.
    Jake never moved his gaze from Black. “She's
got more honor in her little finger than you could hope to find in
all your family, Black, but I'm not here to talk about that. She's
mine, she always will be, so you just let her go. I am not warning
you again.”
    “She's not...”
    The words were barely out of Black's mouth
before Jake reversed the rifle and jabbed the butt hard into
Black's face.
    The other man howled, letting go of
Marigold's arm to cover a suddenly fountaining nose. He fell to the
ground, covering his face with his hands.
    The men who gathered around him looked less
than sympathetic.
    “We'll take care of this, Sloan,” one of them
said. “We've been waiting for a chance to take Black apart ages
ago.”
    “See that you leave enough for the sheriff,”
Jake said calmly.
    Marigold was so relieved to see Jake that she
nearly collapsed in a heap, but then she met his eyes. They were
dark and cold, and suddenly she remembered the stranger who had won
her over a hand of cards and never wanted her. The look struck a
deep spear of terror into her gut, and she reached out a pleading
hand to him.
    He looked down at her offered hand with no
more understanding than a wolf would if a fawn offered it a hoof,
but finally he took it, bringing her close so that she could curl
her hand around his forearm. He guided her around the
still-shouting bulk of Black, and they walked into the street.
    “Jake...,” she began, “Thank you so much,
I....”
    “Shut up.”
    His words were deep and furious, and it was
all she could do not to cringe away. There was a black rage
radiating off of him, and she was bewildered as to where it was
coming from.
    Instead of leading her to Tamu, who was
hitched at the post, he lead her straight to one of the nearby
hotels. It was not a nice place, she realized as he paid for a
room. The girls in skimpy clothing nearly identical to what she had
worn were lurking in the lobby, and she could hear the man at the
desk ask if Jake wanted a room for the night or for the hour.
    Marigold blinked to see one of the whores
waving at her, and she realized that the small blond was Maisey,
the girl who Black had threatened what seemed like so long ago.
    Cautiously keeping eye on Jake, she walked
over to Maisey. The girl smiled at her encouragingly and leaned in
close to visit.
    “We barely recognized you in your dress!”
Maisey exclaimed. “You look like a real lady.”
    Marigold plucked at the sleeve of her calico
dress. She loved it, both for the cheerful berry pattern and what
it represented, but she knew that in this disreputable setting, it
made her look out of place.
    “Thank you, that means a great deal to me,”
she said softly.
    “We've all been talking about how you got
away from Black,” Maisey whispered, excited. “Is that your new
man?”
    Glancing over her shoulder, Marigold could
see the hard lines of Jake's back, and the ruthlessly erect way he
held himself. There was something so unforgiving about him, and she
wondered a little wildly what she could have done.
    “I hope so,” she said fervently, and the
little blond surprised her with a tight hug.
    “It'll work itself out,” Maisey said
earnestly. “It always does if you keep on believing it will.”
    The kind words gave her some kind of courage,
but it disappeared as Jake lead her to a room in the hotel. There
was a large bed in the center of it, which was certainly promising,
but though she sat down in it, Jake refused to stray very far from
the locked door.
    Instead, he took out his wallet and started
to count dollar bills from it. She started to get a sinking
feeling, and that was before he spoke.
    “There,” he said bitingly,