Tallchief: The Hunter Read Online Free Page B

saw beyond what she knew for fact. Her smile changed into warm laughter. “I grew up in a houseful of brothers, and my husband wears that same brooding look when he’s stalking a new problem. Stay or leave, it’s your choice. But it’s better to stand and fight.”
    Slightly uncomfortable now, Adam shook his head. He was certain that Elspeth referred to something other than her hospitality. “Liam expects me at the station. It seems he needs to iron out another dent that Michelle gifted to his favorite truck.”
     

    “I’m glad you’re staying for a while,” Liam said later in the garage. He ran a loving hand over the dent his wife had just placed in his treasured pickup truck. Michelle’s determination to drive a stick shift was both endearing and dangerous. “You think that by hiring Jillian as a graphic designer for your Sam the Truck ads you can keep her here, too? Without her knowing who you really are?”
    The spacious garage was neat, a collection of little-boy toys resting on the cot J.T. used when he came to the gas station. Adam picked up a tiny metal truck marked by a Sam the Truck logo. “I’m not done with her. I don’t want anyone else to know that I own the company…or that Jilly—Jillian O’Malley and I have a past.”
    “Be careful. Revenge can boomerang in a bad way. Elspeth will know. She may not know the particulars, but she’ll know more than what you think. They say she has the seer talents inherited from her Scots ancestor, and the shaman insight from Tallchief’s side. When their parents were killed in a convenience store robbery, Elspeth took the place of her mother. She has Una’s journals, and Elizabeth Montclair’s. Elizabeth was an Englishwoman who married Una’s and Tallchief’s son, Liam—my namesake. After our parents died in that car wreck, the woman who raised me insisted on keeping the name Liam. I brought my son here after my first wife died, after I discovered my real identity, because I wanted J.T. to have more than I had. And then I met Michelle. I have a feeling that Elspeth knew or sensed what lay ahead of me. And what was inside me, though I kept to myself back then.”
    “We’ve lost a lifetime together. I had no idea you were alive. Aunt Sarah moved from Iota to take a better payingjob in New Pony, and I grew up there. Now I’ve got a brother, a sister-in-law, a nephew and another one on the way. I’ve much to learn about the rest of our Tallchief family. You’re comfortable here, with them?”
    Liam’s smile was warm. “I’m home. ‘Aye,’ as they say, I’m home. I’m a lucky man. You’ve traveled the world. If you’re thinking of settling down, we’d be glad to have you around.”
    Adam lifted a wary eyebrow and smiled. “A built-in baby-sitter? Uncle Adam?”
    Liam chuckled, a rich, full sound. “We’ve got plenty of built-in baby-sitters. But you need a few of J.T.’s mind-blowing questions and a little drool on your shoulder and diaper changing to get the real texture of life.”
    “I’ve never felt the call of drool and diapers.” Or maybe he had…Maybe, in just that one month when he was eighteen he had dreamed of Jillian and himself with a bright new future. Before he’d seen her brother running from the dead woman’s apartment. Before he’d discovered Tom’s auto theft ring, and seen it in action. Before honor had demanded that he testify, despite the pressure of the families in New Pony.
    Liam studied Adam with those cool gray eyes so much like his own. “You’re brooding about what happened in New Pony…how you testified because you had to, and how the town threatened you and made life difficult for Aunt Sarah. I wonder why the Tallchiefs didn’t recognize your name on the news media and come to help. New Pony is only a few hundred miles away. They would have—”
    “The case was shut up. Power in a small town can do more than it has a right to. Jobs were threatened. Records were sealed and pressure placed on key