Hawk's Way Read Online Free

the cave opening. As the terrain leveled, she stopped dead at the sight of something extraordinary in front of her. “What’s that?”
    â€œWhat?”
    She pointed. “That thing. What is it?”
    Dallas looked worried. “Look, maybe you bumped your head in there worse than youthought.” He reached out to the small lump on her forehead.
    â€œNo. I’m fine,” she insisted. “It’s just a scratch.” She stared at him expectantly, then looked over at the strange black object.
    â€œYou really don’t know what that is?”
    â€œNo. I really don’t. Do you?”
    â€œIt’s my pickup truck.”
    â€œSo? What is it?”
    Dallas stepped away and looked long and hard at her. “If this is some kind of joke, it isn’t funny.”
    â€œWhy would I joke about something like this?” she demanded.
    â€œWhere have you been living? This is the twentieth century. Everyone knows—”
    She grabbed his arm so tight her nails dug into his flesh. “Did you say the twentieth century?”
    â€œYes. So?”
    Angel swallowed hard. “That isn’t possible.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œBecause it’s 1864.”
    This time it was Dallas’s turn to stare. “It’s 1992.”
    Angel shook her head in denial. “You’re wrong. When you dragged me into that cave, it was October 3, 1864,” she insisted.
    â€œWhen I stepped in from this side, it was April 14, 1992,” Dallas countered.
    Angel’s eyes went wide as she backed away from him. “How could that be?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Dallas said. His lips flattened into a thin line. “But if what you’re saying is the truth—” he paused, and it was clear he wasn’t sure whether to believe her or not “—there’s sure as hell no going back the way you came. If you are from the past, it looks to me like you’re trapped here with me—in the future.”
    Angel felt the sunlight dimming around her, forming a single tunnel of darkness. It sucked her down, like a whirlpool, and she felt herself surely, inexorably sliding into it.

CHAPTER 2
    D allas had faced a loaded gun with calm, but when Angel fainted, he panicked. Somehow, in the time they had spent together in the cave, she had touched some inner part of him that had been held inviolate since his youth. When he saw her collapsing, it was as though something dear to him, something necessary to his very existence, was threatened. Adrenaline flowed, and with superhuman effort he leapt forward and caught her before she hit the ground. Unsure what had caused her to lose consciousness, terrified that she had hurt her head far worse than either of them had suspected, he lifted the slight weight of her limp body into his arms and held her close.
    â€œAngel?”
    As he stood staring down at her, he realized that he was in serious danger of stepping over some invisible boundary. He felt the threat. And the temptation.
    He fought his inclination to succumb and managed to bring himself back to a more objectivestate of mind. She was just another victim he had rescued from the forces of evil, nothing more and nothing less. She meant nothing to him. No woman did. No woman ever would.
    Still, he couldn’t shake his concern when she didn’t immediately regain consciousness. He quickly carried her to his pickup, and after one-handedly arranging a blanket, he lowered her onto the back seat of the extended cab of the truck. He smoothed the hair off her forehead, exposing a bruise.
    When you dragged me into the cave it was 1864.
    Either she was the best liar he’d ever met, or she’d hurt herself worse then either of them knew. It was impossible to think she had somehow crossed over a threshold from the past. Wasn’t it?
    Right now he had to get her to a doctor as quickly as possible. As he slid behind the wheel and headed the pickup toward San