Blue Dalton Read online

  Blue Dalton

  Tara Janzen

  To Stan, my own man of the mountains—for giving his love and accepting mine.

  First published by Bantam/Loveswept, 1990

  Copyright Glenna McReynolds, 1990

  EBook Copyright Tara Janzen, 2012

  EBook Published by Tara Janzen, 2012

  Cover Design by Hot Damn Designs, 2012

  EBook Design by A Thirsty Mind, 2012

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome to the Tara Janzen line of Classic Romances! New York Times Bestselling author, Tara Janzen, is the creator of the lightning-fast paced and super sexy CRAZY HOT and CRAZY COOL Steele Street series of romantic suspense novels. But before she fell in love with the hot cars, bad boys, big guns, and wild women of Steele Street, she wrote steamy romances for the Loveswept line under the name Glenna McReynolds. All thirteen of these much-loved classic romances are now available as eBooks.

  Writing as both Glenna McReynolds and Tara Janzen, this national bestselling author has won numerous awards for her work, including a RITA from Romance Writers of America, and nine 4 ½ TOP PICKS from Romantic Times magazine. Two of her books are on the Romantic Times ALL-TIME FAVORITES list – RIVER OF EDEN, and SHAMELESS. LOOSE AND EASY, a Steele Street novel, is one of Amazon’s TOP TEN ROMANCES for 2008.

  She is also the author of an epic medieval fantasy trilogy, THE CHALICE AND THE BLADE, DREAM STONE, and PRINCE OF TIME.

  Titles

  Classic Romances

  Scout’s Honor

  Thieves In The Night

  Stevie Lee

  Dateline: Kydd and Rios

  Blue Dalton

  Outlaw Carson

  Moonlight and Shadows

  A Piece of Heaven

  Shameless

  The Courting Cowboy

  Avenging Angel

  The Dragon and the Dove

  Dragon’s Eden

  Medieval Fantasy Trilogy

  “A stunning epic of romantic fantasy.” Affaire de Coeur, five-star review

  The Chalice and the Blade

  Dream Stone

  Prince of Time

  River of Eden – “One of THE most breathtaking and phenomenal adventure tales to come along in years! Glenna McReynolds has created an instant adventure classic.” Romantic Times – 2002 BEST ROMANTIC SUSPENSE AWARD WINNER

  Steele Street Series – “Hang on to your seat for the ride of your life . . . thrilling . . . sexy. Tara Janzen has outdone herself.” Fresh Fiction

  “Bad boys are hot, and they don’t come any hotter than the Steele Street gang.” Romantic Times

  Crazy Hot

  Crazy Cool

  Crazy Wild

  Crazy Kisses

  Crazy Love

  Crazy Sweet

  On the Loose

  Cutting Loose

  Loose and Easy

  Breaking Loose

  Loose Ends

  SEAL Of My Dreams Anthology

  All proceeds from the sale of SEAL Of My Dreams are pledged to Veterans Research Corporation, a non-profit foundation supporting veterans medical research.

  Panama Jack, by Tara Janzen

  For more information about Tara Janzen, her writing and her books please visit her on her website www.tarajanzen.com; on Facebook http://on.fb.me/mSstpd; and Twitter @tara_janzen http://twitter.com/#!/tara_janzen.

  Prologue

  Blue Dalton gritted her teeth and tightened the gauze strip around her hand, stopping the stream of blood that was seeping from the knife cut across her palm. Blood stained the rolled cuff of her blue flannel shirt and dirtied the thigh of her jeans. A red streak ran down the dark skin of her arm and dripped off the curve of her elbow, splashing silently on the toe of her hiking boot. The rough wood floor was smeared with more blood, but it wasn’t hers.

  Murder. The word forced its way into her mind, past the confusion and fear and horror. Unconsciously she shook her head, replacing the legal terminology with the sane appellation of self-defense. A short swath of hair fell across her face and blurred her vision with a blond veil. She pushed at it with her upper arm and kept wrapping and tying. The unruly strands fell back over her face.

  Her softly muttered sound of disgust was cut short by the sob lodged in her throat. Who was she trying to fool? Certainly not herself, and she damn well doubted she’d fool anybody else.

  She held one end of the gauze with her teeth while she used her other hand to tie it off. Unbidden, her gaze flickered over to the man who lay angled off the mattress that was pushed against the wall. Blood soaked the blue-and-white-striped ticking, pooling in the creases of the dirty material.

  She’d given him a chance. She’d given him two. But he’d thought his knife hand was faster than her finger on her rifle. He’d been wrong. Dead wrong . . .

  “No,” she whispered, the word catching on a pained gasp. “No . . . no . . . no.”

  The evidence said otherwise, the violence, the blood, the mother lode of adrenaline racing through her veins. One instant of pure animal panic had turned her into a murderer. The knife had arced silently through the air, and in response she’d squeezed the slim band of metal and lifted her left arm to deflect the blade. Pain had sliced into her left hand as the gun had fired and recoiled, then there had been nothing but echoes.

  There was so much blood. He’d collapsed face down on the bed, and she didn’t have the stomach to touch him, let alone roll him over to see what she’d hit. His dark, beard-stubbled face loomed in her memory, along with his bad teeth and the smell of him. He hadn’t been the first man to come after her—he wouldn’t be the last—but he’d been the first man she’d ever shot.

  Shot and killed. An awful feeling washed through her and brought bile up in her throat—a terrible feeling she couldn’t even begin to name. With a shaky hand she smeared a tear across her cheek and strode over to the table, her bootsteps sounding loud and hollow in the old mountain cabin.

  With mindless skill she packed her gear into her backpack, tying her slicker over the top and her sleeping bag on the bottom of the frame. She hooked her water bottle to the shoulder strap for easy access; once she started walking, she wouldn’t be stopping for a long time.

  Two other items remained on the table: her hat and a packet, rolled and tied in three places, with the initials L. L. burned into the leather. She lifted the packet and curled her fingers around the soft hide, her mouth trembling at the corners. A man had died for want of the prize and for wanting her—for wanting to hurt her.

  She would have given him the packet and tracked him down later—nobody stole from Blue Dalton and got away with it—but she’d have shot herself before physically submitting to him. Luck had decided otherwise, though, and she’d shot him instead.

  The first light of dawn skimmed across the white and green land and spilled into the valley, bringing streams of pale sunshine through the cabin window. Blue lifted her gaze for a moment, then quickened her preparations, sliding a knife sheath on her belt and fighting the panic making her hands shake. She cinched the leather strap tight before fastening the buckle.

  A rustling sound snapped her gaze to the open front door, and instantly she had her hand on the haft of the knife. A heartbeat later the breath soughed from her lips as the source of the noise came into view.

  “Thank God.” She fell to her knees and extended her hand to the
white dog panting on the porch. A streak of blood marred his coat. “Come here, Trapper. Come on, boy.” The dog limped forward, and Blue folded him into her arms, hugging him and cooing to him, needing the security he represented. “I thought he had you for sure. Are you okay? Hmm? We’ve got a rough day ahead of us, Trap.” Her fingers tunneled through the soft white coat, and she rested her cheek on his neck. “Don’t worry. We’re going to make it,” she vowed.

  She rose, then bent at the knees to pull the pack onto her back. A wince of pain crossed her face as she eased her arms through the shoulder straps. Her body was weak from the fight, from the tension sapping her strength and willpower. The fifty-pound load shifted into position, and with effort she straightened her legs and buckled the hip strap. She bit down on her lower lip. She couldn’t stop now. She had to get farther up into the hills. After all these years it was time to return to the North Star ranch and find her future.

  Forcing herself not to look back at the man, she shoved her hand through her hair, pushing it off her face, and settled the faded and sweat-stained Stetson low on her head. On her way out the door she slipped her hand through the sling on her rifle, swinging it up and over her shoulder.

  * * *

  “Homicide?”

  “Not yet. He was still breathing when the ambulance left. The medic was more worried about the liquor on his breath than the bullet in his shoulder.”

  “How in the hell did they get an ambulance up here?”

  “Carefully.”

  Walker Evans listened to the exchange and calmly chewed on a long blade of meadow grass. A dozen deputies, rangers, and even some of the state’s finest were milling around the cabin, looking for a clue to what Walker already knew and what they’d be hard-pressed to find in the dark—the direction Blue Dalton and her dog had taken off in. Jeff Bowles, the head forest ranger on the scene, had given him the first chance at the cabin, and he’d tracked her a hundred yards into the trees before coming back to the dirt road to wait with the rest of them. That was okay with him. He had all the patience he needed, unless they started messing up her trail after the hundred yard mark.

  So far, none of them had gotten even close. A slight smile curved a corner of his mouth. Bowles wasn’t stupid. When you need more rangers, you call your rangers, and when you have to, you call in the state patrol and the county sheriff. But when you need somebody to track a crazy woman through country she knows like the back of her hand, you call a tracker who knows the same country. Yes, Walker was content to wait. He was between seasons and on county time, and he knew he’d catch her.

  Blue Dalton, the name went through his mind, bringing another, wryer smile to his face. What he knew about the woman wasn’t much, but it was enough. She was her father’s daughter, and old Abel must have told her everything. Things were bound to get real interesting in these mountains when word got out she was back. Before things got too interesting, though, he meant to have the situation firmly in hand. He’d waited too long to let someone else jump his claim. He didn’t care if everyone else called it Dalton’s Treasure. The real name for the riches was Lacey’s Lode, and it belonged to him.

  “What do you make of this stuff?” The sheriff asked Bowles, tapping his knuckles on the plastic window of Blue Dalton’s Jeep, just inches away from where Walker rested against the door.

  “Scuba diving gear,” Bowles answered, not needing to look inside.

  “For what?”

  Bowles glanced at Walker. “We think she went diving in the lake. Most of the air is out of the tanks, and the wet suit is still wet.” He paused and squinted up into the night sky, peering through the vapor clouds of his breath. “The darn thing is probably frozen by now.”

  “Lake Agnes?” The sheriff’s voice rose with skepticism. “It’s illegal to dive in these high lakes.”

  “So’s shooting people,” Walker drawled, adding his two bits of enlightenment.

  The sheriff shot him a sideways glance, anger apparent in every hard line of his face. “What’s the pretty boy doing here?” he snapped at Bowles, staring at Walker as if he wished he’d disappear.

  “He’s our tracker.”

  “What’s wrong with our regular people?” The sheriff didn’t bother to hide his dislike of Walker, and Walker, immune to the sheriff’s opinions, let the dislike and the insult slide. But he did wonder if the lawman hated him because his wife had a roving eye, or because Walker had been turning her down since he’d been sixteen and the lady had been twenty-one.

  Bowles answered, “Well, sir. Our regular people are good enough to track lost campers who want to be found, but we’re dealing with Blue Dalton, and I’d bet a dollar to a dime she doesn’t want anybody finding her.”

  The sheriff accepted the explanation by ignoring it, but Walker distinctly heard him mutter something about sending one no-account after another. Louder, the sheriff said, “What does she want to go diving into Agnes for anyway? There’s nothing in there but fish.”

  “Who knows?” Bowles shrugged and cast a warning look at Walker, which Walker acknowledged with a subtle lowering of his gaze. They both had a damn good idea of what Blue Dalton had gone looking for, but neither saw any reason to bog down the sheriff’s investigation with a bunch of hearsay, and ancient hearsay at that. Old man Dalton’s dying words had been floating around these mountains long enough for anybody who cared to hear them, though few took them as seriously as Walker. Few had the right.

  “What about the Jeep? Why’d she leave it?” the sheriff asked.

  Another grin flashed across Walker’s face, but he kept his mouth shut. Bowles cleared his throat. “The tires are slashed.”

  The sheriff looked down and stepped back to check the other side of the Jeep, but he didn’t say a word.

  “I think we’ve got a clear case of self-defense,” Bowles said. “The man thought he’d found a lone woman up here in the wilderness and decided to get mean. He slashed her tires, beat her dog, then tried to attack her in the cabin.”

  “Then why did she light out?” the sheriff asked.

  “Maybe she got scared,” Bowles offered.

  Walker coughed into his hand and turned his back.

  “Something like that would scare any woman,” Bowles insisted, looking at the sheriff but speaking for Walker’s benefit.

  “Got her so scared she packed up and headed off into nowhere instead of down the road for help? I’m not buying it,” the sheriff said.

  Neither was Walker. He’d been weaned on tales, true and otherwise, about the Dalton clan, and running scared wasn’t exactly their modus operandi. They’d mostly kept to themselves up on their ranch in the Rawahs, but if trouble came looking, they faced it. And trouble, it seemed, did have a tendency to go looking for Daltons.

  Well, trouble had a partner now. Walker Evans was looking for a Dalton . . . Blue Dalton.

  One

  Blue was numb, physically and emotionally. Her feet and legs burned with a deep ache. Her palm pounded with pain. The straps of her pack had worn grooves into her shoulders. She stared at the carpet of pine needles below her boots, stealing time, precious time, to catch her breath.

  Her tears had dried yesterday in salty tracks down her cheeks. Today she had sweat in their place. She lifted her good hand to wipe the moisture off her face, stopping in mid-motion as a harsh cry jerked her gaze to the sky and sent her heart pounding. She held herself perfectly still as she looked into the limitless expanse of blue. A hawk circled into view, and she let out her hard-won breath. She’d seen no one, had heard little but whispers of sound wafting through the trees, but she knew someone was behind her and closing in. She felt his presence, steady and stalking, as he searched for her.

  Damn you! Whoever you are. Leave me alone!

  Her throat closed around the unspoken words, and she kicked at the pine needles in frustration. Immediately realizing the stupidity of her action, she bent down and brushed away the scuff mark and was left with the monumental task of raising herself and he
r pack back up. She groaned and swore under her breath, her muscles straining, her hand on her thigh barely helping her.

  “Damn you,” she muttered aloud at the man she didn’t know, for she had no doubts the tracker was a man. Intuition and common sense told her so. They would have sent a man after her, a damn canny man if they were serious about catching her, and she had no doubts they were serious, or at least that he was. She’d used every trick she knew, and he was still back there, relentless, unwavering, beating her at her own game.

  An eerie fluttering of nerves brought her head around. She scanned the mountainous terrain behind her, searching for a movement or a shadow out of place. But there was only Trapper, his head hanging low, his labored panting intensifying her guilt. She’d been pushing too hard. They needed rest, sleep, and not the catnaps they’d been stealing.

  From out of the sky thunder rumbled, rolling over the craggy peaks and bringing a blanket of dark clouds across the valley. Blue covered her eyes with her hand and slowly rubbed her temples. This was it, then. They had to stop and make camp. If they got wet at this altitude, they’d both be dead by morning.

  The cloud shadow swept over her, and rain sheeted down the mountainside in quick pursuit, soaking her in seconds. Sighing in weariness, she dropped her hand to her waist and looked around for a protected place. The outcropping of granite she spotted up ahead was more than she’d expected or hoped for. “Come on, boy.” She snapped her fingers to get Trapper’s attention. “We’re calling it a day.”

  The rain may stop her against every instinct she had, but, by God, it was going to stop him too.

  * * *

  Walker was moving forward on pure intuition. Rain slashed through the trees, turning to sleet and back again with every temperature fluctuation and every altitude change. He jostled the pack on his back, rearranging the weight for a moment’s respite, and pulled his hat lower on his forehead. Water streamed off the brim, obscuring his view after a few yards.