Luke's Cut. Sarah McCarty

tone again implied that Hester’s choice was the reason. And it was, but not in the way Ace thought.

      Luke shrugged and took a sip from his near-empty glass. The liquor slid down his throat in a smooth burn. Not like the days when rot-gut was the best they could buy. “Hell’s Eight can’t trust Tia’s safety to just anyone.”

      Ace cut him a glance. “I wouldn’t exactly call Zach Lopez ‘just anyone.’”

      The Montoya foreman was rattlesnake mean, coyote clever and generally a force to be reckoned with. “True, but I’m riding along.”

      Ace wasn’t soothed. The man had always had a problem leaving things to others. “I don’t like the thought of Tia out there at all. Especially after what happened to Pet...”

      Petunia’s kidnapping had been a near miss. Fortunately they’d gotten to her in time. “Nothing happened that couldn’t be fixed.”

      Luke had to believe that, considering he’d been the one to put Petunia on that stage and straight into the arms of a Comanche raiding party. But it wasn’t something he could just up and ask Ace.

      “I’d feel better if Tia would wait until fall, when preparing for winter will keep the Comanche busy elsewhere,” Ace muttered.

      So would Luke, but as Sam’s wife, Bella was Hell’s Eight. Full of fire, courage and an unlimited amount of sass, she fit into the group as if made for them. He swirled the last swallow of whiskey in his glass. “There’s no way Tia’s going to miss delivering Bella and Sam’s first child. Not after she promised to be there.”

      Ace frowned across the yard at Tia, who’d joined the group around the bride and groom. “She’s not a young woman anymore.”

      Luke echoed his frown as the sun caught the gray in Tia’s shiny black hair. When had Tia decided to get old? “She isn’t in her grave, either. And that’s what I think it would take to keep her away from this birth. Especially since Sam asked her to come.” He attempted to change the subject. “You know, of all of the Eight, he’s her favorite.”

      Ace snorted. “Tia isn’t here to rile with that accusation, so you can just drop it and stop trying to change the subject.” His frown deepened. “What the hell was Sam thinking?”

      Luke didn’t know, but it had to be serious. “That he needs her. He wouldn’t have sent for her if he didn’t. Sam isn’t an alarmist. He knows the traveling risk right now and he loves Tia as much as all of us. Things have to be serious. To the point I’m thinking he left the Montoya ranch all but unprotected with all the men he sent to escort Tia.”

      That was a big thing for Sam. Sam was a wild card. A man who’d ride into a fray of bullets just for the challenge of surviving, but he took his responsibilities seriously. And that included the huge responsibility of the Montoya ranch he’d inherited when he’d married Bella. The ranch sat smack dab in the middle of Comanche country. Luke shook his head. It took a strong man to keep it in one piece. But Sam seemed to be flourishing under the challenge. The man no one thought would ever settle, just might have found his place.

      Ace nodded. “So I heard.”

      “Did you hear when they’re arriving?”

      “Based on the telegram, they should be here any day.”

      “Good. We’re going to need everyone. There’s some rough territory between here and there.”

      Ace cocked an eyebrow. “And yet you’re volunteering.”

      And looking forward to it. Being around so many settled people chafed. “It’ll be a new adventure with which to thrill the readers.”

      “Uh-huh. Do your readers know how much truth is in your novels?”

      It was Luke’s turn to shrug. No one was more surprised than he at the success of his novels, written under the pen name of Dane Savage. More shocking than the money was the notoriety. According to his publisher, Easterners couldn’t get enough of the rumored-to-be-autobiographical tales of the ever-so-honest, bigger-than-life Texas Ranger’s high adventures in the West. As fast as Luke was writing them, they were selling. He adjusted his hat. “I get the feeling they’re more interested in the fiction.”

      “Uh-huh.”

      A new voice entered the fray. “I wondered where the whiskey had gotten to.”

      Only one man of the Hell’s Eight had such a deep voice. Tucker McCade. His tread was heavy on the stairs, his smile broad but tinged with concern.

      Ace held up the nearly empty bottle. “You timed that close.”

      “Still can’t get used to you wearing sleeves,” Luke said, turning to greet Tucker. Nor to seeing him without his knives strapped to his thighs.

      Tucker smiled and tossed his lemonade over the rail. The heavy muscles in his arms rippled under his shirt with the movement. His shoulder-length black hair fell over his face, casting his harsh features in shadow. “Me, neither.” He held out his glass. “But having a wife who turns a jealous eye when other women ogle my manly attributes means I get tailor-made shirts.”

      Ace chuckled and poured. “I’ve heard it’s good to keep a Quaker peaceful.”

      Tucker’s smile reached his brown eyes and his teeth shone white against his dark skin, emphasizing the scar on his right cheek. “I do enjoy smoothing Sally Mae’s feathers when they’re ruffled.”

      “Pacifist or not, that woman has a way of getting what she wants.”

      “Not everything,” Caine pointed out, coming up to join them, a fresh bottle in his hand. “She’s not going to Rancho Montoya.”

      “You heard?”

      “I think everyone within a mile heard you shouting last night,” Caine said, pulling the cork from the fresh bottle with his teeth.

      “That woman has a stubborn streak a mile deep,” Tucker grumbled.

      Luke smiled. Sally Mae was a tall, slim blonde and as cool as a spring day. She never raised her voice. The exact opposite of her dark, big, muscular husband. “Almost equal to yours.”

      “Yeah, but things, they’re not good out there. You know that. I know that. With the cavalry pulled back East and bad blood, travel isn’t safe. I know Sam sent his vaqueros, but I’d feel better if some of Hell’s Eight were traveling with Tia.”

      Caine held up the bottle. Luke held out his glass alongside the others.

      “I’m going,” Luke offered. But he wasn’t staying after he got there. The itch in his feet was too strong. The horizon too enticing.

      Caine frowned and poured them each a measure. “I wish we could spare more.”

      “Sam handled that end.”

      “Yeah.” Tucker took a drink of his whiskey and shook his head. “But I’ve got to tell you, I’m being plagued by a bad feeling.”

      Shit. There was nothing worse than Tucker having a bad feeling.

       CHAPTER TWO

      WITH DAWN JUST PAST, the ground wet with dew, the yard bustling with activity, the time to leave had arrived. Even with two cups of coffee in him, Luke was dragging. With the efficiency of long practice, he tightened the cinch on Chico’s saddle. Thanks to a restless night, his mood was jagged.

      Around him, the sounds of the group preparing for departure joined the sleepy chirps of rousing birds. Leather creaking, horses stomping their feet, people talking, items thudding into the buckboard—it was all familiar. The rightness of it had settled over his unease with a soothing balm. He gave the cinch a firm tug. It was time to go. A man who stayed in one place too long got stale.

      Tia came out of the house, escorted