Hawk's Way Read Online Free Page B

Airplanes can.”
    â€œAirplanes?”
    â€œAnother mechanical contraption, like a truck with wings, only it moves in the air.”
    â€œI don’t believe you.”
    â€œIt’s the truth, whether you believe me or not. Stay around long enough and I’ll show you one. Hell, I’ll even take you up in one!”
    â€œNo, thanks,” Angel said vehemently.
    â€œWhether you can accept it or not, there’s been a lot of progress in the past hundred and twenty-five or so years.”
    â€œThe clothes you’re wearing are the same,” she protested.
    Dallas looked down at the chambray shirt, jeans, and boots he was wearing. “Maybe men’s fashions haven’t changed much. But women show a lot more skin than they used to. Come to think of it, that outfit you’re wearing doesn’t fit my image of what a woman in 1864 ought to have on.
    â€œIn Gone with the Wind Scarlett O’Hara was wearing something a little more feminine than that getup, as I recall.”
    Angel wondered who Scarlett O’Hara was. She fingered the top button of the striped cotton, round-necked man’s shirt, its sleeves folded up to reveal her slender forearms. A hemp rope held up the too-large, patched wool trousers. On her feet she wore knee-high black boots. “I was travelingdressed as a man, so I wouldn’t be harassed on the road,” she explained.
    Dallas glanced at the silvery blond hair that fell practically to her waist and said, “You’re not going to fool too many men with hair like that.”
    â€œMy hair was tucked up under a farmer’s hat. I had it off because I’d stopped for a drink of water at that pond near the cave opening. That’s when those piss-poor excuses for cowboys rode up and—” She shrugged. “You know the rest.”
    â€œI guess the question now is, what am I going to do with you?” Dallas murmured to himself.
    Angel bristled. “You don’t have to do anything with me. I can take care of myself.”
    Dallas drove through a gate and across a cattle guard that led onto his property. “Maybe in 1864 you could have managed by yourself—although even that’s doubtful, considering the situation I found you in. Here in 1992, you’re as naive as a newborn. You wouldn’t last ten seconds on your own.” Dallas pursed his lips in disgust. “I guess I’m stuck with you, all right.”
    â€œStuck with me! Why of all the cabbage-headed, tom-doodle ideas I ever heard—”
    Dallas hit the brakes and the truck fishtailed on gravel as it skidded to a stop. He half turned in the seat and grabbed Angel by the shoulders,drawing her toward him until they were nose to nose.
    â€œLook, you—you nincompoop,” he flung at her, having searched for and found a word as quaint as any of hers. “I’m not any happier about this situation than you are. But let’s get one thing straight. I’m not a cabbage head, a tom-doodle or any of the other names you’ve called me since we had the misfortune to meet. In some convoluted way, I suppose I’m to blame for your predicament.”
    â€œI’ll say!” Angel snapped.
    He glared at her and continued, “I’ve never shirked my responsibilities, and I don’t intend to start now. I’ll be by your side every second until I think you’re capable of surviving in this century. Have you got that?”
    He shoved her back into the seat, let go and stared at her, daring her to move.
    If he’d known Angel better, he wouldn’t have thrown down the gauntlet quite so dramatically. As it was, she was nose to nose with him again in a matter of seconds.
    â€œNow you listen to me ,” Angel said, punctuating her speech with a finger poking at his chest. “I’ve been on my own since I was fourteen. And I travel alone—when I please and where I please. Is that clear?”
    â€œAs a