Heart of the Hunter by Madeline Baker Page B

bank. Well, she thought resolutely, there was no help for
it. She’d just have to take a few of the larger nuggets and cash them in.
    “How soon is the payment due?”
    “It’s…ah, past due now.”
    “Past due! Why didn’t you let me know?”
    “You’re not the bank’s only client, Kelly. I’m afraid I was
unaware of the problem until my secretary brought it to my attention. The
foreclosure papers have already been drawn.”
    “When’s the money due?”
    “Closing time tomorrow. Shall I expect you?”
    “Damn right!”
    Quivering with anger, Kelly stood up and slammed out of
Renford’s office. She had the feeling that the man was up to something, but
what? He had nothing to gain from foreclosing on the ranch.
    And what about Lee? She couldn’t shake the feeling that he
knew about the gold, that the only reason he had come to the ranch was to look
for the treasure. And when he found it, he would leave without a backward
glance.
    Heavy-hearted, she slid behind the wheel of her car and
headed for home.

Chapter Thirteen
     
    “You look worried, tekihila,” Blue Crow remarked. “Is
something wrong?”
    “I’m having trouble with the bank.”
    “What kind of trouble?”
    “I owe them some money for the ranch. If I don’t have it by
tomorrow, the bank will foreclose.”
    “Foreclose? What does that mean?”
    “It means I won’t own the land anymore. It will belong to
the bank and they’ll sell it to someone else.”
    Blue Crow traced the curve of her cheek with his fingertip.
“Then you have no problem. The gold is there. Take what you need. Take it all,
if you must.”
    “Not very long ago you told me quite emphatically that the
gold was yours.”
    “I remember. And I also said I would decide who should have
it.”
    “But you’ve spent an eternity guarding it. Somehow it
doesn’t seem right for me to take it.”
    “The gold is yours, tekihila,” he murmured. “I want
you to have it. You may do with it as you wish.”
    Kelly smiled at him, relief mingling with gratitude as she
murmured her heartfelt thanks.
    As always, Blue Crow had come to her in the dark of the
night and now they were sitting in the living room on the Navajo rug in front
of the fireplace. Shadows danced over Blue Crow’s bronzed chest and broad
shoulders, sliding over his bare torso like a lover’s caress.
    The vast expanse of heavily muscled male flesh drew Kelly’s
hand. He shivered at her touch, a sensual shiver that bespoke his pleasure at
her touch.
    “Why don’t I ever see you during the day?” she wondered
aloud.
    Blue Crow shrugged. “I guard the cave.”
    “What’s it been like for you all these years?”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “You’ve been…you’ve been dead for over a hundred years. Have
you been in the cave all that time?”
    Blue Crow nodded.
    “Do you ever get hungry?” Her gaze skimmed his bare chest.
“Or cold?”
    He smiled, his dark eyes bright with amusement. “No, tekihila, I don’t get hungry or cold. Only lonely.”
    She covered his hand with hers. How had he stood it, staying
in that cave, alone, for over a hundred years?
    Blue Crow laced his fingers through hers. “Most of the time,
I sleep,” he said, answering her unspoken question. “And when I sleep, I dream, tekihila.”
    “Do you? Of what?”
    His beautiful black eyes caressed her. “I dream of you, skuya. You have been my companion, the light in my darkness, my only weapon
against the loneliness of a hundred years.”
    The man had the soul of a poet, Kelly thought.
    “How could you have been dreaming of me all that time? I
mean,” she grinned at him, “I’m only twenty-two.”
    “I cannot explain it to you. I only know that when I saw
you, I knew you were the woman I had seen in my vision quest.”
    “You saw me in a vision?”
    “Han. When I went to seek a medicine dream, I saw a
woman with hair as brown and curly as a buffalo’s and eyes as blue as the sky
above. All my life, I searched for you. And now,