Malachi Hawkins left his home to move west as soon as he was old enough. Running from a family secret that he can never escape, he takes a job on the ranch of an old family friend, Lee Rose.<br><br>The first night he's there, he meets Christian Rose, Lee's foster daughter, a young woman of mixed Comanche blood. They call her a savage and treat her like the family slave, but Mal doesn't see a savage at all. He sees a woman of unbelievable strength -- and a kindred spirit.<br><br>But his secret is bound to catch up with him, and when it does, it could destroy both of them forever ...

Maybe I'm Amazed

Mal pulled himself into a sitting position and shook his head, trying to clear the stars from his vision. The headache was already beginning, a throbbing orchestra of pain right behind his eyes and nose.


Mal stiffened. He had expected to hear J.R’s voice, but this wasn’t J.R’s deep, gravelly drawl. Had there been two sets of tracks? Had he really not noticed two horses? Or was something else going on? Mal couldn’t remember. He couldn’t remember a world without the unbelievable pain in his skull and the panic in his chest.


Cy dropped to his haunches in front of Mal, his face more twisted and gruesome than ever.


“Me? I’m here to hang a nigger.”7


Chapter 20