Adam’s Outlaw Read online

  Adam’s Outlaw is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  2013 Loveswept eBook Edition

  Copyright © 1990 by Sandra Chastain.

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States of America by Loveswept, an imprint of Random House, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

  LOVESWEPT is a registered trademark and the LOVESWEPT colophon is a trademark of Random House LLC.

  eBook - dpg

  Originally published in the United States by Loveswept, an imprint of Random House, a division of Random House LLC, in 1990.

  www.readloveswept.com

  v3.1

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  The Editor’s Corner

  Dedication

  One

  “Hold it right there, friend.”

  An intense circle of light suddenly flooded the path. The elderly man shuffling along stopped and hunched over his cane. Silence seemed to envelop the park. Only the sound of distant laughter and traffic penetrated the hush.

  “Do exactly as I tell you.”

  The intruder didn’t need a speaker horn to magnify the threat in his voice.

  “Stay cool, Fred,” Toni Gresham whispered from her perch on the limb of a massive oak tree. “Don’t move, we got him.” She held her breath, gripping her whistle in one hand.

  Fred swayed unsteadily, playing out his role, just as they’d done on the other nights. Now all she had to do was pretend to be the law, blow her whistle, and frighten the mugger away.

  But this man didn’t look like the other muggers they’d scared off. This man was big and mean, and as he stood in the half-light she could see that he had a gun. Toni didn’t think a mere whistle was going to be enough. Maybe she could distract him while Fred went for help.

  Maybe whales bought shoes and took up tap dancing.

  At the edge of the trees Adam Ware fanned his flashlight slowly up and down the path. Several minutes ago he’d spotted the old man who had veered off onto the seldom-used path. At first Adam was simply going to warn him that there were muggers in the park. When the old man’s stance changed from merely old to crippled, Adam wondered if he was actually inviting someone to follow him. On closer examination, Adam decided the man wasn’t old, and he wasn’t some bum looking for a place to sleep.

  Following him through the woods along the path, Adam had realized the man was like a swamp hen, trying to lure a predator away from the nest, or to the nest. He’d found his mugger, or one half of the mugging team. Where was his fellow conspirator?

  Up in the tree, Toni waited, checking out the enemy. Like a commando on a night mission, the bad guy was dressed in camouflage black and green, and combat boots. An olive-green sweatband encircled his forehead, holding back his thick, dark hair. Balancing his tall, muscular frame lithely on the balls of his feet, he stood like a jungle animal ready to spring.

  “All right, now,” the stranger directed calmly. “Throw down your weapon and step forward—very slowly.” He casually laid his hand on the gun sheathed in a leather holster.

  In answer to his command the bald man dropped his cane and ambled toward Adam, smiling hugely.

  “Yo, dude, I got no sweat. My money’s yours, no regret.” He slapped his thighs rhythmically and held up his hands in a gesture of resignation. “I say, hang loose. You’ve cooked my goose. Just take my funds and I’ll vamoose. You dig, man?”

  “Well, well, if it isn’t Dead Fred. Cut the rap, Fred, and spread ’em! You’re under arrest. When did you start stalking the park?”

  Toni’s heart plunged to the tips of her scuffed Reeboks. They’d made a mistake. The man confronting Fred was no mugger. This stranger was the law, and from the looks of him, he meant business.

  “Yo!” Fred exclaimed. “Captain Adam. No attack. The moon is bright. The night is right. Let Dead Fred go and he’s out of sight.”

  Let Fred go? Toni thought. The man below wasn’t about to do that. She’d better move fast before Dead Fred dropped the jive talk and did something dumb like rush the man with the gun. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he’d do just that to keep her from being caught. She’d gotten Fred into this and she’d have to get him out.

  Toni waited as the intruder walked toward Fred, thankfully stopping beyond her tree, so that his back was to her. Quietly, she crept along the massive limb to the trunk, where they’d secured the rope she’d used to climb up the tree. The braided hemp was no jungle vine, and she was no Johnny Weissmuller, but this was war. She wound the rope around her waist, held on for dear life, and pushed off into the darkness with reckless abandon.

  “Aaaa—haaa—eee—aaahh!”

  Her bloodcurdling Tarzan yell split the night like the cry of a banshee as she became a human cannonball and sailed through the sky. The startled stranger whirled around, and her feet hit him in the chest with a resounding thud. His flashlight sailed into the trees behind them, and the gun spurted across the path and into the darkness. By the time she skidded to a stop, she’d pinned the gun-toting man to the ground, slamming his head against a tree trunk on the way down.

  “Run, Fred. I’ve got him!”

  Adam gasped for breath and shook his head, trying to fight off the effects of the crash. A woman! The kamikaze pilot who’d kayoed him from the heavens was a woman, a petite and—from the feel of her as she struggled to get a grip on him—generously equipped female. She smelled like honeysuckle. No, he was spacey from hitting his head. The woods smelled like honeysuckle. The woman smelled like lumber and pine tar. And she lay pressed against him.

  “Freeze!” she ordered, lifting her weight onto her arms so that she could get a good look at him. “Don’t move a muscle!”

  Under normal conditions Adam knew he would already have thrown her off and had her pinned in a death grip. He must still be a little stunned. And when she lifted her head, allowing the light from the streetlamp along the path to illuminate her face, he knew he was in trouble.

  Noting the man’s dazed expression, Toni temporarily forgot about protecting Fred, transferring her concern to the man beneath her.

  “Are you hurt?” she asked worriedly.

  Was he hurt? Flat on his back in a wooded area not three miles from the Atlanta Police Department, Adam “Ironman” Ware, tough guy, ex-receiver for the New Orleans Saints, was being held captive by the most angelic creature who’d ever jumped on his body. Hurt? No. Astounded? Yes. He studied her sternly.

  There was a leaf caught in the cap of soft blond hair that crowned her heart-shaped face. Incredibly big blue-green eyes flashed with the kind of vitality that a photographer searching for a lively model would kill for. In the recesses of his trained memory, a fleeting recognition hovered. He’d seen this woman before, not on the streets or in the mug books. He couldn’t bring a name to mind, but he knew this arrest was going bad.

  “Hey!” Toni yelled. “Fudge! Gosh! ‘Hey, diddle diddle. The cat and the fiddle.’ Answer me, turkey. Are you okay?”

  Adam sighed, staring up at his attacker in resigned fascination. Even in the moonlight he could see genuine concern in the deepening blue of her eyes and the wrinkle in her brow.

  “I don’t know,” he said ruefully. “I seem to be hallucinating. I think I’m being molested by an angel who’s reciting nursery rhymes. Is she real?
” He shifted his body in a tentative, examining move. “Nah! It must be a lovely dream.”

  “I’m real. And I’m not reciting nursery rhymes for you. I substitute nursery rhymes for curse words. I’m trying to quit. I asked if you’re all right.” she repeated crisply.

  Even though the man beneath her might have hit his head and might not know what he was doing, Toni couldn’t afford to take any chances. He was too big and too strong. Fred and the others were her responsibility. They had to come first. Once she was certain they were safe, she’d deal with any injury she may have caused the stranger.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Do I feel all right to you?”

  He was teasing her. In a swift move that she knew surprised him, she caught his wrists and twisted them above his head. She might be small, but she was trained in self-defense.

  Big mistake, Toni, she thought instantly. The move mashed her breasts against his collarbone. Her mouth was in kissing distance of a man who looked like the answer to every woman’s most erotic fantasy. With dark, smoldering good looks, the stranger could have been Mel Gibson’s brother. Intense black eyes seemed to emanate liquid heat. His full lips parted in an invitation to be kissed.

  “Don’t move a muscle,” she said desperately.

  “Believe me, Jungle Girl, I wouldn’t move a muscle if I could help it. Unfortunately …” His voice trailed off and he crooked one eyebrow. Both of them felt at least one of his more obvious muscles stubbornly refusing to obey her order.

  Toni thought quickly, shifted her knee along the inside of his thigh to the spot where she judged she could do the most damage, and lifted her own questioning eyebrow. The “hickory, dickory, doc” was only half under her breath. “I think you ought to know that I can protect myself. Want a demonstration?”

  “Okay, okay. I surrender.” He bit back a smile of admiration that he suspected bordered on some crazy kind of infatuation. She was brave, this renegade, brave and smart. And she’d thrown him totally off balance. He never teased. He never allowed his personal feelings to color his responses. Or at least he never had before.

  Adam was a methodical man who followed police procedure to the letter. Now the Ironman had suddenly turned into clay and he wasn’t quite sure how it had happened. For the moment he would let her call the shots. He’d been outmaneuvered and he was forced to admit that the woman intrigued him.

  When the mayor had personally asked him to look into the mugging of the elderly in the park, he’d had no idea what he was getting into. He soon learned that someone was approaching the victims and getting their attention, while a second mugger ran by, grabbing their purses or wallets and disappearing into the trees. The elderly people weren’t hurt, although they were badly frightened. The police had been unable to stop the criminals.

  Then, in the last week, a pair of modern-day vigilantes had stepped in and saved at least three potential victims from being robbed. The rescue team consisted of a large man disguised as a bum and a boy dressed all in black. Having their job done for them was embarrassing for the police department. On his own, Adam had staked out the area for three nights with no results—until now.

  He swallowed hard and let his imagination fill in the blanks in this exercise. The woman who’d captured him was either one of the muggers or one of the vigilantes. Knowing Fred’s arrest sheet, he opted to go for the criminal version. Yet she didn’t sound like a crook. No, those eyes and that face couldn’t belong to anybody with criminal inclinations. She was a female Robin Hood with a band of merry men. Now that she’d captured him, he’d join her band and fight the leader for her favors. He’d … He was definitely hallucinating.

  Except for the slow, constant pulse of desire throbbing insistently between them, he would have thought he’d fallen asleep on a stakeout and this was all an erotic dream. This was no dream, though. He was being manhandled by an angel.

  Toni refused to acknowledge the hardness pressing against the lower part of her body. She refused to acknowledge the odd sensations playing hide-and-seek just beneath her skin. She and the man were practically nose to nose, only a breath away from joining their lips.

  Trying to support her weight on her arms so that she could move away from his disturbing nearness, she lost her grip on his wrists and pressed her hips against an erection that seemed enormous.

  Getting herself into unorthodox dilemmas was nothing new to Toni Gresham. Her philosophy had long been that those who don’t make mistakes, don’t do anything. And one way or another, she usually managed to make things right. This time she might be in a no-win situation. Still, the longer she delayed, the better chance Fred had of escaping. She wasn’t at all sure about herself.

  The man lay motionless, watching her with an expression of amusement. They were at a standoff and they both knew it. She guessed he was waiting for her to make a move and she hadn’t a clue what she should do next. Outside of an irrational urge to press her mouth against the mystery man’s, she couldn’t seem to focus on any reasonable means of escape.

  “Are we finished playing cops and robbers?” she finally asked, narrowing her eyes and pursing her lips primly.

  “Cops and robbers? Oh, I thought we were playing Tarzan and Jane, the law of the jungle,” he said, grinning lazily. “But I guess I ought to tell you that I really am the law and you’re under arrest. Anything you say or do may be held against you in a court of law and—”

  A crashing in the brush and the thud of footsteps announced that they were no longer alone.

  “Hold on, dude, now listen here. The little lady’s got no fear. But Fred has your gun, doncha know. And Dead Fred says, let—the—lady—go!”

  “What are you doing, Fred, threatening a police officer? Aren’t you in enough trouble? Anyway, I know you don’t have my gun, so quit bluffing.”

  “Fred. Get out of here,” Toni called over her shoulder. “Please! I’m in charge. I have connections down at city hall. Believe me, I have everything under control.” She pressed her knee threateningly against the stranger’s erection. “Don’t I, Officer?”

  “That could be debated, but I don’t think I’d care to argue just now,” he drawled, shifting his lower body. “Actually, if you’re in charge, outlaw, you’re the one I want.”

  “I’m in charge.”

  “And do I understand that you’re obligating yourself to handle any problem you’re responsible for?”

  “Eh … yes.” Toni was beginning to realize that the stranger’s play on words might not be unintentional.

  “What about your car?” Fred asked stubbornly.

  Toni groaned. Fred was going to be difficult. “Take it. Drive the others home. I’ll catch a cab.”

  “Unless you’d like to join us down at headquarters,” Adam suggested to the man who appeared unwilling to leave his boss.

  “Stop worrying, Fred. My father will handle this. Get away from here—now!”

  Fred hooked his thumbs in his suspenders with an exaggerated show of being cool. He might have fooled the man beneath her, but Toni knew he was holding onto his control with a thread.

  “All right, Toni,” he finally agreed. “If you’re sure. But he’d better not hurt you, or I’ll—”

  “I’m sure, Fred. Explain what happened to the others and don’t let them come back to the park until I say so. I’ll be home as soon as I can.” She watched his gaze shift from herself to the police officer several times before he reluctantly moved off into the darkness. The crunch of his footsteps died away and they were alone again.

  “You’ll join him tomorrow, maybe,” Adam announced, “if you cooperate and the chief is lenient. Tonight, lady, you’re mine.” With absolute ease he pulled his wrists from her grip and looped his arms around her waist, waiting for her to comprehend that she was no longer in control.

  “Chief? You’re not going to arrest me, are you?”

  “Yep. I’m afraid I’m going to have to take you in. In cop talk, outlaw, you’re my prisoner.”

  For a sec
ond Toni allowed herself to face the truth. She’d known from the beginning that there was a possibility they’d be caught. The newspapers had printed the warning that the mayor was cracking down on muggers in the park. But the elderly people living in the nearby Swan Gardens apartments hadn’t seen any results. Granted, there might be better solutions for handling the muggers than the one she and Fred had come up with, but she hadn’t found any yet. All she was trying to do was make it possible for those dear old people to get outside their apartments.

  Now a lone-wolf lawman had come along, and instead of arresting the muggers, he’d arrested the only person trying to run the criminals out of the park.

  “You’re crazy,” she said. “You don’t really want to arrest me. I think you must have suffered a concussion when you hit your head. Maybe we’d better get you to the hospital and have you checked out.”

  He sighed. “You’re right, outlaw. We ought to get moving. This ground is hard and the night is fleeting, and we have miles to go before we sleep.”

  He was quoting Robert Frost, she thought. A man who quoted Robert Frost couldn’t be all bad. Maybe he was going to let her go. Sure, and maybe those whales would rather buy skates and take up ice dancing.

  A cloud slipped in front of the man, and the shadows crept inward, circling the area where they lay with darkness. Insect noises and bird calls were filling the silence with their eerie night sounds. Toni shivered. This whole peculiar situation was something they hadn’t covered in either her engineering training or her self-defense classes.

  “There’s just one little thing,” he said, tightening his hold on her waist. “About taking care of the problems you’ve caused.”

  Toni gulped. The man was serious. She’d sent Fred and the others away to keep them safe. Now, who was going to keep her safe? “Problem? Eh, yes,” she stammered. “I think the solution is a—a cold shower and a warm brandy. Yes, that ought to do it.”

  He raised his brows. “I was referring to the fact that you’re a criminal and you’re under arrest, babe. What problem did you think I was talking about?”