obviously sent the first string in to deal with her. she lifted her chin in challenge. "what message exactly were you supposed to deliver?"

"joclyn would appreciate you meeting her later this evening at the saloon." the voice was so beautiful she ached to hear more. she forced her hands to stay at her sides instead of pressing them to her ears. "i believe she wanted to do you the courtesy of speaking to you herself."

colby found herself clutching at ginny's hand for solace.

rafael de la cruz was capable of casting spells, a dark sorcerer weaving black magic, and she was highly susceptible. she wanted him gone before she fell into the depths of his black eyes. he was leaning so close to her she could smell his masculine scent. outdoors. sexual. definitely male. "it seems to be important to her."

"i'm very busy this time of year," colby said a little desperately. she couldn't look away from him, not for a moment. his eyes were so hungry, so needy, so demanding. and damn, her body actually ached for his. crippled little niece. she couldn't let the image go.

"then i will have to stay and convince you," he said, his accent very much in evidence. everything in him, every cell, his heart and soul, his brain, even the buried demon roared at him to chain her to his side. he could do it, just take her. there was no one capable of stopping him. he was used to nothing, no one opposing his will. certainly not a little slip of a woman. a human woman.

"eight o'clock then," she said impatiently, trying not to look as frightened as she felt. no one had ever made her feel confused and edgy as he did. there was something possessive in his eyes, something that seemed to claim her. she had never been truly afraid of anyone before. "if you'll excuse me, i've got to get back to work." he was the enemy. closely associated with a family who hadn't wanted her or her mother. someone who would consider her brother and sister servants in a land they knew nothing of. she had to remember that. she had to remember how hard their father had fought to give his children a legacy of their own. rafael de la cruz had that latin charm she'd heard so much about but had never experienced. the man was lethal. deliberately colby looked at louise. she was obviously drowsy and purring like a domesticated cat. she looked very much as if the two had just made love. louise was stroking his arm and looking up at him with a singularly rapt expression on her face, one that turned colby's stomach.

rafael gestured imperiously toward the pickup, and louise sent him a smile, her face lighting up at his attention, and she obediently went to the truck. the motion set colby's teeth on edge. why didn't you just snap your fingers? the de la cruz brothers had a way of acting as if women were inferior to them and it irritated the hell out of her. that wasn't altogether true. it was more like every man or woman, every human being on earth, was considered inferior to them.

rafael turned his head and looked at her almost as if he could read her thoughts. for a moment she froze, almost afraid to move. she had never seen eyes so hard or cold. if his eyes were a mirror to his soul, this man was truly a monster. he made no move to follow louise; instead his gaze swept over colby's slender figure, his merciless features devoid of expression. "why do you persist in this nonsense? this is work for a man, not one such as you. it is obvious you have spent most of the afternoon on the ground."

"it's none of your business, de la cruz. " colby's pretense at good manners was thrown to the wind. colby had no idea why she felt so threatened but she had the impression she was caught in the crosshairs of a powerful scope.

"i believe that is one of my horses you are breaking. how did you get him?" he asked it softly, as if he could not be bothered becoming disturbed by their disagreement.

"like a thief in the night i crept into your corrals and made off with a number of them," she mocked sarcastically. "try not to be more of a jerk than you can help. juan chevez sent over sixteen head. it must have been a conscience thing."

"the chevez family has suffered greatly over this misunderstanding," he replied patiently. "they wish for nothing more than to heal the breach in their family. as i consider their family a part of mine and under my protection, it is of equal importance to me." his black gaze didn't blink once as it bored into her green eyes. she felt hunted. more than once she'd had to track cougar after her horses, and they had looked at her with just that same focused stare.

"go back to brazil, mr. de la cruz, and take your family with you. that will go a long way toward healing the breach."

his teeth flashed, very white, his smile wolfish. for no reason at all it made colby shiver. she went to move away from him, to give herself breathing room, a delicate feminine retreat, but he glided with her like a jungle cat stalking prey. his hand curled around the nape of her neck, his fingers almost gentle, yet she felt his immense strength, knew she couldn't break his grip, knew he could snap her neck in an instant if he chose. a shiver of apprehension raced down her spine. she stilled beneath his hand, her gaze jumping to his face. his black eyes were suddenly hungry, a dark intense hunger that robbed her of her breath while he stared almost fascinated at her pulse.

why had she thought his eyes flat and hard and icy cold? now they were burning with so much emotion, alive with need and hunger and an intensity that scorched her all the way to her very soul.

you are not going to get away from me, pequena. no matter how far you run, no matter how much you fight, none of it will matter.

the words shimmered in her mind, shimmered between them, yet colby had no idea whether they were real or not. he hadn't spoken; he was only looking at her with his smoldering black eyes.

she paled visibly, suddenly very, very afraid. of herself. of him. of the dark promise of passion in his eloquent eyes.

"you aren't welcome here, de la cruz," paul burst out, his face bright red beneath his tan. he took a step toward the larger man, his fists clenched, but ginny caught at his arm and held on to him like a pit bull. "let go of my sister right now."

rafael swung his head slowly around, his gaze reluctantly leaving colby's face so that he could look at paul. the boy noticed at once that rafael's black eyes never blinked. not once. for a moment paul couldn't think or move. he stood frozen in place, his heart pounding. rafael smiled at him then, no humor, just a flash of white teeth and then he was striding for his pickup truck.

they watched him move, mesmerized by his fluid grace. no one spoke until the truck had been swallowed up in a cloud of dust, then paul flung himself onto the grass. "i must have been out of my mind! why didn't you gag me? he could have killed me with his little finger."

ginny laughed nervously. "fortunately i saved your life by holding you back."

"for which i thank you from the bottom of my heart," paul said, staring up at the darkening evening sky.

colby flung herself on the ground beside her brother, dragging ginny down beside her. they clung together laughing at their audacity, slightly hysterical with relief. colby was the first to sober up. "pride is going to cost us big bucks this time. with daniels pressing us on the balloon payment for the mortgage, i'm afraid this is a serious setback. i've only got two months to come up with the payment and he's told me in no uncertain terms he won't give me an extension."

"he didn't say we have to give the horses back," ginny pointed out pragmatically. "just keep them and bill him for the work."

"we'll sue if he doesn't pay," paul burst out indignantly. "you've worked hard on those horses and they've been eating our supplies. de la cruz couldn't find anyone better here in the states, or brazil for that matter. he can't expect to get your services for nothing."

"that's probably how they got rich in the first place," colby said snidely, then was immediately ashamed of herself. she thankfully accepted a piece of fried chicken from practical ginny. "blast that man for coming over here! although, to be strictly honest, i never would have accepted those horses had i known they were his."

paul grinned at her unrepentantly. "that's why i didn't tell you."

colby turned the full power of her emerald gaze on her brother. "that's not something you should be admitting to me. rafael de la cruz is worse than his brother and i never thought that was possible." she touched the nape of her neck where the warmth of his touch seemed to linger.

"i wish they'd all leave," ginny stated clearly. she looked at colby with frightened eyes. "can they really take me away from you, to another country? i don't want to go with them." she sounded young and forlorn.

colby immediately circled ginny's shoulders with her arm. "why would you ask such a thing, ginny?" she glanced at paul with a slight frown. "did you hear that somewhere?"

"it wasn't me," paul defended, "it was clinton daniels. we saw him at the grocery store and he told ginny the chevez family was going to take the two of us to brazil and you couldn't stop them. he said you'd never win custody in a court of law and the de la cruz family had political pull and too much money to fight. with the de la cruz family backing the chevez family you didn't have a prayer of keeping us."

colby counted silently to ten, listening to her heart pound out a strange, irregular beat. for a moment she could scarcely breathe, scarcely think. if she lost her brother and sister she would have nothing. no one.

pequena? the word was a soft inquiry in her mind. a gentle soothing caress of reassurance. she heard it clearly, as if rafael de la cruz was standing beside her, his mouth against her ear. worse, she felt his fingers trail down her face, touching her skin, touching the inside of her until she felt her body react in a purely sensual way.

colby was shocked and frightened by the way his voice seemed familiar and right. intimate. by the way her body tightened and heated in response. she managed to smile her reassurance at ginny even while she tried to build the wall in her mind to keep rafael out. "clinton daniels always seems to find the time to gossip about everyone, doesn't he? i think that man needs a full-time job to keep him occupied." she hugged ginny to her. "you are a legal citizen of this country, honey. the courts aren't just going to turn you over to someone you don't even know. it will never come to that. daniels was just trying to get a rise out of you. these people will go back to brazil and everything will be back to normal." they had to go back to brazil and rafael had to go back with them. soon. immediately.

"yeah," paul added, digging at his sister's ribs, "the normal thing, hard work, more hard work, working from early morning until late at night. getting up in the middle of the night and working more."

"don't we all wish you did that," colby teased. "seriously, you two, forget this problem with the de la cruz brothers. they don't like me any more than i like them. those men are positively archaic. i can see them as some kind of dungeon masters in the fourteenth century, where women were owned by their fathers and husbands."

"really?" ginny looked dreamy for a minute. "i picture them as kings in a castle, great lords or something like that. they're good-looking."

colby wrinkled her nose. "do you think? i hadn't noticed." she managed to keep a straight face for all of three seconds before she dissolved into gales of laughter along with her younger sister while paul looked on in complete exasperated disgust.