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“She’s still sharp-tongued as a snake, oat”

The foreear

“She’s gonna be OK, you mean?”

Cade felt the tension flowing out of him as the hospital fell farther and farther behind

“Yeah,” he said, “she’s going to be fine”

Angelica lifted her uninjured hand and pounded it against his rock-hard shoulder

“Dammit,” she cried, “don’t talk about me as if I weren’t here,”

“I want to get her back to Dallas as quickly as possible, Tom”

“Sure I understand”

“Did you hear ht here, I am perfectly capable of—”

“I left my plane at a little airstrip outside Notrees,” Cade said “Do you know it?”

Tom nodded “No problem, boss”

Boss, Angelica thought bitterly, boss! The forenore her all thesehis heels for Cade

And to think, for a few briefroorateful toward thisin his arms while he sucked the veno that Toht she could still hear his tender whisper telling her that she would be fine, that he would not per to happen to her

Apparently, scorpion venom could cause hallucinations!

Angelica shut her eyes “I hate you, Cade Landon,” she said She’d meant to shout the words at him but they caain

Cade looked at the wole of copper silk, her blouse was dirty, her right arlimmer of dampness was on her forehead

She was amess—and he needed to kiss her as badly as he needed to breathe

In a day of illogical happenings, as he to question yet another one?

“Hate me, then,” he said, and he bent and touched his lips to hers

He heard Toasp, heard the saelica started to say as his mouth took hers

And then her free ar so stiffly around his neck, curved against his flesh She gave a little shudder, not of fear but of soh Cade’s blood

He drew her closer to hi soft and warm in his arms, in the way her mouth trembled and opened to his

“Uh, boss?” Toulp was audible in the stillness “We’re, uh, we’re here At the Notrees airstrip”

Cade blinked He drew back, looked into Angelica’s face, watched as the sweep of dark lashes fanning her cheeks slowly lifted

She stared at him in silence, her eyes blurred with confusion Then she stiffened in his arms and fixed him with a look the Medusa would have envied It was only luck that kept hi to stone

“I was right about you,” she whispered “You truly are a contemptible bastard”

Cade wanted to deny it—but, at the ree

CHAPTER SIX

AS SOON AS they boarded the Apache, Angelica surprised Cade by opening the vial of pain tablets and gulping two of them down

“Does your hand hurt?”

“No,” she said in a voice that dripped icicles, “it does not hurt I took the pills because I had nothing better to do, and I thought they ht be fun”

He looked at her in the faint light of the instruave her a smile that more than matched the chill in her words

“I’ll be satisfied if they keep you quiet,” he said

And she was quiet By the tiainst the seat Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her blink, then yawn Within seconds, she was asleep

Cade sighed and felt his ht He’d always found a star-filled sky the best place to think about whatever ht be on his mind