an excerpt from
ZACK
by Cheyenne McCray
© Copyright Cheyenne McCray, 2008.
All Rights Reserved, St. Martin's Press

CHAPTER 1

While Skylar MacKenna inhaled the familiar smells of dust, livestock, and testosterone, she couldn’t help but enjoy watching the men work. The flex of muscle, lean bodies in tight Wrangler jeans, leather chaps, tanned forearms . . . It was enough to leave any woman panting.

Skylar shifted in her saddle as she watched her ranch hands count the cattle they’d rounded up over the weekend. Empress, Skylar’s Quarter Horse, pawed at the ground beneath them as the sorrel mare tossed her head and whickered.

The sight of the hard, muscled bodies should have moved her, but . . . no man had since him.

She didn’t want to think about him. But sometimes memories of Zack Hunter came to her hard, fast, and unbidden.

The busy hum of deep male voices and bawling cattle filled the otherwise still air. Saddle leather creaked as Skylar leaned down and rubbed the side of Empress’s neck.

Skylar frowned and straightened in her saddle. Damn it, why couldn’t she let those memories go? It was such ancient history.

Pushing up the brim of her straw Resistol, Skylar’s gaze followed Luke Rider, her new foreman as he rode his dun, the Quarter Horse’s powerful haunches bunching as she flowed smoothly between Luke’s thighs. Now there was one fine looking male—a bad boy with luscious chestnut brown hair, wicked blue eyes and a body that was made for sweaty sheets and long nights.

In the past month since she’d hired him, Luke had definitely give her the impression that he was more than interested in breaking her no dating employees rule. And considering how gorgeous he was, even she called herself a fool for not taking him up on his unspoken invitation. But she just wasn’t interested. Besides, why complicate a perfectly good business relationship?

And then there was Wade Larson, who owned Coyote Pass Ranch, the spread neighboring hers. For years the man had made it clear he wanted her. She’d dated him a few times recently, and Wade was a handsome man, but she never felt that sizzle with him like she’d had with Zack. So despite his continued persistence, she had broken it off and intended to keep it that way.

Damnit. She was over that idiot, Zack Hunter. Ten years was too long to allow that man to come into her mind and trample all over her heart and soul.

Sweat trickled between her breasts and she unfastened another snap on her western shirt, hoping a light wind would kick up and cool her skin. As she shifted again, the small J Magnum Smith & Wesson in the holster on her waistband felt comforting. She was a crack shot—her father had taught her to shoot from the time she could hold a firearm.

Arizona was a “right to carry” state and for years she’d had a concealed weapon permit. She kept the S&W on her most of the time in case she ran across a rattlesnake—but also because it made her feel safer as a woman who lived alone in a valley on the Mexican border. The Flying M rested at the foot of the Chiricahua Mountains that were like a railroad for drug and illegal immigrant smuggling from Mexico into the U.S.

September sunshine heated her face, the sky an achingly clear blue. Not even a breeze stirred the mesquite bushes or tumbleweeds on her ranch.

September. A strange sensation came over her as her thoughts turned unwillingly to another September—almost exactly ten years ago, when she’d met the dark and dangerous Zack Hunter.

Skylar closed her eyes. Apparently there was no stopping it.

Her hand automatically moved to her throat and she finally allowed herself to remember. Memories came to her, sharp and vivid. The sound of his deep voice calling her Sky, rather than Skylar like everyone else did. His sinful grin, his muscled chest and athletic build. And the feel of him sliding inside her—

“Skylar?”

She snapped her eyes open, a rush of heat flushing up her face to the brim of her hat as she looked into Luke’s intense blue gaze. Her foreman was sitting astride his dun, and his face was coated with dirt and sweat. It just made him look even sexier.

With his forefinger he pushed up the brim of his Stetson, his handsome face creased into a frown. “You all right, boss?”

Skylar pulled her shirt away from her chest, trying to cool off, and pretended not to notice how his gaze drifted to her cleavage. “Where do we stand with the count?”

Luke’s jaw tightened and his features hardened. “We’re down over fifty head.”

“Fifty?” Skylar clenched Empress’s reins, unable to believe what Luke had just said. “How the hell did they steal so many without us being on to them?”

Luke’s gaze had a predatory gleam before he tugged his mare’s reins and turned back toward the corral. “I don’t know,” he said over his shoulder, “but I aim to find out.”

Sky looked off toward the mountain range two miles away at the foot of her property. What the hell was going on? It was like the mountain was opening up and swallowing her cattle whole.

With a groan of frustration, Skylar guided Empress across the rangeland to the barn. For a moment she considered going on one of her usual long rides to clear her head, but it was already getting late in the afternoon.

The livelihood of her ranch depended on her livestock. She raised the best Angus in the valley and she was working to develop a profitable breeding program. Satan, her prized yearling who had a pedigree a mile long, was her hope for building a championship breeding program that would put the ranch far into the green.

If her herd continued to diminish, her ranch would gradually be destroyed before she had a chance to make it as profitable as she was working toward. She wouldn’t have the cash to pay for more championship breeding stock. Eventually she wouldn’t have enough income to pay her ranch hands.

No way was she going to let that happen. One way or another she would see to it the bastards were stopped—the bastards who were stealing her ranch’s future.

      #

It was a road he hadn’t traveled for almost ten years, Zack Hunter realized as his black government-issued Ford Explorer hit a pothole, jarring his teeth along with his memories.

Sunshine glinted off the windshield, endless acres of grass and barbwire fence scrolling by as he guided the SUV down the dirt road to the MacKenna ranch. One of the largest ranches in the county, the Flying M was over a half-hour drive from Douglas, a dingy town along the Mexico border in southeastern Arizona.

September. It had been September when he’d first met Skylar MacKenna.

Zack’s SUV shimmied along the dirt road, but he barely noticed as his thoughts turned to Sky—her smile that had held all the innocence of youth and all the promise of a woman.

He had loved looking into her seductive eyes that were an unusual color of green, the same shade as her August birthstone. Her copper hair had felt so soft and silky every time he slipped his fingers through it—he loved when she left it down.

      How often had he circled the tantalizing mole above her left breast with his tongue? And God, those legs. He could almost feel her long legs clamped around his hips and hear her sensual cries as he buried himself inside her.

Damn. He’d grown hard just thinking about her.

Zack’s jaw tensed as he thought about the girl—the woman—he’d walked away from all those years ago, six months after they’d met. She’d been nineteen, starting her first year of college, and he’d been twenty-two, a deputy with the county Sheriff’s Department.

Sky had been the only woman to see past his hart exterior to his very soul.

He shifted his grip on the steering wheel, the scenery a blur as it passed by. How he’d wanted to cherish her, protect her from what evil there was in the world.

His thoughts crowded him as he remembered Sky’s teary face the night he’d been arrested. Her promises when she’d come to visit him that everything would be all right.

But her eyes had been filled with horror and he’d been certain that it was because of what he’d done.

Even though charges had never been pressed and he’d been able to return to his job with the county sheriff’s office, he had thought he wasn’t good enough for her.

Sky had been so young, so vibrant. But she was also a straight arrow, no toe over the line, not under any circumstances. A man who skirted the law, no matter what his reasons, well, that wouldn’t work for Sky.

Still, she’d acted like he’d nearly crushed her heart, leaving her like he did.

At the time he thought he’d done the right thing when he’d told her goodbye. That she’d been too young.

And his demons too dark to slay.

Zack squinted in the bright sunlight as he glanced through his windshield up at the cloudless blue expanse before returning his gaze to the dusty road. The case that had him heading to the ranch was almost an excuse to see Sky—almost.

Ever since the day he’d left her, he’d never been able to get her out of his mind and he wasn’t sure he ever could.

He knew he never would.

As he’d faced each and every one of his demons over the last ten years, he’d come to the realization that he wasn’t the same person he’d been then. The same young man who’d been so immersed in rage that he’d thought he’d never find his way out.

Except with Sky. She had made him feel different. Happy for the first time in his life, and not like the angry person he’d been deep down inside.

But one violent night had changed everything.

Zack ground his teeth.

One night. One night with a fucking bastard who Zack had almost killed.

Sky’s image filled his mind. What if she wasn’t at the ranch? What if she was married now with a couple of rugrats and living off in a city in some other state?

The mere thought of Sky with another man had Zack gripping the steering wheel so tight he was bound to snap it.

When he’d had made the decision to transfer to Douglas to be closer to his ailing mother, he had hoped Sky would still be here. That they could pick up where they’d left off.

Hell, more than hoped.

He didn’t know if Sky was still around, but he intended to find out.

Zack slowed the SUV as he crossed over a cattle guard that rattled and thrummed under the wheels of the Explorer. Herds of sleek Black Angus lined each side of the road, lifting their heads to watch him pass by and then returning to graze.

Apparently the rains had been good this summer as the grass was still green in patches and plentiful. He noted the well-kept barbwire fences, stock tanks, and windmill. Ray MacKenna always did keep his place in fine shape, and he certainly had the money to do it.

Zack didn’t expect his gut to clench the way it did when he drove up to the sprawling ranch house. A vivid memory of Sky came to him. Of her running from the front porch to greet him, her smile brilliant, then throwing her arms around his neck and treating him to her soft lips. Her husky voice telling him she missed him, and her firm body pressed tight to his.

With a groan, he brought the SUV to a halt in front of the MacKenna ranch house, dust swirling around his vehicle in a beige cloud. He took in the changes of the last ten years. The oak trees and weeping willows were taller and the porch that ran the length of the house was practically overflowing with houseplants—a woman’s touch.

His heart rate kicked up a beat. Could Sky still be here?

Or had Ray gone and remarried? After Nina MacKenna’s death, everyone was sure Ray would never tie the knot again.

Zack’s gaze passed beyond the house, extensive barn, corrals and ranch buildings, to the tawny Chiricahua Mountains rising behind. The old tire swing still hung from the lower branch of the oak in front of the barn. He remembered pushing Sky in that tire, spinning it around, and claiming a kiss when he caught her to him.

Zack climbed out of the Ford Explorer, crammed his black Stetson on his head, and slammed the door a little too hard. Shoving the memories to the back of his mind, he headed up the steps then through the maze of plants on the porch. Wind chimes hanging from the porch’s beams made a haunting sound as the slightest hint of a breeze stirred. Almost ghostly.

But the only ghosts around were the memories of Sky. He knocked. No answer. Ray must be off working on horseback or in his truck.

Was Sky around?

Zack was turning from the door when he heard a shriek.

Sky.

Hair prickled at the base of his neck.

He automatically drew his 9mm P226 Sig-Sauer from the holster on his hip. The scream had come from the barn. Zack made sure everything was clear and hurried to the barn, his boots making no sound as he crossed the hard packed earth.

Everything was quiet. Too quiet.

Pausing beside the open barn door, he listened, his heart beating a rapid rhythm.

“You sonofa—” a woman said, and then a thump and another cry.

He rounded the doorway, his weapon raised. Sky MacKenna was sprawled on the barn floor with her back against a hay bale, her blouse gaping open. She was glaring into a horse stall.

Zack clenched his jaw. He’d kill the man who’d dared to shove her down like that

“Come out with your hands up,” he said in a deadly tone, his eyes focused on the stall. He remained crouched and prepared for the slightest movement. “Don’t make me wait.”

He heard a click and glanced at Sky to see she had a handgun trained on him. The moment she saw his face she slowly lowered the small Smith & Wesson, a stunned expression on her features.

Zack kept his Sig in his hands, the barrel still in position as he glanced from her to the stall.

“Go ahead, arrest the bastard.” Sky waved toward the stall with her free hand while she stuffed the handgun into the waistband at the small of her back. “Cuff him while you’re at it. Once you’ve frisked the sonofabitch, that is. I’ll get a kick out of seeing you try.”

Zack eased closer to the open stall and peered over the wooden side rail to find a good-sized black bull straining against a rope tie. The corner of Zack’s mouth twitched.

 “I’m gonna have to take you in, son,” he said with mock seriousness to the fire-eyed yearling. “For disturbing the peace and knocking around a beautiful woman.”

The moment the last two words were out of his mouth, it seemed like the entire ranch went silent. Zack turned to look at Sky and he could see reality sinking in, her lips forming a frown as she narrowed her eyes.

Now, she knew. After all these years and that awful goodbye, Zack had returned to Douglas.

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