The door opened and light spilled onto the small porch before being blocked by Cougar's big frame.

"Talking about Gray?"

"h.e.l.l of a name to pin on the kid."

Clint shrugged. "The kid chose it."

"I'm thinking that was more self-defense," Asa offered, leaning against a porch support. "No offense, Clint, but Jenna doesn't have an ear for languages."

Clint smiled. "If the kid hadn't conceded, I wasconsidering begging. It was pure torture listening to her butcher his Indian name."

Cougar leaned back against the log wall, melting naturally into the shadow. "She's not one for giving up, that's for sure."

"No, she isn't."

"And you like that about her."

Clint smiled. "Yes, I do."

Cougar's teeth gleamed white in the sudden flash of a sulfur striking.

He held out the cigarette he'd just lit. Clint shook his head.

"Since when aren't you partial to an after dinner smoke?" Asa asked, the amus.e.m.e.nt in his tone indicating that he had a fair idea.

"Since I got married." The only time Jenna had pulled away from his kiss was right after he'd had a cigarette. She'd recovered, but he liked her better when she was leaning into him rather than away.

"p.u.s.s.y whipped already?" Cougar asked.

"No more than you."

"I'm safe tonight," Cougar said, taking a deep drag on his cigarette, his eyes narrowing with satisfaction.

"Mara can't mess with my dinner if she catches a whiff of smoke seeing as how Dorothy's cooking.""You could just lay down the law to her," Asa suggested.

"The same way you laid down the law to Elizabeth about breaking horses?" Cougar asked, smiling.

Clint echoed the grin. It was the worst kept secret in the territory that Asa indulged his headstrong wife.

"Along those lines," Asa admitted. "I might just be getting soft, but all that woman has to do is turn those pretty green eyes on me, and I forget my point."

"Yeah. Same here." Cougar took another drag. "The only difference is that Mara's eyes are brown."

"Elizabeth's prettier too," Asa said with a perfectly straight face.

Clint rolled his eyes, knowing what was coming.

Cougar was a keg of dynamite when it came to Mara.

"In your dreams." Cougar flicked the cigarette into the dirt beyond the porch.

"I'm not saying Mara isn't sweet and smart, but when it comes to looks, Mara can't hold a candle to my Elizabeth."

Cougar pushed off the wall, stepping into the light.

Clint shook his head and entered the fray.

"h.e.l.l, you're both sucking dust when it comes to my Jenna. There isn't a prettier, softer woman in the territory.""I'll give you that," Asa drawled. "She has to be pretty d.a.m.ned soft in the head to take up with you."

"You got that right," Cougar agreed, laughter in his eyes.

Clint shrugged. "You might be right there."

"Ah h.e.l.l, you're still not thinking you're not right for the girl, are you?" Cougar growled.

"She deserves someone who can love her."

"She needs someone she can depend on," Asa countered, his tone serious for once. "Someone she can trust to lead her without abusing her."

"She doesn't need a leader."

"Christ, Clint," Cougar scoffed. "The girl's been trained to do nothing but follow. And I suspect, been beaten into accepting it, and you want her to just up and take charge?"

"s.h.i.t, no wonder she's having nightmares," Asa murmured.

"She's not having nightmares anymore." Clint reached for his makings.

"Well, that's a blessing," Cougar cut into the argument. "Any word on who raped her?"

"No." Clint untied the pouch.

"d.a.m.n. I'd rest a lot easier if we knew that."

"We'd all rest easier." Asa paused, caught Clint's eyeand nodded to the pouch in his hand. "Sure you want that cigarette tonight?"

Clint sighed. He wanted it but he wanted Jenna more. Especially as Dorothy was hinting that Gray should stay with her and Doc tonight while dropping additional hints that the boy shouldn't be separated from his sister so soon after their reunion. He put the pouch back in his pocket.

The door opened and Gray Fox Searching and Doc came out. Doc took a seat in the bentwood rocker and took out his pipe. Cleaned and dressed in clothes Dorothy had dredged up for him, Gray almost looked civilized, except for the wariness in his gaze and the slight curl to his full lips.

"Evening, son."

Gray cut him a glare and nodded. Clint considered it a victory that he didn't deny the relationship. Then again, being Indian, the boy understood kinship by claim. And by his own words, he really had nowhere else to go. The Indian wars had seen to that.

"You're packing a lot of att.i.tude for an eleven-year- old," Cougar pointed out conversationally.

"I am not a child."

"You're not a man either, and until you learn to fight, you'd better rein in that challenge."

"I fight just fine.""I fight just fine."

"That why your mother got kicked while protecting you?" Clint asked.

Before the boy could open his mouth, Asa was shaking his head. "A man protects his women, Gray. He never endangers them."

A shadow pa.s.sed over the kid's face, and Clint swore, knowing he wasn't thinking of Jenna right then.

The boy's mother had been forced into prost.i.tution and then murdered when she had refused to continue after her daughter was born.

"You couldn't help what happened to your mother, son. Some things are out of our control. It's the ones we can control that we need to be aware of."

The boys jaw set in a line that said clearer than words that it wasn't over as far as he was concerned.

"In a few years," Clint told him, understanding, making a place for him at the rail, "if you want to hunt down the man who killed your mother, I'll ride with you."

That earned him a startled glance.

"You're a McKinnely now," Cougar cut in with a shrug. "You're not alone."

"However, between now and then," Clint continued, "you've got to get ready."

"Ready?""You need to learn to handle yourself."

"I can handle myself."

"That's pride talking," Asa interrupted. "Pride will get you killed. Common sense will get you to your goal."

"I'll teach you to handle a knife," Cougar offered.

"And who are you to teach me?" Gray demanded.

Clint had to hand it to the kid for gall. Even when Cougar's face went hard and his eyes went dead cold, the kid held his ground.

"I am your uncle."

Doc shook his head at Gray. "The first thing you need to learn is when to bite your tongue."

"Why?" Head thrown back, the kid was a picture of arrogance.

Asa rolled his makings into a cigarette. "Because you just went and told 'Gut 'em McKinnely' to f.u.c.k off."

The kid swallowed hard and went pale. To his credit, he didn't hand out excuses and try to cover. Instead, he squared his shoulders and remained silent. The kid had some real likable qualities.

Gray swallowed again, and looked at Cougar, Asa, and then Clint. Clint started counting in his head as he pa.s.sed a match to Asa. In the orange flare, the boy's distress was easy to see. Gray took a step back awayfrom the rail. His mouth set belligerently, but not before Clint saw the hint of a tremble. If Cougar didn't cut this short, he sure as s.h.i.t was going to.

Cougar glanced at the boy from the corner of his eye.

"Lucky for you Gray, I've got a rule against holding grudges on family."

For an instant, Gray wavered, and then he stood tall.

He looked so alone in that moment that Clint put this hand on his shoulder. The kid's bones poked his palm, but there was the promise of future strength in their width. He didn't flinch away so Clint didn't pull away.

"I was disrespectful."

"It's been a h.e.l.l of a day, so I'll cut you some slack,"

Cougar allowed. "Plus, I'm grateful for your stepping in for Jenna."

The boy frowned. "She shouldn't have done that."

"No," Clint agreed, "she shouldn't have."

"What'd you expect her to do, let Dan beat the boy to a smudge?" Doc asked, his grizzled brows raised.

"She should have called for help."

"And let the boy be hurt? You don't know your wife, Clint, if you think she'd ever regard that as an option."

"She is too soft," Gray agreed.

"She's all heart, that's for sure." He turned the kid toward him. "That why you picked her for Bri?"He nodded. "Her real name is Hope on the Mist."

Asa laughed. "I bet that's a humdinger of a name to p.r.o.nounce in Cheyenne."

Gray nodded, glanced through the window, and then shrugged.

"Maybe it is best she be called Bri." He looked through the window again. Clint followed the trajectory of his gaze to where the women sat, Bri in their midst, her arms waving and a happy smile on her face.

"She has grown." He sounded almost resentful.

"Good food and care will do that to a baby," Doc said, the smoke from his pipe scenting the cold night air.

"It is good."

"The way the women were feeding you, we'll soon have to roll you in and out of the door," Asa teased.

"They are good cooks," Gray agreed noncommittally.

"Soon we'll all be as fat as pigs ready for slaughter,"

Cougar added with a slap to his stomach. He didn't sound at all upset with the prospect. Probably because he was in no danger of it ever happening, but he sure shocked the kid.

"You are a warrior."

"That I am, but there are real pleasures to being a married man.""And yet you just have the one wife." Gray looked confused.

"Mara's more than enough woman for me," Cougar laughed, the sternness of his features dissolving into pleasure.