After Sundown (37 page)

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Dedication

This book is dedicated with love to the memory of Uncle Dale and Aunt Mary, together in this life for more than 50 years, together now in Heaven forever. Thanks for encouraging me to write a western, Uncle Dale (even though this one still has “all that kissin’ and mushy stuff”).

Acknowledgments

I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to my critique partners LaVerne Coan, Elizabeth Manz, and Linda Pedder for their creative insights and steadfast support while I wrote the original manuscript of
After Sundown
. Special thanks to LaVerne for her research assistance.

Please Post a Review

I hope you enjoyed spending time with Lucas and Annie in the pages of
After Sundown
. I’d love to keep writing books that touch your heart for many years to come. Readers like you make it possible, and I’m so thankful for your support.

If you enjoyed
After Sundown
, I hope you’ll take a moment to share your enthusiasm with other readers by posting a review. With hundreds of new books published every month, it’s difficult to stand out in the crowd, and every review helps.

To post a reader review on Amazon, the Apple iBookstore, ARe, Barnes & Noble, or Kobo, just visit this book’s page on that site and scroll down to where it says “Customer Reviews.” Your review doesn’t have to be long. Short and sweet is fine—just a line or two about why you enjoyed the story. The more reviews a book has, the more it encourages other readers to sample an author they’ve never read before.

Thanks so much. I really appreciate your kindness!

Warmest wishes and happy reading,

Shelly

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, business establishments, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Publishing History

First edition published by Dell under the title
Into the Sunset

Copyright © 1999 by Shelly Thacker Meinhardt

Second edition published by Summit Avenue Books

Copyright © 2013 by Shelly Thacker Meinhardt

ISBN: 978-0-9847646-8-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews, may be reproduced in any form by any means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior written permission from the author.

The scanning, uploading, and distributing of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the copyright owner is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

Cover design by Kim Killion of Hot DAMN! Designs
www.hotdamndesigns.com

Digital formatting by A Thirsty Mind
www.athirstymind.com

(Escape with a Scoundrel Series)

A sexy pair of scoundrels run from the law—shackled together by an unbreakable iron chain.

Nicholas Brogan is an ex-pirate with years of sin branded on his soul. Samantha Delafield is a high-born lady turned devious thief. Captured by His Majesty’s marshals, the two are on their way to the gallows until they stage a daring escape and run for their lives—shackled together by an iron chain that quickly proves unbreakable.

Forced to work together to survive, the outlaws find themselves locked in a battle of fierce wills and fiery passions. From a remote forest in Staffordshire to a secret hideout in London’s most elegant square, they must learn to trust one another as they face old enemies, dark secrets... and discover a love more priceless than any gem they’ve ever stolen.

“4 stars (highest rating). This could be the romance that takes Shelly Thacker to the big time: the hardcover contract, the fan club... Thacker always spins a good story, but
Run Wild
is her best ever. This time out, there’s a new depth of soul to go with all that heart.” –
The Detroit Free Press

“Thacker skillfully entangles a notorious ex-pirate with a high-born lady turned thief...
Run Wild
offers an exciting and innovative plot... and many steamy love scenes.” –
Publishers Weekly

London, 1741

Stretched out on the forest floor, with his disheveled black hair and glittering green eyes and bloodied shoulder, he looked like he belonged here in this wild place. Fit in with the other untamed things. A wounded predator. Dark and fierce... and capable of all sorts of unpredictable behavior.

His gaze skimmed downward, coming to rest on her legs. He was still breathing harshly. “Come here.”

Sam stiffened. His voice sounded weaker than before, but she wasn’t taking any chances. Shifting her eyes quickly left and right, she sought some weapon she might use to protect herself. A rock. A branch. Anything.

“I said come here,” he repeated impatiently.

When she didn’t comply, he reached out and grabbed her foot.

“What are you doing?” She tried to wriggle out of his grasp. “Unhand me!”

“Gladly,” he said tiredly—yet he hung on to her, pushing himself up on one elbow. Snagging her ruined slipper with his other hand, he flipped it off her foot. “I’d like nothing better than to unhand you, unchain you, and be
done
with you.”

Instead of attacking her, he attacked the shackle around her leg.

Sam gave up her struggle, even though she knew she could kick her way free. One blow to his wounded shoulder and he would let her loose. But he was already in a foul mood and she didn’t want to make it worse.

Besides, she realized what he was trying to do. He pulled at the shackle, trying to slide it off over her foot.

Which just might work.

“Maybe if we had some kind of...” Glancing around, she took a handful of slimy mud from beneath the leaves and smeared it over her skin.

“Come on,” he muttered under his breath, pushing the cuff, turning it, swearing at it. “Come on.”

Sam tried to help but he clearly didn’t want her help. Holding her bare foot with one hand and the iron cuff with the other, he turned both at different angles, trying to coax the cuff past her ankle bone.

“It’s too tight and it’s bolted on,” she said finally, exasperated at being manhandled. “It’s not going to come off.”

With a short, expressive oath, he released her. Lowering himself back down into the leaves, he tossed the muddy slipper into her lap. “Perfect,” he growled. “Of all the lady thieves on the run in England, I have to get myself shackled to the one with big feet.”

Sam scuttled backward, as far away from him as the chain would allow. Which wasn’t nearly far enough. “I’ll thank you to keep your opinions to yourself.”

Her tone was frosty, but she feared that even her haughtiest drawing-room airs couldn’t conceal the fact that her cheeks felt hot. Scalding. She rubbed at her ankle, wiping away the mud and the unexpected warmth that lingered from the touch of his callused fingers on her bare skin.

Grabbing her slipper, she put it back on. Her foot and her ankle ached with soreness, felt cool from the gooey muck. She couldn’t understand why they also... tingled.

She decided that the unfamiliar sensation must come from the hours of unaccustomed physical exertion.

“It’s not my fault that the shackles are so tight.” She glared at the man stretched out on the ground, adding in a mutinous whisper, “And I do not have big feet.”

“Doesn’t bloody well matter now,” he grumbled. “Short of a convenient bolt of lightning from above or a blacksmith, it looks like there’s no way for me to get free of you.” Opening his eyes, he peered at the lengthening shadows, almost as if he were measuring the sun in some way. “Two hours of daylight left. You ready to press on, Lady Bigfeet?”

She ignored the sarcasm, every muscle in her body aching at the words
press on
. “No.” She groaned. “No, I’m not. Can’t we stop? Can’t we rest just for a—”

“Not unless you’re eager to wind up back in gaol.” He pushed himself to a seated position. “As soon as word spreads about a pair of dangerous fugitives on the loose, two marshalmen killed, and rewards offered, every lawman and bounty hunter in the north of England will be on our trail. By morning, if not sooner. And if they use dogs...”

He let the sentence trail off, running a weary hand over his face.

Sam felt a surge of fear. Dogs.
Dozens
of men hunting her down. Skilled, experienced men.

And they would know right where to start looking. The young guard Tucker would show them.

Her throat tightened. The rogue was right. They had to keep going. Put as much distance as possible between themselves and the point where they’d disappeared into the forest.

Yet her fear mingled with anger at his apparent nonchalance. “Didn’t you consider any of that before you decided to take a flying leap out of the cart? Didn’t you think that far ahead? Didn’t you think at all?”

“Aye, I did,” he retorted, “but I wasn’t counting on your charming company, Lady Bigfeet. I planned to be long gone by now. You are slowing me down.” He reached up to unfasten the bandage knotted around his shoulder. “But before we go any further, you’d better take a look at this damned wound.”

She felt like spitting in his face. One minute he was insulting her, and the next he expected her to see to his comfort? “If you think I’m going to lift one finger to help you,” she said in a low, even voice, crossing her arms over her chest, “think again.”

He clenched his jaw, wincing as he unwrapped the blood-soaked cloth. “Listen,
angel
,” he said tightly, beads of sweat sliding down his face, into his beard, “if you think you’re in trouble now, just try to imagine what would happen to you if I pass out from loss of blood. Or if I die.”

She had barely started to contemplate the pleasant possibilities when he demolished every single one.

“You’d be stuck here with one hundred and eighty pounds of dead weight chained to your ankle.” His eyes pierced hers. “Helpless as a trussed-up Christmas pigeon when the authorities come looking for you. If their dogs don’t get you first, their guns will make mincemeat out of you. When dealing with fugitives who’ve killed two of their fellow lawmen, they tend to let their bullets do their talking for them.”

The violent image stole the air from her lungs. “But I didn’t kill those marshalmen!”

“I doubt you’ll have time to explain that.”

They stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment, the truth swirling between them like one of the hot beams of light from the dying sun.

Then he said it aloud.

“If I die, you die,” he put it plainly, his stark words all the more powerful for their lack of embellishment. “If I live...”

For some reason, it took him an extra moment to finish that sentence.

“You live.”

Mute, shaking, she tried to control the fear and resentment careening through her. He was insufferable. Cold-hearted, uncivilized, utterly self-interested.

But he also had a point. As unavoidable as it was true. If they wanted to survive...

They were going to have to work together.

Swallowing hard, she tried to tell herself that everything would be all right. As long as the chain bound them together, they had to keep each other alive and well. Once they found some way to get the shackles off, they would go their separate ways.

For now, she just had to endure his presence and make the best of this deplorable situation.

Because her very life depended on it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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Run Wild
http://www.shellythacker.com/runwild.html