Dangerous (17 page)

“Why didn’t you go with that man? You could be safely home in Zenith, instead of being chased by the Harris gang,” he said, walking toward her, his steps quick and sure.

He reached her horse and immediately knew he’d made a serious blunder, when he had to glare up at her.

She raised her brows at him and stared at him haughtily. “And lose five hundred dollars bounty? And the five hundred dollars you’re going to pay me? Not happening. After I’ve gone through all this, I’m not backing away now. Escaping a band of cutthroats, a tornado, giving away my virginity in a root cellar. No way am I abandoning that bounty.”

Beau thought he was going to explode right there in front of her. “Wait just a minute. Let’s back up to that last statement. You were the one who kept saying, ‘Show me, Beau. Make love to me.’ I just did what you asked.”

“Hrmph. So you did. I thought we were going to die,” she said, her back straight, that haughty look on her face that he just wanted to kiss away until she softened in his arms.

“It was your choice. I only fulfilled your request,” he said, a little more gently, though he was still mad enough to eat a hornet.

“A woman has dreams, and well…her first time should be someplace special.”

“Sugar, you instigated us having sex. Don’t blame me for your choice of location.”

“I can blame you all I want.”

“You're totally irrational.”

“I can be irrational. I can be mean. I can be whatever I want to be because gosh darn it, Beau Samuel, you’re not the man I was supposed to be with the first time.”

Now, he understood. She was regretting bedding down with him. She regretted spending that time in his arms. Well, too damn bad. It was done.

“Again, sugar, you made the decision for us to fornicate.”

“You didn’t have to accept.”

Beau lost it, his voice rising higher than he intended. “Damn, woman. I’m a man. What did you expect? Me to say, no thank you. Your pretty face and sweet body have been a temptation this entire trip, but I think I’ll pass?” he said, exasperation making his body tense, his voice rising. “Not hardly. Frankly, it was the best damn sex of my life, and I was afraid that afterward you were going to expect a ring and a visit to the preacher man.”

Damn, he hadn’t meant to admit to her it was the best sex he’d ever experienced. He hadn’t meant to reveal she was a temptation that was driving him crazy, but he didn’t regret one minute of the time he’d spent in her arms. And frankly, he thought they were going to die as well.

“You’re going to hang. Why would I marry a man who is going to die? Not happening, sugar.”

An ache the size of Texas gripped his heart. There it was in a nutshell. She didn’t want to marry him because she thought he was going to hang. He was a member of the most hated family in America. And she wanted a good man. He’d never be good enough for Annabelle. Never.

B
eau had that uneasy feeling. Late the next day, he sat on his horse on a bluff overlooking the Red River, searching the area. Maybe because he was so close to picking up the bank bag and heading to Fort Worth, or maybe because since they had sex, Annabelle had been withdrawn, quiet as a mouse, and moodier than a cat in heat. Or maybe it was a combination of all three, but he felt as jumpy as a bit-up old bull in fly time.

He looked for any signs of the Harris gang. All was quiet. Even the birds no longer chirped, and the only sound was the wind blowing through the trees and the faint gurgle of the river as it flowed.

A hawk swooped down, flying low over the water before landing in a tree near the river. The bank money was two big rocks over from the tree where the bird sat perched. All he needed to do was get down there, find the money, and ride as hard and fast as they could to Fort Worth.

“I’m going down there alone. You wait here for me.”

“Why should I?” she asked, that strident tone back in her voice. That one that had been there since yesterday, since they’d made love with a tornado whirring above them.

“Because I need you to keep watch. If you see the Harris gang, I want you to drop rocks down the hillside. Do not take them on and do not fire a gunshot. That would only alert them to your location,” he said, pushing his hat back from his eyes, giving her his sternest look. She had to obey him or risk both of their lives.

If anyone was going to die, it was him, not her.

She tightened her mouth. “I know you don’t think I know how to shoot, but I can drill a can from fifty yards. I’m a great shot.”

“I know, you’ve told me,” he said. “But a can and a man are two different things.”

Shooting a man was difficult and never something he enjoyed. He didn’t want her to have to deal with the fact she’d put a bullet in someone.

“I can do it.”

“It’s not a matter of how great a shot you are, but the fact that I don’t want you to die. We’re doing this my way,” he said trying to get her to listen to reason, feeling like he was wasting his breath.

“Oh, that’s always worked out,” she said with a snort.

He shook his head. “Listen carefully to me. If I get captured, you are to ride away and leave me with them.”

She didn’t say a word. He took her chin gently in his hand. “Do you understand?”

“Yes.” She frowned. “But I don’t like it. I’m just supposed to ride off and let them kill you? Not happening.”

If the Harris gang were laying in wait for him, they’d kill him, and Beau couldn’t take a chance with Annabelle’s life. He’d die trying to protect her from these cold-blooded killers.

“Yes, it is. If they catch you, we’re both dead. If they catch me, I’m dead. So you leave me to die and ride away.”

“Shut up, Beau. It’s not happening that way. It’s just not,” she said, a worried look on her face. “You’re not going to get caught. You just can’t.”

He tried to give her a teasing smile, but he felt tense and he worried she wouldn’t obey him. “Yeah, I know you need your bounty money.”

“That’s right. And you owe me money.”

“Good Lord, woman, if I didn’t have bounty money attached to me, I wouldn’t be worth two hoots and a holler to you.”

“You said it, not me,” she said, frowning as she rested her hands on the saddle horn.

He reached into his saddlebags and pulled out her six-shooter—the gun he’d taken away from her that very first day. “I’m giving you your pistol back. Just don’t shoot me in the back.”

“If I’d wanted to shoot you in the back, you’d already be dead.”

With a sigh, he glanced back down at the gently rolling river. “I know. That’s why I’m giving you your gun back.”

She reached out and took it, spun the cylinder checking for bullets, then turned her sapphire eyes on him. “Thank you.”

She did seem familiar with the gun, but that didn’t mean she could shoot. And he wasn’t taking any chances.

With one last glance, he examined the scene, checking the river again. “I’ll meet you back here in this same spot just as soon as I retrieve the hold-up money.” It shouldn’t take him long if there were no trouble.

“And just what are you going to do with that money?”

“None of your business,” he responded.

“I hope you locate it. And I hope the law hangs you for it.”

He was just about to gig his horse and head down the embankment, when her words hit him like a slap in the face. Gosh, darn it, the woman had crawled up under his skin and was tormenting him worse than a bevy of chigger bites.

Without thinking, he reached out and pulled her toward him. Sitting on their horses, he pulled her sideways in her saddle and covered her mouth with his. He’d wanted to kiss her since they’d left that root cellar. He’d wanted to brand her mouth as his own. He’d wanted to get up under her skin and torment her just like she pestered him.

He melded his lips to hers, teasing and taunting her with his tongue inside her mouth. His hand gripped her head, refusing to let her pull away and put any distance between them. God, this woman had his head and his heart all twisted up and tied together, aching with want and longing. Things a man like him had no business craving.

When her horse shook his head, he released her and she jerked away.

“What the hell did you do that for?” she asked.

He smiled. “Sugar, I wanted one last kiss just in case I don’t make it back.”

“You damn well better come back. You’re not leaving me here in the wilderness by myself, with a dangerous gang searching for us. You owe me.”

Chuckling, he gigged his horse and started down the embankment toward the money and the restitution he sought.

Slowly and carefully, he made his way toward the water. He’d covered the bank’s money with rocks then placed dead brush in front of the rocks. He could see the dead brush, and he let his horse make his way down the steep hill to the water.

That eerie tingling feeling was zipping along his spine, and he tried to ignore the warning, hoping it was nothing more than nerves. He scanned the area, looking for any signs of movement, hoping he’d be able to get the money and leave the area without any problems.

When he reached the brush, he glanced around one more time, looking to make sure he was alone. He gazed back up the embankment, trying to see Annabelle, but she was carefully hidden by the trees.

Premonition made him cautious.

He rode his horse further down the bank over to an area away from the hidden money. He dismounted and stood once again looking around. Nothing moved, except the meandering river flowing southward, the water’s gentle gurgle peaceful and soothing.

Acting like he was searching, he moved the brush on the bank, kicking at rocks and pushing leaves aside. The sound of a gun hammer being pulled back had him tensing.

Damn!
His premonition had been right.

“Beau, you looking for our money,” William said, coming out from behind a large boulder, where he’d been hiding. Tom popped up from behind a bush, and then another man showed himself. Soon, three members of the gang were standing there in front of him; their pistols trained on him.

This couldn’t be good. Not for him and not for Annabelle if she didn’t do what he’d told her to do. And when had the woman ever done what he asked.

“William, good to see you,” he said cheerfully.

“Liar. Where’s the money?” William asked.

“How did you know where to find me?”

“Tom said it had to be near the bridge. We split up, and we’re camped out half a mile from the bridge on either side. When we heard you coming down the bank, we hid. Where’s the money?”

Beau shrugged. “I was hunting for it when you came up. So far, I haven’t found it.”

“Where’s that sweet little wife of yours?” Tom asked. “She was mighty pretty, and I’m feeling a hankering for a woman. Especially after she knocked me out. She owes me.”

Beau felt his insides harden as fear pumped through his veins. They couldn’t find Annabelle. He’d die trying to protect her, but he was badly out numbered.

“She left me right after the tornado,” Beau said with a smile. “I guess her idea of married life and mine didn’t agree.”

The men snickered.

God, he hoped and prayed she’d seen the Harris gang and was even now riding away. Though, knowing that stubborn woman, he suspected she was doing just the opposite.

“That was a real bad storm,” William said, “but why would she leave you over a tornado?”

Beau shrugged. “Said she was tired of camping and living on the run. She was going home to her papa. Women. Can’t live with them.” He hoped his acting abilities were better than average, and he could convince them Annabelle was gone.

William backhanded Beau across the face, his blow stinging and shocking. “Liar.”

Beau rubbed his jaw. “Now that wasn’t neighborly. And over a woman.”

“Fuck the woman. I’d shoot you right now if you had that money.”

His heart hammered wildly in his chest because he knew for a fact William was quite capable of cold-blooded killing. Beau had to remain calm and try to appear unafraid.

“Why? Because I left you without your horses? Weren’t you planning on killing me just as soon as we reached the Red River? You’ve not held up your part of the bargain. Why should I?”

The wind blew through the trees, and Beau hoped like hell Annabelle was riding away, leaving him. He didn’t think she would, but he didn’t want them to find her. She should just ride off and leave him to die.

William laughed, and Beau felt a prickly sensation like spiders crawling along his spine. He was in trouble, and for once in his life, he wasn’t certain he could get out of this predicament.

“Where’s the money?” William asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe someone found it. I was looking for it, and either I can’t remember where I put it, or it’s gone.”

“You’re lying. You’re going to die, so you might as well tell me where the money is hidden.”

Beau felt one of the other outlaws come up and take his pistol away from him. Then his arms were pulled back behind him, and they tied his wrists together.

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

William stared at him with the coldest, meanest eyes Beau had ever seen. Even his brothers’ gazes held more warmth than this gunslinger’s. The memory of him killing his own gang member several days ago flashed through Beau’s memory, making him cold. Sweat beaded up on his forehead, but it wasn’t from the heat.

That would be his fate once they located the gold.

“Tom build a fire and then ride out and collect the others. We’re going to have us a party tonight to celebrate us finding the gold. Because by the time I’m finished with Beau, he’ll be talking. He’ll be singing so loudly everyone will know where the money’s hidden and the location of his sweet wife.”

A chill spread through Beau. The man was crazy.

“My wife has gone home to Zenith.”

God, he should have returned Annabelle to Zenith before he’d gone after the Harris gang. There were so many things he regretted, and he feared he would never have a chance to make things right.

William laughed. “We’ll see.”

The sun was beginning to set, and Beau just hoped and prayed Annabelle had had the good sense to ride away, once she saw they had him or he hadn’t return. He didn’t need her trying to rescue him. He was dead. And he knew, before the night was over, he’d be praying for God to end his life quickly.