Much to Trinity’s surprise, Victoria was still well ahead when she plunged into the dense brush once more.
Cursing, Trinity pushed in after her.
A few moments later he realized he didn’t hear any noise. He waited and still he heard nothing. What had happened? Had she found a place to hide? Was she waiting for him to go past so she could climb back up the slope to the horses?
A chill of apprehension knifed through him. Had she fallen? Was she hurt? He had to find her. She had no food, no warm clothing, no horse, and no shelter for the night. She’d left her rifle in its scabbard. He didn’t think any wild animal would pose a threat to her, but going about unarmed wasn’t a good way to find out.
Trinity searched the ground for some sign of her passing, but the tangle of undergrowth and the carpet of leaves and broken twigs was undisturbed. He had lost her trail.
“Hell and damnation!” He couldn’t remember when he’d behaved so foolishly. He had let his fear for Victoria’s safety cause him to run after her like a scared lover rather than an officer of the law. He had responded to her femininity rather than her criminality. He was beginning to wonder just which one of them was the captive.
Retracing his path, he found her tracks a hundred yards back. She had turned back up the mountain. Trinity guessed she intended to made a big swing and end up on the trail where she left her horse. Fear might have lent speed to her flight, but it hadn’t hampered her ability to think.
He had no difficulty following her trail. He would have to teach her how to cover her tracks if she was going to spend much time in the woods.
It was easy to see where she fell. It wasn’t as easy to guess whether she had been hurt. Her trail gave no blatant indication of a twisted ankle or a favored leg. Five minutes later her trail disappeared into a cleft between two upstanding boulders. Trinity paused. He didn’t trust places he couldn’t see into. He wouldn’t put it past Victoria to hit him over the head with the biggest rock she could find … or blame her.
He tossed a pebble in before him. Nothing moved. He heard no sound.
“Come on out,” Trinity called. “You’ll never be able to find your way back to the ranch alone.”
Still no sound. He rounded the corner and found himself facing the opening of a small cave. He looked around but could find nothing to use as a torch. He would have to enter in darkness.
He called into the cave. “I know you’re in here. It would be easier if you would come on out.”
Still no answer.
He stepped inside, being careful to keep his hand against the wall. He felt the small hairs along the back of his neck prickle. Only an idiot entered a cave without a light. Any kind of wild animal could be using it for a lair. If there were young in the cave … well, he didn’t want to think about it.
There could also be a ledge, a hole, any number of dangers, which could kill him, injure him, or trap him permanently. Keeping his hand against the wall and his left foot before him, Trinity edged forward. After he had gone beyond the light from the entrance, he struck a match.
He jumped back in surprise.
Hundreds of bats hung mere inches from his face. Disturbed by the light, they dropped from their perches and left the cave with a great fluttering of wings. The noise of their flight almost masked the sound of a gasped intake of breath.
Turning halfway around, he saw Victoria, huddled against the opposite wall, just before the light of the match burned out. Without waiting, Trinity plunged across the space between them. He was rewarded by contact with Victoria’s body … her kicking, scratching, gouging, kneeing, biting, screaming body. He could have captured a mountain lion about as easily. He felt trails of stinging pain as her nails raked furrows across his cheek.
“Stop. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You can’t expect me to believe that when you’re taking me back to Texas to hang,” Victoria shouted, as she twisted away from him long enough to punch him in the shoulder.
“It’s nothing personal.” Trinity struggled to get her hands and legs under control. “I’m just doing my job.”
“I hope you don’t take it personally if I object to your doing your job,” Victoria said, breaking his grip long enough to hit him squarely in the jaw.
“You hit me again, and I’m going to take it very personally.”
Victoria kneed him in the stomach.
Trinity bent over with an agonized moan, and Victoria broke toward the mouth of the cave. He let her go. It would be easier to deal with her in the light. He hadn’t expected this from her. She had seemed like such a lady at the ranch, so dignified, so restrained. Now he realized two people lived inside her head, and one of them fought like a wild woman when she was cornered.
It took his eyes a minute to adjust to the light, but he had no trouble catching sight of Victoria as she fled up the mountain. He decided to keep after her but not get too close. She’d be easier to subdue after she exhausted herself. Also, if she didn’t change direction, she’d be closer to the horses and his chosen camp for the night.
Quite frankly, he didn’t want another brush with her nails. He put his fingers to his cheek. They came away covered with blood. Between her and Buc, he’d lost more blood than from a bullet wound.
“You might as well give up,” he called as she struggled up a particularly steep part of the mountainside. “I’m going to catch you sooner or later.”
“I prefer later.”
“Be careful,” Trinity called out when he saw her leap across a deep ravine. “You could fall and hurt yourself on those rocks.”
“Why so much concern all of a sudden? Do you lose your bounty if you don’t bring me back alive? Do they take off for bruises and open wounds, or do you get a bonus for bringing me back fighting mad and in bustling good health?”
He didn’t understand why her needling got to him. The others had cursed, begged, offered him money and women, called him the worst things they could think of, threatened him with vengeance from relatives, children, and from beyond the grave.
He had remained unmoved, but Victoria’s words stung.
He felt guilty about his deception. He never liked deceiving people, but he’d always been able to excuse it because the end justified the means.
He didn’t feel that way now, and he knew why. He had violated one of his cardinal rules: Never become emotionally involved with the prisoner.
That made him vulnerable.
He found himself thinking of the way she smiled when she teased him, staring at the delicate arch of her brows, studying the color of her hair, or thinking how much he would like to just sit quietly with his arm around her.
He gave himself a mental kick in the pants. He couldn’t keep dreaming up things he liked about her or he’d end up wanting to protect her. And that wasn’t his job. His duty was to take her back to Bandera and turn her over to the sheriff. He wouldn’t let himself think about what happened after that.
But he still had to guard against his weakness and her tantalizing presence. And the best defense was a good offense.
“Like you had sympathy for your husband when you shot him?”
“I didn’t kill Jeb.”
“He wasn’t even armed.”
Trinity knew all the facts. He had memorized them before he agreed to go after Victoria. He would never have set one foot outside of Bandera if there’d been the smallest doubt in his mind.
“Did you tell him you were going to kill him, or did you just let him get close, maybe even try to kiss you before you shot him in the heart?”
Victoria paused in her climb up the mountain. “I didn’t kill him,” she insisted, a catch in her voice.
“Then who did? You were right beside him when he was shot. If you didn’t kill him, you have to know who did.”
“I don’t know, but I didn’t”
“At first, I thought your lover had helped you. I meant to bring in Buc, too, until I found out you hadn’t known him when he rescued you. I also know y
ou haven’t seen any other men since.”
“You have a sickeningly lurid imagination,” Victoria called back. “Is dais how you spend your time when you’re on the trail, speculating about women and their lovers?”
“Not all women. Just the ones who kill their husbands.”
“I didn’t kill Jeb,” Victoria turned around and shouted at him. “There were a couple of times when I wished he’d disappear forever, but I never thought of killing him.”
“Pity the jury didn’t agree with you.”
“I never expected them to, not after they’d been handpicked by my father-in-law’s attorney. I’m surprised they bothered to hold a trial.”
Victoria was scrambling up the mountainside with the agility of a mountain goat. Trinity decided her boots must have been made from something other than the hard, inflexible learner which kept him slipping on the damp leaves.
He began to wonder if he was going to be able to last long enough to catch her. He prided himself on staying fit, too often his life depended on it, but Victoria obviously didn’t spend her time in a rocking chair. She had the endurance of a mustang. To judge from the stinging scratches which crisscrossed his face, she also had the claws of a mountain lion.
Trinity wondered if he would have caught her if she hadn’t fallen a second time. This time she did hurt her ankle. She didn’t get up quickly. When she did, she didn’t climb as quickly as before. It took just a few minutes for Trinity to corner her.
But a bad ankle didn’t stop her from fighting.
Trinity tied her hands behind her back with his belt. He tied her ankles together with her own belt.
“Don’t,” Victoria said, when he pulled the belt one notch tighter. “You’re hurting my ankle.”
“You should have thought of that before you tried to scratch my face to ribbons. Not to mention the bruises I got from your fists or your boots.”
Still he let the belt out a notch.
“I wish I’d hit you a thousand times harder,” Victoria swore. “If I get loose again, I’ll scar your face so bad no one will ever recognize you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Trinity said, preparing to pick her up. “This will hurt a whole lot less if you relax.”
He picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder.
Victoria had never felt such agony. “How am I supposed to relax when you’re squeezing the life out of me?”
“I’ll let you walk if you promise not to hit, kick, or scratch.”
“I promise to do all three every chance I get.”
“That’s what I figured, but it’s good to get this sort of thing cleared up,” Trinity said as he started up the slope.
“Bastard,” Victoria cried, tears of anger and frustration coming to her eyes.
“You shouldn’t use such language. It’ll ruin your reputation.”
“I didn’t know you thought I had a reputation worth preserving.”
“I always try to think the best of people.”
“The hell you do,” Victoria said, borrowing further from her uncle’s vocabulary. “You only do what’s convenient.”
“I keep as close to the truth as possible.”
“It’ll be a waste of time to try to convince me you’ve got scruples. I won’t believe you.”
“It’s a purely practical consideration. The fewer lies I tell, the less I have to remember,” Trinity espoused.
“You must have had a lot to remember lately,” she countered.
Victoria tried to butt him with her head, but with her body slung over Trinity’s shoulder, she had all she could do to breathe.
Trinity paused. “Are you ready to behave?”
Victoria gasped for air. “I’ll do anything to get off your shoulder.”
Trinity let her slide from his arms. She hit the ground with a big oomph.
“Sorry. I’m not used to carrying women over my shoulder,” Trinity confessed as he knelt to untie her feet. “It wasn’t as easy to get you down as I thought.”
“I don’t suppose it would do any good to point out you should have thought of that before you picked me up.”
“It’s too late now.”
“Men rarely accept correction. It threatens their sense of superiority. Yet they expect females to do it all the time.”
“I don’t have that problem,” Trinity said, moving to where he could untie her hands. “I don’t have a wife, daughter, mother, or any female I see regularly.”
“I can’t imagine why,” Victoria said, rubbing her chafed wrists to restore circulation. “Certainly no one can fault your gentlemanly approach.”
“Some have.”
“I imagine she was a shrew.”
“Not all of them.”
“That many? You really have been unfortunate in your choice of women.”
“I didn’t choose them,” Trinity explained. “I just happened to be around.” He put his fingers to his lips and gave an earsplitting whistle.
Victoria winced. “What was that for? There can’t be a living soul within twenty miles.”
“My horse. He’s trained to come when I whistle.”
“What if he’s tied up or hobbled?”
“I never tie him when I’m on the trail.”
“You think you’re very clever, don’t you?”
“No. Just careful. Not everybody wants to go with me.”
“I can’t imagine why. Hanging is a such a once-in-a-life-time experience.”
“So is being shot by your wife.”
“That’s what I kept telling Jeb as I filled him full of lead. ‘Darling,’ I said–I always called him darling. I wanted him to know how much I loved him–‘You don’t know how lucky you are. Not many men are fortunate enough to be killed by their wives. Most of the time they’re killed by somebody they don’t even like.’”
“Did anybody ever tell you you have an unnatural sense of humor?”
“Did anybody ever tell you you have a grotesque job?” Victoria responded sweetly.
“A time or two.”
A crashing in the underbrush caused Trinity to look away from Victoria. His horse had found him. Victoria’s horse followed.
“At least we won’t have to walk out of …” he said turning back.
But Victoria wasn’t there. She had escaped.
“Damn!” Trinity said, unable to hear Victoria because of the unholy racket the horses were making in the undergrowth. Fortunately, just as he was about to dust off a seldom-used portion of his vocabulary, he caught a glimpse of her brown deerskin jacket.
Trinity mounted his horse before the animal had come to a halt. Victoria’s horse came up behind, momentarily blocking Trinity’s way, but he soon got turned around and headed across the ridge. Victoria might be able to thread her way through the underbrush faster than he could, but she was no match for his horse.
Victoria’s look of fury when she glanced over her shoulder almost made him laugh. She dashed around a large tree, but one look around must have made it plain she couldn’t escape. Much to his surprise, she stopped and waited for him to reach her.
“I can’t believe you gave up,” Trinity said, dismounting.
“I didn’t give up,” Victoria said. “I’m just not stupid enough to try outrunning a horse.”
“I’m glad to see you’ve come to your senses.”
But the minute he reached out to help Victoria mount up, she turned into a scratching, hitting, kicking virago. New scratches appeared on his face.
“Stop it before I swat you.”
“Why the warning?” Victoria asked as she aimed a kick at his crotch. “I would have thought slugging females was part of your bag of dirty tricks.”
“I never tried to bring in a female before,” Trinity said, covering his face as he rushed in to overpower Victoria with sheer body mass. “I’m sorry I decided to make an exception in your case.”
The two of them went over in a heap; Trinity ending up on top of Victoria, nose to nose, toe to toe.
“Get off me,” Victoria grunted. “You’ll break my ribs.”
“You promise to stop scratching.”
“Never.”
She tried to rake his face, but Trinity’s body pinned her down. He buried his face in her bosom while he captured her hands.
Had the circumstances been almost anything other than they were, Trinity would have laughed, or succumbed to his lust for her body.
Here he was, alone with a beautiful woman, and instead of having to fight off the raging desire which coursed through his body, he had to fight for his life. He might as well have embraced a catamount.
Yet, as he struggled to capture her hands, he was more aware of her nearness, the feel of her softness beneath him, than of the painful bruises and scratches.
He tried to concentrate on tying her ankles, but her ankles were attached to her legs, and her legs to her thighs. The struggle had exposed one thigh completely. The unguarded expanse of tender white flesh caused Trinity to forget what he was doing until a painful kick reminded him.
Trinity forgot her ankles. He would tie them once she was on horseback. He tied her hands and got to his feet, shaken to the core. He had practically been fighting for his life, yet contact with her body had caused his own body to swell with a desire so naked and so strong they both saw it.
He’d never been ashamed of his reaction to a woman, but he was ashamed that his lust for Victoria had almost made him forget his duty. He kept seeing her as a beautiful, spirited, desirable woman, rather than a cold, dangerous, calculating, murderess. He kept thinking of her beauty, of her charm and allure, instead of her cold heart and lethal fingernails.
If he couldn’t force himself to think of her as just another prisoner, he might never get back to Texas.
“I’ll ask you once again, do you promise not to try to run away?”
“I’ll never stop trying to escape from you.”
“I’ve got to give you credit for determination.”
Arizona Embrace Page 11