Arizona Embrace

by Leigh Greenwood

  “It’s no use trying to escape. We’re so far from your uncle’s place no one would ever find you. You wouldn’t last the night in the woods. At the very least there are cougars and wolves. Bears, too, but I don’t think any of them are grizzlies.” Trinity knew grizzlies almost never came this far south, but maybe she wouldn’t know.

  She didn’t speak. Trinity untied her feet and reached out to her. She didn’t respond.

  “Are you going to let me help you down, or should I just let you topple over?”

  Victoria gave him a withering look, but she still refused to speak.

  “Sure is going to be a long night,” Trinity said. “I can do many things, but nobody ever said I was good at making conversation.”

  Victoria opened her mouth to make a reply, but closed it again. Trinity chuckled.

  “Don’t try so hard.”

  Trinity lifted Victoria down from the saddle. He laughed when she tried to kick him, but she refused to break her silence. Quite suddenly Trinity grew tired of baiting her.

  “Sit down. If you think you could behave long enough to eat your dinner, I’ll untie your hands. If you promise not to escape during the night, I won’t tie you to a tree.”

  Victoria remained standing, so he sat her down.

  “I don’t like repeating myself. I’ve got a lot of things to do, so I can’t afford to pay much attention to your whims or sulks. Well get along better if you remember that.”

  Only Trinity had trouble remembering it himself. She looked so tired. Though she glared at him in defiance, she looked lonely, like she had been abandoned by everyone she loved and depended on.

  That made him want to protect her, to hold her tight and assure her everything would be all right. But how could he feel that way and take her back to jail?

  He resolutely put the question out of his mind. There was no solution. Whether he liked it or not, he had a job to do. Thinking about it would only torture himself needlessly.

  After Trinity tied her feet once more, he turned his attention to the horses. He had to take good care of them. They would have to carry them all the way to Texas. He didn’t have any extra mounts, and he didn’t want to have to stop and buy some. That would make his trail too easy to follow. After he had unsaddled the horses and rubbed them down, he staked out Victoria’s grey in a pocket below where there was a little grass.

  Victoria was still sitting where he left her when he got back.

  “Would you like something to eat? I forgot,” Trinity said when she didn’t reply, “you’re not talking to me. It doesn’t matter much. I’m used to camping by myself. I enjoy the silence.”

  Only he didn’t tonight. He built a fire like he always did. He made coffee like he always did. He heated water and put in some dried beef and a few chips of dried vegetables like he always did. He fried bacon and set a can of beans in the coals to heat. Usually he liked the time alone. He found the peace a restorative, especially after a long chase.

  But tonight he felt tense and jumpy. He rubbed the muscles in his shoulders and the back of his neck, but they remained unyielding. He could feel the ache of tension throughout his limbs. A muscle above his eyebrow quivered involuntarily, an infallible sign of stress. Even his voice had a sharp edge on it.

  “Time to eat. Do you want me to untie you?”

  Victoria said nothing.

  “I guess I can feed you. I’ve never done it before, but I suppose there’s a first time for everything.” Trinity took a spoonful of the soup and lifted it to Victoria’s mouth. “It’s not as good as Ramon’s soup, but it’ll keep meat on your bones.”

  She pulled back.

  “I feel like I’m trying to feed a baby.”

  Victoria moved her head as far away as possible, but Trinity pushed the spoon into her mouth. Victoria spat the food on the ground.

  Hot rage flew all over Trinity.

  “It’s going to be very cold tonight. You’ll need this food to keep you warm and give you strength tomorrow. You are going to eat it.”

  Victoria’s eyes defied him.

  “Don’t misunderstand me. You can either open your mouth and swallow, or I’ll pry your mouth open and force it down your throat. I have no intention of letting you starve.”

  Anger caused Trinity’s hand to shake so much he could hardly keep more than a few drops of liquid in the spoon. He saw Victoria’s eyes grow wide with fear and realized she was afraid he might strike her.

  “I’d rather starve than hang for a crime I didn’t commit. But if I must eat, I’ll feed myself,” Victoria said. “Untie my hands.”

  Trinity started to ask her to promise to behave then thought better of it. That would sound like he didn’t trust her. And while he didn’t, he had learned Victoria disliked being mistrusted. Even when she deserved it.

  Trinity untied the rope around her wrists.

  “My feet, too. Since I have no desire to become food for bears, wolves, or cougars, I’ll remain in camp. At least for tonight.”

  “You relieve my mind.”

  “Just give me the soup. I doubt you have the least interest in my comfort or well-being, except as it affects your reputation, but I don’t believe you have any desire to poison me.”

  “You honor me.”

  “No. I did that before. I won’t do it again.”

  Her words were like sharp-pointed barbs, finding their way to his sensitive flesh, where they lodged, quivered, and hurt.

  He gave up the uneven battle. He handed her a cup of coffee. She ate and drank without further comment.

  “You’d better get some sleep. I mean to be on the trail before dawn.”

  “Buc and my uncle will follow you. You know that, don’t you?”

  “I’ve planned on it.”

  “They’ll kill you.”

  “I haven’t planned on that.”

  “It’s your funeral.”

  “I mean to do my best to see it’s nobody’s funeral.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know yet.”

  Victoria stared at him, surprised and a little confused. “I’m going to sleep,” she announced.

  Trinity opened one of the learner saddlebags Victoria had seen on the packhorse. He took out a pillow and a blanket.

  “This will make you a little more comfortable.”

  Victoria took the pillow without remark, but when she saw the blanket, her eyes grew wide.

  “That’s my blanket. From my bed.”

  “It’s your pillow, too. I thought you might want them. I took them when I left the note.”

  Victoria charged him like a she-bear. She made another set of scratches before he wrestled her to the ground.

  “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you’re the craziest woman I ever met. If I ever had any doubts about your killing your husband, they’re gone now.”

  “You’re a fool,” Victoria flung at him as he tied her securely once more. “I would never have killed Jeb. He was too weak and harmless. But I could kill you. Very easily.”

  Trinity believed her.

  Victoria rolled from side to side in a fruitless attempt to find a more comfortable position. It was difficult to sleep on the ground, but it was almost impossible to fall asleep with her wrists and ankles tied.

  Trinity had retied both knots before he went to sleep. He said he wanted to make sure she couldn’t escape during the night, but they were looser than before. If she tried very hard, she could probably work free. She suspected he did it intentionally, so she could be more comfortable.

  There was never a question of escape. She would perish in the mountains if she tried.

  All day long she had cursed herself for being such a fool as to trust him. But there had been no reason not to, at least not the same kind of trust she would have given any other wandering cowboy looking for a job. The trouble started when she let her liking for him influence her judgment.

  She had allowed herself to be bamboozled by a handsome face, a well-muscled body, and be
havior that she mistook for a real interest in her as a person. Just like she had allowed Jeb’s handsome face and rebelliousness to overwhelm her judgment. The two men weren’t alike, neither were the situations, but the principle was the same. Would she ever learn to wait until she knew something about a man before she allowed her feelings to run away with her?

  She had practically thrown herself at him. She had even fancied he’d help her win her freedom.

  How ironic that seemed now.

  Her hip came into sharp contact with a stone. The resulting flash of pain caused her to think of some particularly awful things she’d like to do to Trinity. Her pillow cushioned her head, but nothing protected her from the cold, stony ground.

  She couldn’t imagine how he could go to sleep with a saddle under his head. That would give her a crick in her neck. She had already decided he was without feeling for other human beings. Now she decided he was devoid of feelings altogether. No human could sleep on the ground night after night unless his nervous system had been disconnected. He couldn’t be human.

  The cold night air caused her teeth to chatter, and she pulled the blanket more tightly around her. And that was something else. It was one thing to trade on her credulity, to dupe her and kidnap her, but just knowing he had gone through her room made her too furious to fall asleep.

  She felt violated.

  It was the one place on earth which was hers alone. She didn’t even let Anita clean her room. It wasn’t just a matter of privacy. When she closed her door, she felt no one and nothing from the outside world could touch her. Now she had lost that because of Trinity Smith. A bounty hunter.

  Even now she had trouble identifying him with that despised life form. Judge Blazer had sent at least two bounty hunters after her. They seemed to have as little pride and respect for themselves as the rest of the world had for them. She noticed the cowhands kept their distance, and the bounty hunters accepted it.

  Trinity wasn’t like that. She couldn’t remember any man with more pride and self-confidence. She couldn’t be certain just yet, but she suspected he took pride in what he did. She didn’t know how he could, but then she had failed to understand Trinity on any level.

  Calling him a bounty hunter felt wrong somehow. As furious as she was with him, she still harbored a desire to explain away this hideous blotch on the character of a man she had so wanted to believe in.

  She guessed that was the root of the whole problem. Trinity had given her hope and something to believe in. Now that he had proved to be a charlatan and a hypocrite, she feared his words would turn out to have no truth as well. She didn’t want that for she very much needed hope. Especially now.

  Oddly enough she also needed to believe in him, even the integrity of his determination to take her back to Texas. She wanted to believe he did it because he believed in justice. Knowing he did it for money would destroy that possibility. It would make him a man without a conscience, without the basic human stirrings of decency. It would make him a man to whom life and death were meaningless.

  Victoria turned over, tried to get comfortable, and failed. She had to get some sleep. Lying awake all night wasn’t going to help her escape. She needed to be alert. Her chance would come.

  She could wait until he became so exhausted he could no longer guard her properly. Then she would make her escape.

  Victoria came awake with a start. She didn’t know what woke her. The coals of the camp fire had long since turned to ashes and grown cold. Little, insignificant sounds filled the night.

  She listened carefully. She couldn’t hear Trinity breathing. Had he gone to sleep? She would bet everything she owned he had at least one eye open and one ear listening for her. She started to turn over and go back to sleep, but an idea popped into her head.

  She tested the belts. They really were loose. It only took a few minutes to free her wrists. The belt around her ankles proved to be more difficult. She didn’t want to make any sound or movement that might wake Trinity, so she lay on her side and pulled her legs up behind her. The muscles in her shoulders and the back of her legs ached before she got the belt off, but at last she was free.

  Moving with great care, Victoria began to slide the blanket off her. The bite of the cold air made her want to pull it back up again, but she persisted. Taking care not to make the slightest sound, she slipped her feet into her boots. Then without bothering to look for food or ammunition, she got to her feet and started to the clearing where Trinity had left the horses.

  Unfortunately Victoria wasn’t used to traveling in the dark, or in the woods, and she stumbled over a limb. She didn’t fall, but she made enough noise to startle the horses. Her grey tried to run with his hobbles and nearly fell.

  “Now look what you’ve done.”

  Trinity’s voice coming from the direction of the horses scared a small scream out of her.

  “You can’t expect to escape if you go about stumbling over rocks and screaming at strange sounds.”

  “How did you get here?” Victoria couldn’t understand how Trinity could have reached the horses without her seeing or hearing him.

  “I heard you come awake.”

  “You can’t hear a person wake up,” Victoria protested. “Even animals can’t hear that well.”

  “You make a sound when you wake up. It sounds like a cross between a sharp intake of breath and a shudder of fear.”

  “You’re lying. You had to be watching me all night.”

  Trinity laughed softly.

  “A man who sleeps soundly in the wild is a dead man. We’ll meet any number of men on the trail only too willing to kill me for the horses. In a place like this, they’re worm more than gold. Then there’s the question of you. How many men do you guess would kill me just to have a woman like you to themselves?”

  Victoria wasn’t willing to discuss that possibility. She didn’t even want to think about it.

  “Well, you’ve gotten yourself out of bed for nothing,” Victoria said, heading back toward camp. She clearly wasn’t going to get away and her teeth were chattering with cold. She turned back to face him. “I merely wanted to stretch my legs.”

  Trinity’s expression was so condescending that she wanted to slap him.

  “You don’t have to believe me.”

  “I don’t.”

  “I’m going back to bed,” Victoria announced in a huff. “I never knew it could be so cold.”

  She hadn’t expected him to believe her, but she hadn’t expected him to tell her so to her face. She also disliked the fact she had lied. She never lied. Yet since she met Trinity, she couldn’t seem to tell the truth, to him, to Buc, even herself. It was disgusting.

  “Remember that the next time you think about running away. You could die of exposure out there.”

  “I told you I merely wanted to stretch my legs,” Victoria said and turned her back on him. She settled back in her bed. It had gotten cold. It would take her a while to warm up again.

  “Are you still cold?”

  “No.”

  “You could use one of my shirts if you like.”

  “No, thank you,” Victoria said with all the dignity she could muster.

  Trinity laughed again. Just two days ago she welcomed his laughter. It raised her spirits and made her confinement seem less onerous. Now the very sound grated on her nerves.

  “We could share a blanket to keep warm.”

  Victoria sat bolt upright. “Let me make something absolutely clear.”

  Trinity laughed again. God, how she hated that sound.

  “You don’t have to. I said it just to rile you.”

  “That’s not very considerate.”

  “I know, but I’ve got to do something to keep myself amused until you try your next escape.”

  Victoria ground her teeth. It was bad enough he seemed to know what she was going to do before she did it, but it was unforgivable of him to make fun of her, too. She snuggled down and pulled the blanket up under her chin, determined not to
say another word.

  And she didn’t until he started to whistle.

  Chapter Ten

  She knew he did it to annoy her. What other reason could he have? She made up her mind to ignore him. He’d soon stop.

  But he didn’t. He finished one tune and started another. It was bad. He couldn’t carry a tune, and his tone was breathy and unsteady. She didn’t know how he could stand to listen to himself. He must have a tin ear.

  She put her fingers in her ears and tried to go to sleep, but she found herself becoming more and more awake. Finally she couldn’t stand it any longer. “Would you please stop whistling?” she asked irritably. “I’m trying to sleep.”

  “I’m protecting you.”

  “From what?”

  “From wolves and cougars. They don’t like whistling.”

  “I can’t imagine they would. Not the way you do it. I’m sure you could walk from here to Canada and be perfectly safe.”

  “I’ll make you a bargain.”

  “What?” Victoria asked, wary of any bargain he might offer.

  “I won’t whistle any more if you won’t wake me up with any more false escapes.”

  “What do you mean false escapes?” Victoria asked.

  “Your dislike of me might lead you to do something foolish, but you’re not stupid. And trying to run away in the middle of the night is definitely stupid. I figure you wanted to make me stay awake all night, get me so tired I couldn’t see straight. Then you’d take the first chance to get away. Only you’d do it in the daylight. You know nothing about traveling at night.”

  “You’re free to think whatever you like,” Victoria said. “Only don’t be surprised when you wake up one morning and find you’re the only one sleeping around the campfire.”

  Victoria knew she couldn’t have been asleep more than five minutes when Trinity shook her awake. She tried to open her eyes, but she couldn’t see a thing. She tried to move, but her body was too stiff. She couldn’t even turn over.

  “Time to get up,” Trinity announced with inhuman cheerfulness. “We have to be on the trail before daybreak.”