Her spine stiffened as that image appeared. Sophie Dolan would not beg. Besides, she had the distinct feeling that a man as devoted to the law as Ridge Hawkins was would be unmoved by a criminal’s pleas for mercy.
Running her palms up and down her arms, she tried to recapture the feeling she’d had just a few short minutes ago. Shifting her gaze to the blanket-covered ground, she remembered it all. The soft swipe of his hands against her skin, the warm puff of his breath at her throat, the hard, solid strength of him lying atop her. The incredible sensation of his body sliding into hers.
She sucked in a gulp of air and bit down on her bottom lip. For one brief moment, she’d felt as though she weren’t alone anymore. Tears stung the backs of her eyes and she furiously blinked them away.
She’d waited all her life for what she’d found here, in this meadow. And now, in the space of a single conversation, it was all over.
There was a wanted poster out on her. She was a criminal. Bounty hunters like the type she’d read of could right now be on her trail. Images of scowling men with bandoliers of ammunition crisscrossed on their chests filled her mind.
“Sophie,” he said, laying one hand on her shoulder and turning her around to face him. “We’ll find a way out of this.”
“How? I’m a criminal. My face is on a wanted poster.” Oh God, she heard the pitiful whine in her own voice and couldn’t do anything to stop it.
“I know, but—”
She shook her head, and when a single tear escaped the corner of her eye, she brushed it away impatiently with the back of her hand. “There is no way out,” she said, wishing things were different. Wishing she could stay here. With him. And be a part of this place and his life.
“Charles will never give up,” she said softly.
“Charles isn’t here,” Ridge told her. Then more firmly this time, he said, “I’m not sayin’ this’ll be easy. There’s plenty for me to work out. But one thing’s for sure.”
“What?”
“If you run, it’ll only make things harder. On both of us.”
He must have seen the panic in her eyes, she thought. He must have guessed how badly she wanted to take Jenna and disappear. And she knew he would never allow that. His feelings for her aside, she’d broken the law and Ridge Hawkins wouldn’t let a wanted criminal escape him.
Then he drew her close and wrapped his arms around her. Resting his chin on top of her head, he held her tightly to him and Sophie listened to the reassuring rhythm of his heart. “You have to try to trust me, Sophie,” he said softly.
The wildflower-scented wind kicked up, and Sophie wrapped her arms around his waist and held on, looking for shelter from the cold.
●
Tall was antsy.
He marched back and forth from the desk to the front door and back again. Where the hell was Ridge? Stepping to the edge of the boardwalk, he craned his neck and looked past the last of the afternoon’s stragglers. Most folks had headed off for home, getting ready for supper.
And just the thought of the word made his stomach rumble. His gaze shifted to the restaurant and through the front window, he spotted Mercy, wandering from table to table, lighting the oil lamps. Flickering shadows danced across her face and Tall found himself smiling. She sure was a busy little thing, he thought. And pretty too.
He frowned as the realization skittered through his brain, wondering where it had come from. But before he could think on it some more, he heard Ridge’s voice.
Smiling now, Tall turned to see his boss swinging Sophie down from his horse. As Ridge stepped down too, Tall jumped off the boardwalk and crossed to meet them.
“Head on home to Hattie’s,” Ridge was telling her. “I’ll come down after supper and we’ll talk this through.”
“There’s no point,” Sophie said, and the afternoon sun gilded her long, loose hair, making it shine as if her head were on fire. “We’ve already said all there is to say.”
“No we haven’t,” he said, lifting one hand to touch her face. “Not by a long shot.”
She closed her eyes and shook her head, looking as though she wanted to weep. But a moment later, she seemed to gather herself and opened her eyes to look at Ridge again. “All right,” she said at last, “we’ll talk.”
Then, giving Tall a half-smile, she turned and walked off toward Hattie’s.
Ridge flicked his reins across the hitching rail, tore his gaze from Sophie’s back, looked at his deputy, then looked at her again. Even in the half-light of twilight, he saw the stiffness of her spine and the lift of her chin. Damn it, he wanted to go with her. He wanted to stay by her side—not just because it tore at him to be farther than an arm’s reach away, but because he couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t grab up Jenna and make a run for it.
Oh, she’d promised not to. But he had reason to know just how stubborn the woman was. It’d be just like her to figure that running would keep Jenna safe and keep him from having to break the law he was sworn to defend.
Gritting his teeth, he glanced at his deputy again and asked, “What is it? You look like you’re fit to burst.”
“You got a telegram while you was gone,” Tall blurted out.
Telegram? Then he remembered and could have kicked himself for leaving town before that wire arrived. But if he hadn’t ridden out, then he and Sophie wouldn’t have found each other in that meadow and that was worth anything.
“Let me see it,” he said tightly.
Tall reached into his back pocket, pulled out a wrinkled slip of paper, and handed it over.
Holding it up to the dying afternoon sunlight, Ridge read, Man issued poster, Charles Vinson, Albany, New York stop Contact him for more information end
Charles Vinson. Even the man’s name hit Ridge like a fist to the guts. Memories swam in his mind. The image of Sophie’s face when she cried. And Charles Vinson had brought her to that. He’d taken a strong, proud woman and reduced her to breaking the law and running across the country looking for a place to hide.
It had been a lot of years since Ridge had wanted to hunt a man down and beat the crap out of him just for the sake of meanness. But the feeling was riding him now and the only thing saving Charles Vinson from the beating of his life was the fact that the man was too damn far away to reach.
Then Tall’s voice worked past the fury in Ridge’s brain, and as he realized what he’d just heard he jerked the man a look and said, “What? What did you just say?”
Tall shrugged his shoulders, jammed his hands into his pants pockets, and repeated, “I sent a wire off to that Vinson fella. Don’t know who it is he’s lookin’ for, but I figured you’d want him to know that you’re on the trail.”
His heart stopped. It felt like a stone in his chest Sweet Jesus. “What made you think I’m on a trail? I never said anything to you.”
“No, sir,” Tall said, shuffling his feet and ducking his head. “But why else would you be sending off wires lookin’ for information?”
“’Cause I’m the sheriff, that’s why. It’s my job to look into these things.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Damn it, Tall,” he snapped, “you shouldn’t have done anything without talkin’ to me first.” Though it wasn’t Tall’s fault. It was his own. He should have been here. And he hadn’t been.
“Sorry, boss,” the other man said, wincing slightly. “Thought it was important.”
Ridge took a deep breath, looked off toward Hattie’s, then back at his deputy. Through gritted teeth, he asked, “What did you say in your telegram? Exactly?”
Clearly uneasy now, the man rubbed the back of his neck and said, “I just told him you was onto somethin’ and that you’d be in touch.”
Son of a bitch. Now he had to think of something fast. From what she’d told him about Vinson, Ridge had the feeling that the man wouldn’t waste much time comin’
after her.
The question was, how was Ridge going to protect her when Vinson had the law on his side?
“So who is it, boss?” Tall asked, lowering his voice and looking over his shoulder.
“Who is who?”
“The kidnapper,” the deputy whispered in a tone that was just a shade lower than a shout. “Can’t hardly believe there’s a real live criminal right here in Tanglewood. I mean, we know everybody for miles around,” he went on, talking more to himself than to Ridge. “So don’t know who it could be.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Ridge said tightly, not about to tell Tall any more than the man already knew. Not until he had some idea on how to get out of this.
The deputy’s features twisted into a mask of disappointment. “Hell, boss. You can trust me.”
Yeah, he could. The problem was, Ridge wasn’t sure he trusted himself to do the right thing. Whatever that was. Pushing past the man, Ridge muttered, “Let it be, Tall. Just let it be.”
Then he stomped into the office, leaving his deputy in the dwindling twilight.
●
ALBANY
Charles leaned back in the plush, oxblood leather chair, crossed his neatly shod feet on the ottoman and picked up his glass of sherry from the gleaming mahogany side table. Holding the crystal up to the firelight, he paused long enough to admire the golden light shimmering deep in the heart of the liquor.
Then he tasted it, held it on his tongue for a long moment and swallowed, making a ceremony of his nightly drink. He allowed himself this one glass of fine liquor every evening because a gentleman must be able to recognize and appreciate the finer things in life.
“But,” he murmured, smiling to himself, “a wise man is temperate in all things.”
A discreet knock on the library door made him frown. He disliked having his evening ritual disturbed and his maid knew it.
“Yes?” he asked, irritation clear in his tone.
The door swung open and a middle-aged woman with graying dark hair entered the room. “I’m sorry to interrupt you, sir,” she said, “but a boy just delivered this telegram for you. I thought it might be important.”
She scuttled toward him, handed over the yellow envelope, then hurried away again, closing the door quietly behind her.
Frowning slightly, Charles set his sherry aside and opened the envelope. Pulling out the sheet of paper tucked inside, he unfolded it and tilted it toward the lamplight on his right.
Need more information on your wanted poster stop Am on the trail stop Sheriff Hawkins, Tanglewood, Nevada end
“Nevada,” he said, a slow smile curving his mouth.
Carefully, despite the flush of excitement sweeping through him, Charles folded the telegram neatly, slipped it back into the envelope, then tucked it into his inside jacket pocket. He reached for his glass of sherry, stood up and crossed the room to the hearth. Staring into the fire as the flames licked at the oak logs, Charles lifted his glass of sherry and downed the smooth liquid in one long gulp. Then he hurled the empty crystal into the hearth and smiled again at the tinkle of broken glass.
CHAPTER Eighteen
“Miss Sophie,” Travis said, swinging his fall of brown hair out of his eyes. “Me and Jenna are gonna go help the men, that all right?”
“Yes,” she said, giving the boy a smile despite the turmoil bubbling within her. Then, smoothing Jenna’s hair back, she bent down and kissed her forehead.
The little girl frowned and shook her head. “Don’t worry, Mama,” she said. “Daddy’ll fix it.”
“Fix what, sweetie?”
“Your hurt in here,” Jenna said, patting Sophie’s chest.
Sophie sighed, gave the child a brief, hard hug, then said, “You two go off and help. Just don’t get in the way.”
“We won’t,” the boy shouted, already dragging Jenna off behind him toward the school. Jenna meant well, she knew. But Ridge couldn’t fix the hurt she felt. No one could.
Alone, Sophie stared at the scene in front of her.
The tables nearly groaned with the mountain of food piled high on them. Somewhere nearby, nimble fingers played a fiddle and a banjo. Children laughed and ran through the crowd, dodging their parents and laughing at secrets and jokes only they understood.
Sophie’s gaze darted from one face to the next as she watched them all. There was Hattie, flutteringly happy about her romance with the sweet-faced reverend. And Mercy, directing longing glances at Tall, who was too busy studying the crowd looking for “criminals” to notice. And Mr. Simpson, the owner of the mercantile, dancing attendance on all five of his young daughters while his wife sat, one hand lying protectively atop her slightly rounded belly.
A pang of regret stabbed at her chest as Sophie realized how much these people had come to mean to her. In Albany, she’d never had this sense of closeness with her neighbors. She’d always been “that Dolan girl,” stared at, avoided, feared Here, she was part of a growing community. An important part.
She shifted her gaze to the schoolhouse, where the men of Tanglewood swarmed over the building like red ants on an anthill. While their women prepared the food, the men wielded paintbrushes, making the new schoolhouse come to life. The soft yellow paint and dark green trim were just as Sophie’d seen it in one of her visions, yet she took no comfort in it.
How could she, when she didn’t know if she’d ever hold a single class in that tiny school?
Wandering in and out of the crowd, she forced a smile and tried to join in the fun. This was what she’d been working for since she arrived in Tanglewood. A schoolhouse, a new life for her and Jenna. Yet now that the day was here, she couldn’t enjoy it. There was a cloud hanging over her head and she felt as though she were here in town on borrowed time.
No matter what Ridge said, and she told herself he’d said plenty last night, there was no answer to the problem lying between them. She’d seen him these last few weeks. She knew what the law meant to him. She’d heard everyone in town talking about the man who put the law before everything else.
How could she expect him to put all of that aside for her? And how could she go on living here, constantly looking over her shoulder?
It didn’t make the slightest amount of sense, but she almost expected Charles to arrive on today’s train.
Of course he couldn’t. Even if he’d left the moment after he’d received Tall’s telegram, he wouldn’t be here for another three or four days.
Cold fingers touched her spine and she shivered, despite the sunshine pouring down from a cloudspattered sky.
Oh God. He knew where she was.
Her gaze flicked to Jenna and it took every ounce of her self-control to keep from grabbing the girl and moving for the train. She could be packed in just a few minutes and then by the time Charles arrived in Tanglewood she and Jenna would be long gone.
“Don’t even think about it,” a deep, familiar voice said from right behind her.
She whirled around to look up into Ridge’s deep blue eyes. “What?”
“I said don’t even think about it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He laughed shortly and shook his head “Hell, Red, you’ve practically got one foot on the train right now.”
Apparently, he didn’t need the “sight” to know what she was thinking. She ducked her head, glanced around to make sure there was no one close enough to overhear them, and said, “It’d be best for all concerned if we simply left town today.”
“No it wouldn’t.”
“Ridge—”
“I thought we talked this out last night.”
“We did,” she said, remembering their chat in Hattie’s parlor and the stolen kisses that had punctuated it. God, she couldn’t stay and didn’t want to leave. “But—”
“No buts,” he interrupted and lifted one ha
nd to cup her cheek.
She tried to step back. “Someone might see.”
“I don’t give a good damn who sees, Red.”
A flush of pleasure swept through her despite the situation. She’d waited so long to be wanted. To be needed. Now, finally, she’d found the man who returned her feelings and she couldn’t enjoy it because of the sword poised over their heads.
“What’re you thinking?”
‘”That I wish things were different,” she blurted.
“Me too.”
“It’s not that easy,” she said, giving him a wry smile.
“Don’t lose all that starch on me now, Red,” he murmured.
“I beg your pardon?”
He grinned. “There you go.”
She frowned at him and tried to turn away, but he held on to her and waited until she was looking at him before continuing. “I never in my life met a more determined, single-minded female than you. I swear, you could push the mountains to the sea if you put your mind to it.”
“Ridge...”
He shook his head. “No, ma’am. You keep on fightin’, Red. And you keep trusting me. ‘Cause I swear, there’s nobody can beat us when we stand together.”
Her throat closed up tight with emotion. He was on her side, no matter what it cost him—his honor, his job, his life. And a pang echoed inside her as she realized what she had done to a man who believed in nothing more than the law.
Looking up into his deep blue eyes, Sophie felt her heart swell until she thought it might burst from her chest. She loved him. More than she’d ever believed it possible to love anyone. And more than her next breath, she wanted a life with him. She wanted to go to bed lying beside him and wake up in his arms. She wanted children with him. She wanted to grow old with him.
She huffed out a sigh and bit down hard on her bottom lip in an effort to stem the dampness filling her eyes. Blast him anyway.
He held her upper arms and she felt the warmth of his touch right down to her bones. His strength poured into her, and as it did, Sophie reached inside herself and found the starch he’d spoken of. If he was willing to risk everything he had, everything he was, how could she do differently?
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