“You heard him,” June shouted at the thick-shouldered man crouched beside him.
The man sneered. “How do we know you weren’t trying to sneak the lady out of here?”
“You don’t.” A gunshot slightly louder than the gunfire ringing in her ears punctuated June’s words. The man standing beside him fell to the ground, dead.
June rose, turning his gun toward Maxwell, but Maxwell saw it coming. He released her. The butt of his rifle struck June in the head with a sickening crack. June fell flat on his back and didn’t move.
“June!”
Maxwell yanked at the back of her shirt. “Get inside before you’re hurt!” he shouted.
Rachell glanced past Juniper as Maxwell tugged her toward the door. Her breath caught at the sight of the battle moving toward them. Amidst all the gun smoke and mayhem was Jed, at least fifty feet away with his back to her as he fought off the men charging toward him.
“Doulan.” Maxwell shoved her through the doorway and raised his rifle.
“No!” Rachell turned back and slammed a knee into Maxwell’s thigh. He roared. He grabbed her arms and lifted her off the ground in his bone-crushing grip.
“Mr. Sumner!”
Rachell sucked in a gasp, her gaze locked on a man preparing to shoot her.
“No!” Maxwell shoved her away.
Pain exploded across her back as she slammed against the door frame and fell to the ground as a gunshot rang out in her ears.
Maxwell’s eyes widened as he staggered toward her. “Sweetheart—”
Gunfire continued to pop all around them. The man behind Maxwell fell to the ground.
Maxwell straightened, and she saw the red blossoming on the front of his shirt. He’d taken the bullet meant for her. He glanced down at the growing trail of blood before his gaze locked with hers, his eyes wide and frantic.
He fell to his knees before her, his breath choppy as he grabbed her shoulders. “Don’t leave me,” he gasped, his eyes filling with tears.
Not knowing what to do, Rachell pressed her hands to the hole in his chest. Warm blood spilled through her fingers.
“Don’t leave me,” he said again, banding his arms around her. “I love you.”
Suddenly, his weight flattened her to the ground.
“Miss Rachell!”
Her mind a chaos of fear and confusion, she registered Juniper’s voice as she was yanked from beneath Maxwell’s lifeless body. As he helped her up, a flutter of black hair in the distance caught her attention. At the edge of the meadow, Jed had crouched beside one of Running Bear’s men who appeared to be wounded. Another man rose up from the tall grass a few yards behind him. Rachell’s gaze narrowed, blocking out the ongoing battle as the man lifted his rifle, targeting Jed’s back.
She grabbed a gun from June’s holster and ran toward them, shouting Jed’s name in warning.
Hearing Rachell call his name, Jed stood. His mind and body froze at the sight of her covered in blood.
Can’t be.
For the space of a breath, he couldn’t tell past from present. God, no.
Rachell raised a revolver. Jed shrugged off his fear and followed her aim as she fired at a man standing behind him, and missed. The gunman turned, putting her in his sights.
Jed raised his gun and fired, the other man’s weapon discharging simultaneously. From the corner of his eye, he saw Juniper had collided with Rachell, taking her to the ground. Jed was in a full run before his opponent hit the ground.
As he reached Rachell, the boy pushed up, pulling out his other revolver as he ran toward the meadow. Jed dropped to his knees beside Rachell, his lungs burning, unable to get air in or out as he reached for her blood-soaked body.
Oh God. Let her be alive. He wouldn’t survive it if she died.
Rachell opened her eyes and found herself looking up at Jed’s tear-glazed eyes. She struggled to suck in the burning breath Juniper had pounded from her body.
“Rachell?”
“I’m okay,” she gasped, wanting to ease the stark fear in his gaze.
Jed didn’t seem to hear her. His hands moved hastily over her body, checking for injuries.
“Jed!” She cupped his face in her palms, forcing his frantic eyes to meet her gaze. “I’m not hurt.”
Relief softened his wary expression. His arms locked around her, crushing her against his chest with a force that threatened to break her bones. In the next moment he flattened her to the earth as shots rang out over their heads, shielding her with his body.
“What are you doing here?” he growled against her ear.
“Keeping you from being backshot!”
“And getting yourself killed in the process! You’re supposed to be with Buck!”
“I told you I wouldn’t leave you!”
Shaking with relief and rage, Jed’s mind raced for a way to get her to safety. Holding her tight against his body, wishing he could somehow lock her inside him, Jed raised his head and scouted the area. He spotted Running Bear shooting from behind a tall sage bush and shouted over to him. Keeping low, he pulled Rachell up and ran for the shelter of the cabin. Once behind the flimsy structure, he pulled Rachell into his arms and wished like hell he didn’t have to let her go. But he wouldn’t be able to think worth a damn unless he knew she was safe.
“Why are they still shooting?” Rachell asked, trembling despite her tight hold on his waist. “Maxwell’s dead.”
“Hired guns don’t give a damn as long as there’s still others breathing.”
“Where’s June?”
“He scrambled to cover incoming gunfire right after he saved you from a bullet,” Jed said harshly, knowing she’d been an inch from death. He tucked her tighter against his body. He still shook from the sight of watching her run across the open ground, covered in blood, gunfire echoing in his ears. He kissed the top of her head and thanked God she was standing here, clinging to him.
If she hadn’t taken that bullet, Juniper must have. But the boy hadn’t paused as he rushed to cover them.
“Brother?” Running Bear said, coming up behind them.
Jed turned and shifted Rachell into his arms. Running Bear took her without question, his thick arms banding around her despite her instant struggle. “Get her out of here!”
“Jed!”
“Damn it, Rachell! For once, just do what you’re told!”
She flinched as though he’d struck her. The soft features of her hardened, taking nearly all the light from her eyes. Before Jed could question her sharp reaction to his words, wood splintered from the corner of the cabin, a bullet ricocheting off the stone cliff beside them. Running Bear disappeared around the canyon wall with Rachell.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The gunfire had died out shortly after Running Bear carried her from the canyon. They’d been riding through a forest of pines for well over an hour before Running Bear reined Storm Cloud to a stop.
“We rest here, and wait for Jed.”
Sitting behind him, Rachell dismounted without a word.
Running Bear smiled gently. “I take horse to river. You rest, Imp.”
Rachell did as she was told. She walked into a small clearing sheltered by tall pines trees and sat down. She folded her arms over her raised knees and lowered her head.
For once in your life, Rachell, just do what you’re told.
The words echoed in the hollowness of her frozen mind, but it was her father’s voice she heard…the last words he’d said to her before shipping her off to the edge of the continent.
“Do what I’m told,” she muttered into the fold of her arms. “Stay out of trouble—stay out of everyone’s lives.”
Sometime later, Rachell heard an approaching horse coming from the western edge of the forest. She lifted her head and saw Running Bear coming from the north, leading Storm Cloud by the reins as he returned from the river.
Buck and another man approached from the east.
“Ben Darby,” said Running Bear, exten
ding his hand in greeting.
Ben Darby. Her new employer, or so they had intended.
The three stood in conversation.
Rachell didn’t mind going unnoticed. In fact, she wished she could disappear entirely. After the trouble she’d caused everyone, risking all of their lives, Rachell was certain none of them would want her around once they returned to California. Jed included.
“You must be Rachell,” she heard Ben say through the distance of her mind.
Seeing all three gazes lock on her, Rachell jumped to her feet, realizing how very rude she must appear, sitting down in the midst of their presence. Although the sight of her blood-stained shirt certainly wasn’t going to help her make a good impression.
“Yes,” she said, walking over to greet them.
“Ben Darby,” said her would-be employer, rushing forward to offer his hand.
Rachell paused, seeing that her hands were bloodstained and filthy. Then she noted that the warm palm which took hers was no cleaner. Blood that had been shed on account of her.
“Elizabeth has been so excited these past months,” said Buck.
Her mood brightened slightly at the mention of her sister. “I’ve not seen her in so long. I’m only sorry I’ve caused so much trouble for everyone.”
“We’re all happy to help,” said Buck. “Lizzy’s family, and so are you.”
“You’re also Jed’s wife from what I’ve heard,” said Ben.
Rachell didn’t want to start off on that misconception. She’d meant every word she’d told Jed last night. She loved him, but she wouldn’t hold him. “No, not really.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Rachell spun around at the sound of Jed’s hard tone. He and one of Running Bear’s men were walking toward her. Jed didn’t stop until his chest was practically touching her nose.
What did he have to be mad about? He was the one who didn’t want a wife. “You know what I mean,” she whispered, not wanting to create a spectacle.
“No, I don’t,” he said in a low tone. “Last night—”
“Was a show of gratitude,” she quickly cut in, glaring up at him.
“Gratitude!” His expression of surprise quickly gave way to one of rage. “That’s not what happened and you damn well know it!”
“What else would you call it?”
“I call it bedding my bride.”
“Then you’d be mistaken.”
“No. I’m not. I wouldn’t have taken you if I wasn’t prepared to take full responsibility.”
Responsibility. That’s what he felt for her. “I’ve already spent part of my life in a paper-bound marriage. I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend the rest of it bound to a man who’s only serving some twisted sense of duty and honor. You wouldn’t be crying holy matrimony if I’d been the whore you thought I was!”
“But you weren’t,” he said through clenched teeth.
“You told me to keep it in mind that we both wanted an annulment, and I have. No one’s holding a gun to your head, Jed, forcing you to keep me.”
“And no one forced you to spend the night melting over me like honey over the sun.”
“You’re right,” she said, trying to ignore the blush stinging her cheeks, fully aware of others not so far away. “I distinctly recall you saying you weren’t against taking the pleasure of my body as a show of gratitude.”
“Damn it, Rachell, that was before—”
“Before you knew of my inexperience,” she finished for him. “I don’t see how that should make a bit of difference. I’m a widow, not a sixteen-year-old debutante! Nothing was said about binding myself to you for eternity.”
“I recall something being said.”
“I don’t,” she clipped, furious that he would throw her words of affection back in her face.
“I suppose that was some other imp perched on my lap this morning, begging for more while chanting her lo—”
Rachell’s palm met the side of his face with a loud snap.
Jed saw it coming but didn’t turn away, knowing he deserved the sting she ignited in his cheek. Pain seared his chest as he watched tears glaze her eyes before she turned away from him. He watched her until she disappeared through a veil of trees.
Every fiber in his body urged him to go after her. But he’d just proven he was in no state of mind to reckon with her. He’d seen the barrier in her green eyes when she’d spun to face him and he’d panicked.
Jed felt four pairs of eyes burning into his back. “I’ve got graves to dig. Buck, make sure she gets to camp this time.”
“Will do.”
Avoiding everyone’s gaze, Jed walked off in the opposite direction. God save him, he loved her.
The emotion was ten times more devastating than he remembered it to be.
By the time Jed neared camp, night was pushing its way across the sky, snuffing out what little twilight there was. He’d helped to patch up three of Running Bear’s men, hoping they’d make it back to the healing hands of their wives. After seeing the O’Conner boys back to Gran’s, he’d taken time to clean up, to get the stench of death off him.
Jed stopped in a clearing lined with horses. A campfire glowed in the distant shadows. He dismounted and felt exhaustion clear to his bones. The moon was well into the starlit sky when he hoisted his saddle over his shoulder and walked into camp. Two men relaxed beside the glow of a campfire.
“Where’s Rachell?”
Buck raised up from the saddle he’d been reclining against and reached toward the fire. “Have some supper,” he said, anger lighting his low tone as he lifted a tin plate from the warm stones surrounding the fire.
If Buck was holding his tongue, he was mad as hell.
Not ready to tackle another argument, Jed sat beside them, picked up a biscuit and shoved it into his mouth, filling the void in his gut as his mind filled with the image of Rachell’s haunted green eyes.
What had he done to put such a chill in her gaze?
Once finished, he glanced at the two men watching him with concern in their eyes. “Is she all right?”
“Last I spied on her,” said Buck, “she was still crying her eyes out into your damn bedroll.”
He glanced around at the surrounding woods. “Where?”
“Over yonder.” Buck nodded to his left at a patch of pines streaked in moonlight. “She hasn’t been in a social mood.” His eyes narrowed to a glare. “Can’t say I blame her.”
“Lord,” whispered Ben. “A man gets choked up just thinkin’ about those big green eyes.”
Apparently his so-called friends saw fit to rake his battered conscience over more hot coals. “So that’s the way of it? She’s the wounded party here and I’m the jackass.”
“Glad you figured that out,” said Buck.
“Amen,” added Ben.
Jed hissed a curse.
“You were out of line, and you know it,” said Ben. “If I had talked to Corin in such a way, you’d have laid me out.”
Jed didn’t doubt it. Not that he would have had to—he’d made sure Corin could outfight, outgun and outrun most men. He thanked God she no longer had to. He couldn’t have hand-picked a better husband for the girl he’d raised since she was eleven. He wished he felt the same confidence when it came to Rachell.
“You find the boy?” asked Ben.
Jed shook his head. He hadn’t seen June since he’d inspected the bullet wound in the kid’s shoulder, shortly after the last gunshot had been fired. “One of Running Bear’s men spotted him riding east. He’s got a bullet in his shoulder that needs to come out. I’ll set out for him at first light.”
“What about Rachell?” asked Buck.
His buddy seemed to be forgetting his role in this entire venture. “You can take your sister-in-law back to your wife,” Jed ground out.
His best friend continued to glare at him. “Still running, are you, Jed?”
“I can’t let June run off and die after the way he helped
Rachell.”
“You always seem to have someone else’s kids underfoot,” Ben put in mildly. “You ought to have some of your own.”
What the hell? “Maybe y’all didn’t notice, but she was the one telling me to take a long leap to hell.”
“We noticed,” Buck affirmed.
“Then how about minding your own business,” Jed said in a growl.
“As you just pointed out, she is my business. I wasn’t the one airing my private life for God and everyone else to hear. She cares for you,” said Buck. “Gratitude didn’t send her blazing back into that canyon today.”
Jed shut his eyes, fighting the image from his mind. It was too much—a melding of nightmares from the past and present. Running Bear had been quick to comment on Rachell’s act of courage, not unlike Jed’s first wife. He wasn’t about to argue. His past was behind him, and Rachell was alive. He’d hoped she’d be his future—but his understanding of women sure hadn’t improved in the last twenty years.
If Rachell loved him, why the hell was she pushing him away? Wouldn’t marriage be what she wanted? How was he supposed to know what to think when she kept changing her tune?
He was damn lousy at relationships, and he’d told Rachell as much! More than once. More than a few times. More than… Hell. It suddenly occurred to him that he’d likely convinced Rachell of that fact, and that he wasn’t inclined to attempt to improve for anybody.
At the moment, that sounded like good advice. Today was proof that he was already failing. Miserably.
Rachell deserved a man who would give her the family Jed knew she dreamed of having. If she’d finally realized he wasn’t that man, he’d be no better than Sumner to let his own selfishness stand in her way.
“Here.” Buck pushed another warm plate into Jed’s hands. “Why don’t you go apologize for being a horse’s ass.”
Jed glanced toward the shadows separating him from Rachell and couldn’t deny his reluctance to move. Jed kept seeing the moment he’d taken the light from her eyes.
Maybe I am the one running.
Fear wasn’t an emotion he often dealt with. The thought of uncovering the shadows he’d seen in Rachell’s eyes scared the living daylights out of him.
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