“I tried to stay awake and wait on you, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open.”
“That’s okay, it was late when I got in.” He’d wanted her to be asleep when he returned last night or be tempted into kissing her again. This woman was trouble and he needed to put as much distance between the two of them as possible.
He walked to where she was standing. “We need to find a farmhouse today, where I can leave you.”
She turned toward him, her blue eyes shadowed with surprise. “You’re going to leave me behind after we shared that kiss last night.”
“Because of that kiss last night,” he said. “I’m running for my life and I don’t need to endanger you.”
She stared at him, her eyes swimming with tears. “Have you considered not being an outlaw? If you work at it, you can be a good guy. I bet if you talked to the sheriff, there could be some way you could repay your crimes and obey the law.”
A laugh escaped before he could hold back his response. “Sugar, my crimes are bad enough that the only thing waiting for me when the law catches me is a short rope on a tall tree.”
Annabelle McKenzie was still a woman and he’d seen the glitter in her eyes this morning. That kiss had affected her just as much as him and he needed to dispel any notions she was cooking up in that female brain of hers of the two of them together, sharing forever. The next sodbuster he came across, he was leaving her behind.
“Now quit stalling. We need to get going.”
A frown flitted across her face and her sapphire eyes, darkened, her lips tightening.
“I guess then we better go if we’re going to find that farmhouse,” she said, her voice cold. “I’m sure my sisters won’t be far behind. Then we’ll catch you and collect our five hundred dollar reward.”
Her sisters…sometimes he wondered if they were a figment of her imagination. Women bounty hunters? Really?
“Oh sugar, I should be worth more than that. You need to ask for a thousand,” he said, glad to see they were back to baiting each other. At least this way, he wasn’t thinking about how he wanted to slant his lips over her smart, sassy mouth until she was clinging to him.
Yet, there was still a part of him that was sad to see the way she’d tensed at the realization he would hang if the law caught him.
She strode over to where her skirt had hung all night to dry. “Why don’t you step outside and I’ll get dressed.”
“You sure you don’t need my help,” he said, trying to goad her temper. If she hated him, then he wouldn’t need to worry about her wanting his kisses. Though his body was hard with wanting her.
“Get out of here. I’m quite capable of dressing myself. I’ll hand you your shirt once I’m dressed.”
She turned her back to him, clearly dismissing him. Women had more thorns than prickly cactus. Hers was one damn, fine kiss, but nothing had changed. She wanted to collect the bounty being offered on him and he had to get to Fort Worth.
“Just say the word and I’ll be your lady's maid.”
“Not if you want to live.”
Walking out of the cave into the morning light, he chuckled to himself. Riling her up had chased away the stars he’d seen shining in her eyes this morning.
Now staring out across the valley, he breathed deeply and realized he smelled smoke and it wasn’t from their campfire. Somewhere down in this valley, there must be a farm and some farmer was burning wood. The perfect place to leave her behind. He needed to find that sodbuster and drop her off soon. Very soon. Before his traitorous lips tasted more of Annabelle’s luscious mouth. Before he ripped off her pantaloons and experienced her sweet womanly body.
Beau turned his horse down the lane. Smoke spiraled high above the trees and an eerie silence had him glancing behind every scrub brush. Uneasiness twirled along his spine as he realized the birds no longer squawked. Stillness hung over the area, and the smoke seemed heavier and had a pungent odor that didn’t smell like brush.
Something wasn’t right and he didn’t know what, yet.
Annabelle rode beside him. She’d been quieter than normal this morning. Almost as if she’d withdrawn from him and didn’t want to engage anymore. Like she was pushing him away from her, she’d been colder than a bartender at quitting time.
This was the very reason a man a like him shouldn’t be kissing a woman like Annabelle. Though she wasn’t a prim and proper, Bible thumping, miss, she wasn’t a saloon girl waiting on a client either. And if he had the time, he would have liked to have gotten to know her better, but now he was going to leave her behind and trust that she found her way back home.
“Oh God,” she said and pulled her horse to a stop.
Two bodies lay on the ground not far from each other. Smoke drifted from the burned out skeleton of the house. Only the smoking scared walls of the home still stood.
Beau held his breath, alert, searching the area for danger. His eyes scanned the bushes and trees around the house, his palm resting on his gun. “Stay here.”
“Like hell,” she said.
And together the two of them rode slowly into the yard of the house.
“Do you think it was Indians?”
“No,” he said, knowing that there hadn’t been an Indian attack in this area for years. This looked more like the work of the Harris gang.
He threw his leg over his saddle and slide off his horse. He hoped she’d stay put, but she stepped down off her horse. Taking the reins of both horses, she led the animals into the yard of the burned out home, while he approached with his gun drawn.
“Stay with the horses,” he demanded
She didn’t respond. He went over to the first body and checked for a pulse. The young man’s body was cold. He had a bullet wound to his chest. He’d died quickly.
He walked over to the second body, an older gentleman and rolled him over. The man gasped and his eyes opened, surprising Beau that he still lived. The old man’s pupils were large and dark and Beau could see he was in pain.
“My son?” he asked.
“He’s dead.”
The man closed his eyes, squinting them together to keep the tears from falling.
“Where are you hurt? Who else lived here?”
The old man shook his head. “No need. It was just me and my boy. They took our horses and scattered our livestock.”
“Who? Tell me what happened.”
The man licked his lips. “There were five riders. They called the leader, William.”
The Harris gang.
Annabelle stepped up beside Beau and gave the man a drink of water from a dipper.
“Here,” she said as she lifted his blood soaked shirt, locating his bullet wound in his side. She shook her head indicating the wound was fatal.
Beau lifted the man gingerly so he could sip the water.
“When did they attack?” Beau asked.
Finishing the water, he sighed.
“The bastards had dinner with us and then attacked late last night. They wanted our horses. I refused to hand them over. They jumped up. Shot Charlie first and then me.”
The shots that Beau had heard were the Harris gang attacking this settler and his son.
The old man’s hand clutched at Beau’s shirt. “Please, bury us next to my wife.”
He coughed and blood poured from his mouth. His eyes drifted closed and, with one last gasp, his head dropped onto his chest.
“Damn it!” Beau said as he laid the man’s head down. “He’s dead.”
He stood and strode away, running his hands through his hair. This man and his son were only trying to make a living, working their farm. Because the Harris gang came across them, they were now both dead. He kicked a rock with his boot, sending it flying. Damn. He should have been here. Maybe he could have stopped them from killing this innocent man and his son.
“He’s at peace,” she said quietly.
Annabelle stood and walked a short distance away. She stared out at the wilderness and he could see that she was watching the area. He wa
s grateful as it gave him time to control his anger at this man’s senseless death.
She strolled around the grounds and he watched her stop at a door that was angled out of the ground. She lifted the entrance and descended the steps.
Gosh, darn it, he didn’t need her to get hurt. He rushed over to where she’d disappeared into a root cellar. Hurriedly he followed her into the underground storage that was filled with homemade canned goods.
“Come on we need to get going.”
“No, look. The man has tools. We can bury them.”
He could fulfill the old man’s wish and bury him and his son beside his wife if they could find the grave.
There were also canned goods and potatoes. “Collect what food items you think we can carry and I’ll get started looking for the graves. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible.”
“We?”
He turned and stared at her and released a heavy sigh. If the Harris gang were attacking small farms, she wouldn’t be any safer with a farmer than she would be with him. At least together they had a better chance of survival than leaving her with a man who wasn’t quite as quick on the draw and wouldn’t recognize trouble when he saw it coming through his gate.
A man just like this farmer.
“I’m not leaving you behind at an empty farm house,” he said, staring into her gaze, wanting to get lost there. To let her ease the sorrow he felt at this man’s useless death.
“Good. I would have followed you. I’m collecting that bounty.”
He shook his head. “You’re going to be disappointed, woman.”
“No, I’m not.” She dumped her arms fun of homemade canned goods into his arms. “You can carry these up the stairs.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, sarcastically. “I’m certain glad the Harris gang didn’t find the canned goods. We won’t be going hungry for awhile.” He climbed the wooden steps to the outside world. He unloaded the glass jars on the ground.
At least with him, he could protect her until he could get her to Fort Worth. But right now she was looking at him, like he was a cold, hostile beast. If she had a weapon, she’d have used it on him. And maybe, just maybe, with the thoughts that had run through his head about the things he’d like to do to her, she was justified in feeling that way.
He watched her as she collected some bacon, potatoes, and some beans that were in the root cellar.
“I don’t think we have room for anything else,” she said. “Shame they didn’t leave a bedroll down here.”
“Yeah,” he said, thinking of how hard that ground was every night and how tempting it had been to curl up beside her last night and share her body heat. Only problem was his body wanted to share other parts of her womanly flesh.
They crawled up the stairs and he helped her when they reached the top. He’d brought up a shovel earlier. “Now, let’s find his wife’s grave. I’d like to bury them before we leave.”
She glanced at him and nodded, then strolled to the back of the property. “I found his wife’s grave. It’s here.”
An hour later she helped him drag the bodies of the dead man and his son over to the grave Beau had dug. Even though it was springtime, she watched him wipe sweat from his brow. The sun had beat down mercilessly on them while he’d dug out a shallow grave for both bodies.
When he’d announced he would be leaving her at the first farm they came to, she’d been mad enough to eat the Devil with his horns on. Hadn’t that kiss affected him the way it had her? She’d been ready to yank off his clothes and surrender like a willow in the wind.
And then this morning, he’d fried the dew off her first kiss when he’d acted like nothing had changed. Nothing. That kiss meant nothing to him. Like she meant nothing and when he’d told her the law had a rope with his name on it, then she’d known there was no sense in getting all excited by Beau Samuel’s kisses.
There was five hundred dollars attached to his name and she aimed to garner that money with or without her sisters’ help. She’d turn this bastard in and then return home to think about his kisses while taking her pistol out for target practice. There was a tin can with his face on it waiting back home.
After they dropped the bodies inside the graves, they stepped back and caught their breath. Sweat trickled down his face and the muscles of his arms looked large and beefy. A strong muscular man, Beau Samuel was not someone you messed with.
“It’s warm today,” he said, and took his handkerchief and swiped the beaded moisture from his brow.
His tongue wet his lips and she had the urge to step into his arms and experience the pleasure of his mouth once more. Just the memory of his lips on hers had her body heating from the inside out. But kissing him again wasn’t going to happen. He was an outlaw and she didn’t need that kind of heartache. She just needed the five hundred dollars reward money.
“Yeah, it is,” she said gazing at him in the sunshine. There was something deliciously incongruent about him.
Still, how many outlaws would have taken the time to fulfill the wishes of a dying man by burying his body and his son’s by his dead wife? And how many outlaws would have stopped after kissing her last night?
Was there really honor among thieves or was Beau Samuel different?
“Bow your head and let’s say a little prayer,” he said, looking at her with a sheepish look on his face, like he was afraid she’d say something about him praying over the dead man and his son.
“Father, accept these souls into your loving arms and forgive them for any sins they may have committed. In your son’s name, Amen.”
Annabelle raised her head and didn’t say a word. An outlaw saying a prayer over the men his gang had killed? She shook her head. This man was very complex, but he was still an outlaw with a bounty on his head that she intended to collect.
“As soon as I finish covering the bodies we need to get on the trail. We’ve already been here longer than we should.”
“You don’t think they’ll come back, do you?”
“No, but I’m not sticking around to find out. We need to get further down the trail before dark.”
“Why are they searching for you?” she asked.
He took his canteen and lifted it over his head, letting the water splash down over his face, then he wiped the extra moisture away with his handkerchief.
As he cleared the water droplets from his face, his gaze lingered on her. “I’m a member of the gang. After the hold-up in Wichita, I hid the bank money. They want their share.”
A small piece of her heart hardened at the realization he was not a good guy. Whatever doubts she’d had regarding if he were truly a wanted man and outlaw disappeared. The man had robbed a bank, then hidden the money from the rest of the gang. No wonder there were five men chasing him. No wonder they wanted to kill him.
“Do you want a share of the money?” he asked, with a teasing grin on his face.
A part of her wanted to slap that silly smile right off his face. Farmers and ranchers had worked hard for that cash only to have it stolen. And he was acting like it was nothing. She took a deep breath and built a wall around her heart against this man. She smiled. “Not on your life. What I want is the bounty on your head and I aim to get it.”
She turned and walked away from him, letting him stew on her goal. He may have thought she’d given up, but she hadn’t. And actually, she had him to thank for that. Because if he hadn’t given her that kiss last night, she might have returned home and sent her sister Ruby after him.
But now it was personal. That kiss and his consequent rejection this morning had sealed her resolve to hand him over to the law. She wanted the first man who had ever kissed her to rot in jail and she planned on helping him find his way there.
Once they were back on the trail, the easy banter between them from yesterday, had disappeared. There was a tense silence and she knew they were both thinking about that poor farmer and his son. The Harris gang included some of the worst outlaws she’d ever heard of,
not the usual longriders that Meg and Ruby pursued. Silently, she prayed that her sisters were on their way. They were almost two days ride from Zenith and with any luck her sisters had seen her tracks and would find her.
Every time they stopped she’d left her initials in the dirt or a scrape of her petticoat, when Beau wasn’t looking, trusting that her sisters would find the signs and know they were on the right trail.
Annabelle raised up in the saddle trying to give her bones a rest from the constant jarring.
“Saddle weary?” he asked.
“A little,” she said.
“You know, you haven’t slowed me down much. I’m surprised. You must do a lot of work around your farm,” he said, glancing over at her with admiration.
“Since I’m there most of the time by myself, I don’t have much choice,” she responded.
“I thought you had two sisters.”
“They’re out bounty hunting so that we can keep the farm.”
He shook his head and laughed. “Oh yes, the bounty hunter sisters. I’m not certain I believe they’re real. Kind of like that husband and sheriff you mentioned the other night.”
Maybe he had a small point about her husband and sheriff. But she couldn’t wait to see her sisters again.
“When you meet them, you’ll know it’s real.”
“I grew up on a farm,” he said.
“Really?” she said, unable to imagine him working in the fields. “What made you decide to leave?”
“We lost the farm and had to move into town.”
A frown furrowed his brow and she could see that the memory wasn’t a good one, but she couldn’t feel sorry for this man. She had to keep her barriers up between them.
They rode along the trail, meandering around some tall scrub oak. She glanced over and saw a small lane. At the end of that wide trail, a house sat. She could see smoke spiraling from the chimney.
“Hey, there’s a farmhouse. ”
Part of her was ready to get off the trail and the other part of her didn’t want to leave him. Both parts knew it was best if they separated from Beau. There was a powerful attraction between them and it could only lead to heartache.
Lipstick and Lead Series: The Complete Box Set With a Bonus Book Page 39