Damn, he hadn’t meant to admit to her that it was the best sex he’d ever experienced. He hadn’t meant to reveal that she was a temptation that was driving him crazy, but he didn’t regret one minute of the time he’d spent in her arms. And frankly, he thought they were going to die as well.
“You’re going to hang. Why would I marry a man who is going to die? Not happening, Sugar.”
An ache the size of Texas gripped his heart. There it was in a nutshell. She didn’t want to marry him because she thought he was going to hang. He was a member of the most hated family in America. And she wanted a good man. He’d never be good enough for Annabelle. Never.
Chapter 11
Beau had that uneasy feeling. Late the next day, he sat on his horse on a bluff overlooking the Red River, searching the area. Maybe because he was so close to picking up the bank bag and heading to Fort Worth or maybe because since they had sex. Annabelle had been withdrawn, quiet as a mouse and moodier than a cat in heat. Or maybe it was a combination of all three, but he felt as jumpy as a bit-up old bull in fly time.
He and Annabelle sat on their horses, scanning the area, looking for any signs of the Harris gang. All was quiet. Even the birds no longer chirped and the only sound was the wind blowing through the trees and the faint gurgle of the river as it flowed.
A hawk swooped down, flying low over the water and landing in a tree near the river. The bank’s money was two big rocks over from the tree where the bird sat perched. All he needed to do was get down there, find the money and ride as hard and fast as they could to Fort Worth.
“I’m going down there alone. You wait here for me.”
“Why should I?” she asked that strident tone back in her voice. That one that had been there since yesterday, since they’d made love with a tornado whirring above them.
“Because I need you to keep watch. If you see the Harris gang, I want you to drop rocks down the hillside. Do not take them on and do not fire a gunshot. That would only alert them to your location,” he said, pushing his hat back from his eyes, giving her his sternest look. She had to obey him or risk both of their lives.
If anyone was going to die, it was him, not her.
She tightened her mouth. “I know you don’t think I know how to shoot, but I can drill a can from fifty yards. I’m a great shot.”
“I know, you’ve told me,” he said. “But a can and a man are two different things.”
Shooting a man was difficult and never something he enjoyed. He didn’t want her to have to deal with the fact she’d put a bullet in someone.
“I can do it.”
“It’s not a matter of how great a shot you are, but the fact that I don’t want you to die. We’re doing this my way,” he said trying to get her to listen to reason, feeling like he was wasting his breath.
“Oh, that’s always worked out,” she said, with a snort.
He shook his head. “Listen carefully to me. If I get captured. You are to ride away and leave me with them.”
She didn’t say a word. He took her chin gently in his hand. “Do you understand.”
“Yes.” She frowned. “But I don’t like it. I’m just supposed to ride off and let them kill you? Not happening.”
If the Harris gang were laying in wait for him, they’d kill him and Beau couldn’t take a chance with Annabelle’s life. He’d die trying to protect her from these cold-blooded killers.
“Yes, it is. If they catch you, we’re both dead. If they catch me, I’m dead. So you leave me to die and ride away.”
“Shut up, Beau. It’s not happening that way. It’s just not,” she said, a worried look on her face. “You’re not going to get caught. You just can’t.”
He tried to give her a teasing smile, but he felt tense, anxious and worried she wouldn’t obey him. “Yeah, I know you need your bounty money.”
“That’s right. And you owe me money.”
“Good Lord, woman, if I didn’t have bounty money attached to me, I wouldn’t be worth two hoots and a holler to you.”
“You said it, not me,” she said frowning resting her hands on the saddle horn.
He reached into his saddlebags and pulled out her six-shooter. The gun he’d taken away from her that very first day. “I’m giving you your pistol back. Just don’t shoot me in the back.”
“If I’d wanted to shoot you in the back, you’d already be dead.”
With a sigh, he glanced back down at the gently rolling river. “I know. That’s why I’m giving you your gun back.”
She reached out and took her gun, spun the cylinder, checked it for bullets, then turned her sapphire eyes on him. “Thank you.”
She did seem familiar with the gun, but that didn’t mean she could shoot. And he wasn’t taking any chances.
With one last glance, he gazed around the scenario, checking the river again. “I’ll meet you back here in this same spot just as soon as I retrieve the hold-up money.”
It shouldn’t take him long if there were no trouble.
“And just what are you going to do with that money?”
“None of your business,” he responded.
“I hope you locate it. And I hope the law hangs you for it.”
Just about to gig his horse and head down the embankment, when her words hit him like a slap in the face. Gosh, darn it, the woman had crawled up under his skin and was tormenting him worse than a bevy of chigger bites.
Without thinking, he reached out and pulled her toward him. Sitting on their horses, he pulled her sideways in her saddle and his mouth covered hers. He’d wanted to kiss her since they’d left that root cellar. He’d wanted to brand her mouth as his own. He wanted to get up under her skin and torment her just like she pestered him.
He melded her mouth to his, teasing and taunting her with his lips as his tongue swept the inside of her mouth. His hand held her mouth to his, refusing to let her pull away and put any distance between them. When her horse shook his head, he released her and she jerked away.
“What the hell did you do that for,” she asked.
He smiled. “Sugar, I wanted one last kiss just in case I don’t make it back.”
“You damn well better come back. You’re not leaving me here in the wilderness by myself, with a dangerous gang searching for us. You owe me.”
Chuckling he gigged his horse, and started down the embankment towards the money and the restitution he sought.
Slowly and carefully he made his way towards the water. He’d covered the bank’s money with rocks and then placed dead brush in front of the rocks. He could see the dead brush and let his horse make his way down the steep hill to the water.
That eerie tingling feeling was zipping along his spine and he tried to ignore the warning, hoping it was nothing more than nerves. He scanned the area looking for any signs of movement, hoping that he’d be able to get the money and leave the area without any problems.
When he reached the brush, he glanced around one more time, looking to make sure he was alone. He looked back up the embankment to see if he could see Annabelle, but she was carefully hidden by the trees.
That premonition made him cautious. He rode his horse further down the bank over to an area where the money was not hidden.
He climbed off his horse and stood once again looking around. Nothing moved, but the meandering of the river, flowing southward. The water’s gentle gurgle peaceful and soothing.
Acting like he was searching, he moved the brush on the bank, kicking at rocks and pulling the leaves aside. The sound of a gun hammer being pulled back had him tensing.
Damn! His premonition was right.
“Beau, you looking for our money,” William said, coming out from behind a large boulder where he’d been hiding. Tom popped up from behind a bush and then another. Soon three members of the gang were standing there in front of him, their pistols trained on him.
This couldn’t be good. Not for him and not for Annabelle if she didn’t do what he said. And when had the woma
n ever done what he asked.
“William, good to see you,” he said cheerfully.
“Liar. Where’s the money?” William asked.
“How did you know where to find me?”
“Tom, said it had to be near the bridge. We split up and we’re camped out half a mile from the bridge on either side. Then we heard you coming down the bank and hid. Where’s the money?”
Beau shrugged. “I was hunting for it when you came up. So far, I haven’t found it.”
“Where’s that sweet little wife of yours?” Tom asked. “She was mighty pretty and I’m feeling a hankering for a woman. Especially after she knocked me out. She owes me.”
Beau felt his insides harden as fear pumped through his veins. They couldn’t find Annabelle. He’d die trying to protect her, but he was badly out numbered.
“She left me right after the tornado,” Beau said, with a smile. “I guess her idea of married life and mine didn’t agree.”
God, he hoped and prayed she’d seen the Harris gang and was even now riding away. Though knowing that stubborn woman she was doing just the opposite.
He heard snickers. “That was a real bad storm,” William said, “but why would she leave you over a tornado?”
Beau shrugged. “Said she was tired of camping and living on the run. She was going home to her Papa. Women. Can’t live with them.”
He hoped his acting abilities were better than average and he could somehow convince them that Annabel was gone.
William backhanded him across the face, his blow stinging and shocking.
“Liar.”
Beau reached up and rubbed his jaw. “Now that wasn’t neighborly. And over a woman.”
“Fuck the woman. I’d shoot you right now if you had that money.”
His heart hammered wildly in his chest because he knew for a fact that William was quite capable of cold-blooded killing. He had to remain calm and try to appear unafraid.
“Why? Because I left you without your horses? Weren’t you planning on killing me just as soon as we reached the Red River? You’ve not held up your part of the bargain. Why should I?”
The wind blew through the trees and Beau hoped like hell that Annabelle was riding away, leaving him. Somehow he didn’t think she would, but he didn’t want them to find her. She should just ride off and leave him to die.
William laughed and Beau felt a prickly sensation like spiders crawling along his spine. He was in trouble and for once in his life, he wasn’t certain he could get out of this predicament.
“Where’s the money?” William asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe someone found it. I was looking for it and either I can’t remember where I put it or it’s gone.”
“You’re lying. You’re going to die, so you might as well tell me where the money is hidden.”
Beau felt one of the other outlaws come up and take his pistol away from him. Then his arms were being pulled back behind him and they were tying his wrists together. He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
William stared at him with the coldest, meanest eyes Beau had ever seen. Even his brothers’ gazes held more warmth than this gunslinger’s. The memory of him killing his own gang member several days ago flashed through Beau’s memory, making him cold. Sweat beaded up on his forehead, but it wasn’t from the heat.
That would be his fate once they located the gold.
“Tom build a fire and then ride out and collect the others. We’re going to have us a party tonight to celebrate us finding the gold. Because by the time I’m finished with Beau, he’ll be talking. He’ll be singing so loudly that everyone will know where the money’s hidden and the location of his sweet wife.”
A chill spread through Beau. The man was crazy.
“My wife has gone home to Zenith.”
God, he should have returned Annabelle to Zenith before he’d gone after the Harris gang. There were so many things he regretted and he feared he would never have a chance to make things right.
William laughed. “We’ll see.”
The sun was beginning to set and Beau just hoped and prayed that Annabelle had had the good sense to ride away, once she saw that they had him or he didn’t return. He didn’t need her trying to rescue him. He was dead. And he knew that before the night was over, he’d be praying for God to end his life quickly.
Annabelle was spitting mad at that crazy Beau. He’d ridden right into their trap and from watching above that’s exactly what it had been, a snare. They’d been waiting for him. Sure they had known the general vicinity the money was hidden in, but how had they been able to pinpoint the location so well?
Still for him to go down there, knowing there was a chance they were waiting on him, infuriated her. When they were out of this mess, she was going to show him her displeasure.
Why were men so confident, so sure that they could conquer the world and then were surprised when they got into trouble? She’d seen it with her father, Meg’s lover Zach, and now with Beau.
Darkness had fallen as she watched the outlaws sitting around their campfire eating supper. Her stomach rumbled and she longed to eat a good meal. A sit down at a table meal where she wasn’t worried about getting killed.
Beau sat with them, but they’d tied his wrists and legs together. He was trussed up worse than a Thanksgiving turkey.
She checked her weapon one more time and felt to make sure she had her extra bullets in her pocket. Her horse was on top of the ridge, hidden in some trees, waiting on her.
Why hadn’t they killed Beau? He must not have given them the money to still be alive. Which meant that any moment now William was going to start torturing him. She knew he would. She’d overheard that promise several nights ago and she couldn’t stomach the thought.
Inching down the embankment, she had to get closer to the outlaws. She needed to be within thirty-forty yards for her shots to be accurate. These shots had to happen quickly or they could choose to kill Beau before she was finished. And she had to be precise with every shot.
When she was within range, she waited to see what would happen, looking for the best opportunity to take them out one by one.
Finally, William stood. He had been whittling on a stick, making a pointed end on it while the men finished their dinner. Now he placed the stick in the fire.
A chill trickled down Annabelle’s spine. Somehow she didn’t feel good about that stick and it being in the fire. She checked her gun one more time.
He walked to where Beau was sitting. “Where’s the money, Beau?”
She watched as Beau took a deep breath. “I don’t’ know.”
William doubled up his fist and struck Beau in the face, knocking him over. The men sat him back up and he pulled the stick out of the fire. The tip was glowing bright red.
“We’ll start slowly. But if you don’t tell me where the money is, this stick is going in your eye.”
Annabelle felt her heart pounding in her chest. Before she could pull out her gun, William stuck the stick in Beau’s arm. She watched him struggle against his ropes.
She couldn’t watch. She couldn’t take this anymore. She knew what he was going to do with that stick, and she couldn’t watch him hurt Beau.
Lifting her six-shooter, she took aim and fired. The man sitting next to Beau tumbled over. She fired again and another man went down. The rest of them were running, scattering. Three more to go.
William grabbed Beau and shielded himself behind Beau’s body. She should have killed him first.
A rifle fired towards her, its muzzle flashing fire in the night. She aimed her gun and heard a muffled cry as the third man went down. The bushes rustled near her.
“I’m going to kill him if you don’t come out?” William cried.
Gosh, darn it, but she should have killed William first.
A man jumped out of the bushes and charged her. She shot him. Four down, one to go. But William had Beau.
“Get your ass down here now, or he’s dead,” William screamed.
“No,” Beau yelled back. “Run.”
She stood. She couldn’t let him shoot Beau. She had to go down there. She pulled out her petticoat pistol and tucked it in the back of the waistband of her skirt.
“Come out with your hands up now. If you’re not here on the count of four, he’s dead.”
Crap. Slowly she made her way down the hill. He couldn’t see her and she watched him staring into the darkness. This could work to her advantage.
As she stepped out into the glow of the fire, he stared at her.
“Where’s the shooter?” he asked lowering his gun.
She laughed out loud. Why were men so stupid? He didn’t believe that she had shot his gang. Well, she would make a believer of him.
“I’m the shooter,” she said, and whipped the gun out from behind her, putting a bullet in his forehead before he had a chance to pull the trigger on Beau. His body slumped to the ground and Beau stood there starring at her in disbelief.
“Damn, woman, you don’t know how to obey!” Beau said, his face red with rage. “Didn’t I tell you to ride off if they captured me?”
She turned and started to walk away.
“Hey, where are you going? Untie me.”
“Why should I, you ungrateful snot. I’m going for the horses and then I’m taking you in and I’m taking all these dead outlaws in.”
“Untie me.”
“No. You’re my prisoner.”
“Like hell.”
She turned and glanced back at him. “You didn’t appreciate me saving you.”
Hurt filled her as she watched as he took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry, Annabelle. But good Lord, woman, you scare me. Do you know how frightened I was for you when you came out of the darkness? I was so scared he was going to put a bullet in you. I couldn’t have lived with the knowledge that I caused your death.”
For a moment, she let his words wash over her. They were nice and they left her feeling warm.
Lipstick and Lead Series: The Complete Box Set With a Bonus Book Page 47