Arizona Embrace (13 page)

With a loud curse, Buc turned his horse and headed back toward the ranch. He didn’t know what had gotten into Victoria, but something was wrong. Grant said it would be a long time before her sweet disposition returned, but when she sat down to dinner last night, she seemed like her old self.
Almost
. She talked and acted like she used to, but behind the smiles lay something he could sense but not see.

This morning her mood had seemed a little forced. At first he thought she was trying too hard to pretend her outburst had never happened. He wanted to think that. It answered everything in a tidy, satisfactory way. But his intuition, honed to needle-sharpness by jealousy, provided him with another answer.

Victoria acted like a woman about to meet her lover—she was going to meet Trinity.

“How can I do that, even if I wanted to?” Victoria asked when he taxed her with his suspicions. “Uncle Grant sent him away two days ago. He’s probably out of the territory by now.”

Her answer seemed more logical than his suspicions, but he couldn’t get the idea out of his head. She
did
act like she was up to something. She
did
want to get them out of the house. Somehow, she intended to meet Trinity.

He would see about that. No flea-bitten cowpoke was going to make time with his girl. He was the one who rescued her out of that Texas jail. She belonged to him.

He would follow Victoria. He wanted another chance to break Trinity’s neck. And this time Grant wouldn’t be there to stop him.

Victoria made herself wait a full hour after Buc and her uncle left before she saddled her horse. She wanted to make certain no one followed her. Besides, she didn’t know if Trinity would be at the tree this early. He might not be so anxious to see her he would get up before dawn.

She felt a little self-conscious, like a young girl sneaking off to meet a boy her parents didn’t like. Not that she’d ever had a chance to sneak off to meet anyone. Jeb had been the only boy she’d ever known, and her father had wanted her to spend as much time with him as possible.

She’d never even seen a boy from
the other side of the tracks
. She wondered if Trinity qualified. Buc certainly seemed to think he was up to no good.

The less she thought about Buc, the better. If Trinity had done nothing else for her, at least he had jolted her out of accepting the notion of marrying Buc.

But what else could she do? Nothing until she found a way to get control of her inheritance. Maybe she could still talk Trinity into helping her. If not him, then lawyers. Judge Blazer couldn’t keep her money from her. There was no law which said people convicted of murder couldn’t be rich.

Victoria experienced an upsurge of hope. She felt happier than she had in years. Everything seemed possible once again. She only had to figure out how to accomplish what needed to be done.

But where did Trinity fit in?

Now that he was leaving, apparently nowhere.

But she couldn’t let him leave just yet. He was her beacon to the future. Would she be able to stand against Buc and her uncle if she stood alone? Trinity was no ordinary man, and her response to him hadn’t been ordinary. She believed they would never be able to forget each other.

As she drew near the ridge where the great pine grew, she had second thoughts. Wasn’t it really a little strange for him to want to say goodbye? Couldn’t he have put all he had to say in the note? Or, he could have left a message with her uncle, or have waited until morning and said goodbye in the natural way?

Victoria let her horse drop out of a trot into a fast walk. What did she expect from Trinity? It made her feel foolish to realize she didn’t know.

She had allowed herself to become so excited over seeing him one more time she hadn’t figured out what she hoped to get out of it. Well, yes, she had, but she’d thought more about what he represented than the man himself. And that mortified her. She’d just complained about Buc and her uncle treating her as only a body and here she was looking at Trinity only as an escape route. An attractive, exciting, exhilarating way out, but a way out nevertheless.

Seeing him meant more than trying to find someone to investigate Jeb’s death. It meant more than thanking him for giving her the courage to fight against her mental and emotional imprisonment. It meant saying goodbye to someone who, in a very short time, had become terribly important to her.

But saying goodbye meant bringing something to an end. It came as a shock to her she didn’t want things to end.

Victoria pulled her horse to a halt.

She would miss his humor, his sensitivity about his age. And of course she’d miss being with him. Despite the disturbing sexual tension that had started to develop between them, he had been a comfortable companion.

Maybe it would be better if she didn’t see him after all. It would only create more memories, which might come to haunt her in the years ahead.

The sound of hoofbeats on the trail below scattered her reflections. It must be Trinity, but she didn’t know what direction he might be coming from. He might have been watching to see that she came alone, to make sure Buc hadn’t planned an ambush. But even as she turned around to wait for him, a shadow of fear skittered through her mind.

Victoria pushed the thought aside. She would soon be as bad as Buc, seeing bounty hunters in every shadow, suspecting every stranger she saw. She had to get over being frightened. She didn’t want to spend her whole life jumping at shadows.

She recognized Buc’s big Appaloosa as soon as it came into view. He had followed her.

Victoria felt anger heat her face until she felt certain her skin flamed as red as her hair. She didn’t know which made her more angry, that Buc distrusted her enough to follow her or that she might not get to see Trinity. Either way, she was furious.

“Where is he?” Buc demanded, as soon as he came within shouting range.

“Who?” Victoria replied. Again, she wondered how she could have ever thought of marrying Buc.

“Trinity,” Buc said, spitting out the name like it tasted bad. “I know you came to meet him.”

“You know nothing of the sort,” Victoria challenged. “You only think I’m going to meet Trinity because you’re so jealous you can’t think of anything else anymore.”

“I knew something was wrong at dinner. Your uncle thought you’d cooled down, but I knew you were up to something. And this morning I figured it out.”

“Then tell me where Trinity’s been hiding for the last two days and how I’m supposed to find him.”

“I don’t know, but I know you’re going to meet him. You can’t do it, Victoria, not when you’re about to become my wife.”

“I like you, Buc, I always have. And I’ll be eternally grateful to you for springing me from that jail, but I can’t marry you because of gratitude.”

“Why not?”

“Why not!” Victoria repeated, aghast. “Don’t you want a wife who loves you, who will look at you with adoring eyes?”

“I’d be suited if she liked me pretty good. You do like me. You said so yourself.”

“It’s not enough for me. That’s the way I felt about Jeb, and look what happened.”

“But I’m not like Jeb. I don’t drink.”

“That’s not the point. Jeb and I had nothing in common. We didn’t even like the same people.”

“We like the same things.”

“How can you tell? In the five years I’ve been here, I haven’t seen anybody or done anything. We never talk. You never ask me what I would like. I don’t even know what I like. Sometimes I feel like I don’t know myself.”

“Damn Trinity. He had no right to get you all confused.”

“Will you never understand? This has nothing to do with Trinity. I had already changed before he got here. I’ve been in a cocoon, only I didn’t know it. He helped me realize it. Suppose I had married you and discovered I hated everything you loved. I’d have made your life miserable.”

“There’s nothing you could ever do that would make me miserable.”

“Go home, Buc. I want to be alone. There are some things I have to sort out.” Victoria was almost defeated by his blind loyalty.

“You’re going to meet him, aren’t you? Answer me, Victoria.”

I’m not answerable to you for my actions.”

“You can’t meet Trinity. I won’t let you.”

Victoria was speechless. Buc had been telling her what to do ever since she had known him, but he had never attempted to interfere in her personal life.

“Do you love Trinity?” Buc asked before Victoria could respond.

“How could I? I hardly know him.”

She couldn’t have fallen in love with him, could she? No, but she found him extremely attractive. Maybe that was the answer. She had heard of men who were so overcome with physical desire for a woman they lost all common sense. Some even drove themselves to ruin.

But women weren’t like that. Were they?

“No, I don’t love him, but I would have liked to talk to him before he left.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I beg your pardon!”

“He’s got you besotted. You never acted crazy before.”

“So I’m crazy, am I?”

Buc couldn’t see the trap he had built for himself. He sensed that Victoria was taken with Trinity when she ought to be looking to him. He was jealous, and he was angry.

“You’re about to let your infatuation with him cause you to throw away five years of caution, you’ve stopped looking over your shoulder.”

“But you’ve been looking over my shoulder for me, haven’t you?” Victoria demanded, furious. “You’ve been looking over my shoulder, and around the corner, and under the bed, and behind the door for five years. You had me so thoroughly terrified I did it, too.”

“Don’t turn away from me, Victoria,” Buc said, bringing his horse up to Victoria until their knees touched. “I haven’t thought about anybody else for five years. I love you. I want you to be my wife.”

“I’m sorry, Buc, but I’ve already told you I don’t love you.”

“But you’d marry that saddle bum—”

“Buc, be reasonable. I’ve just met Trinity. I don’t love him, and he doesn’t love me.”

“He’s got you hypnotized. He wants to marry you so he can get the ranch.”

“You’re crazy.”

“I won’t let him have you. I’ve looked after you all these years and I don’t mean to stop now.”

“This is absurd.”

“Are you going to meet him? Tell me!” Buc shouted.

“Yes, I’m going to meet him. To say goodbye.”

“I knew it,” Buc shouted. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know. He left a note asking me to meet him on the ridge, but he’s not here.”

Buc moved closer to Victoria and grabbed her horse’s reins. “I’m taking you back to the ranch. I won’t tell your uncle what you’ve done, but you’ve got to promise you won’t do anything like this again.”

“Take your hands off my reins,” Victoria ordered. She was so furious her lower lip quivered uncontrollably. That just made her madder. “How
dare
you threaten to say anything to my uncle. You’re the most presumptuous, egotistical hardhead I’ve ever met. I’m not going anywhere with you. And I won’t be treated like I’m doing something wrong.”

“I’m only doing it for your safety. You know I never think of anything except you.”

“Then it’s high time you started. First chance you find, get yourself into Flagstaff. Get drunk or whatever you want to do, but don’t come back until you’ve gotten over this crazy idea I’m going to marry you.”

Victoria tried to back her horse away from Buc, but he still held the reins, and his strength gradually forced her mount alongside his.

“Nobody’s going to have you except me.”

Buc tried to kiss Victoria, but between trying to control his own mount, keep his hold on her horse, and take an unwilling Victoria into his embrace, he couldn’t manage.

“Hasn’t anyone ever told you it’s unwise to attempt to make love to a woman on horseback, particularly if you’re riding separate horses?” Trinity’s voice came from close behind them.

Victoria ceased to struggle. She didn’t have to. Instinctively, she knew Trinity would make everything right.

“Damn you to hell,” Buc cursed. Whirling about to face Trinity, he let Victoria go so suddenly she nearly fell out of the saddle. “I said I’d kill you if I ever saw you on Mountain Valley range again.”

“So you did, but then some of us make a practice of promising more than we can deliver.”

The two men swung down from their saddles.

Victoria was furious at Buc for forcing a fight and angry at Trinity for agreeing so quickly. Couldn’t men find a less barbaric way to settle an argument?

“Stop it right this minute,” she said as firmly as she could. “I won’t be fought over. Neither of you has any claim on me.”

Neither man paid her any attention, and that angered her even more. How dare they pretend they were fighting because of her when it was nothing more than stupid male vanity! They were no different from range bulls or wild stallions.

“I have a score to settle with you for attacking me from behind,” Trinity told Buc. “A man of courage makes his presence and his intent known. Only a coward attacks from behind.”