Kid Calhoun (33 page)

Wat Rankin waited for the big man to answer, but he was met with silence. He slipped back off the rim out of sight. No telling how quickly Kearney could get to a rifle. Wat turned to Solano and said, “Take her back down by the horses and tie her up. Be watching for a double-cross. I don’t trust Kearney.”

“Jake will kill you,” Anabeth hissed.

Rankin laughed. “Better men have tried, Kid.”

Anabeth jerked her head away as he chucked her under the chin. “Don’t touch me! You vermin! You vulture! You back-shooter!”

Rankin froze and turned to stare at Anabeth. “What’s that you say?”

“I saw you shoot my uncle in the back, you yellow-bellied coward!”

“Bring her here, Solano,” Rankin said.

“But, señor, I should take her down below and—”

“Bring her here,” Rankin repeated in a menacing voice.

The Mexican put a hand on the woman’s elbow and escorted her over to Rankin. “I will wait below, señor.”

Anabeth glared at the long-haired outlaw. “You’re going to pay for what you did to my uncle.”

Wat grinned. “Looks like you’re the one who’s gonna pay, Kid. With all that gold.” He laughed and
grabbed her chin with a dirty hand. “Maybe you’d like to share it with me,” he said suggestively.

“I’d rather die!”

He sneered. “That can be arranged, too.” His hand slid down to her throat. “After I’m finished with you.”

“You’re finished right now!” Jake said.

Rankin whirled with his arm around Anabeth’s throat, planning to use her as a shield. Her hands were tied in front of her, but her feet were unbound. Anabeth found Rankin’s kneecap with her heel and kicked him as hard as she could.

Rankin cried out in pain. He slung Anabeth away as he lost his balance and fell, keeping his face averted so Jake couldn’t later identify him as Will Reardon. Anabeth went careening toward the edge of the plateau at the top of the cliff.

Jake got off a shot, but Rankin quickly disappeared over the opposite side of the slope where he and Solano had left their horses. Without a clear target, Jake held his fire. He heard the clatter of hooves as the outlaws made good their escape.

“Jaaake!”

A look back at Anabeth had Jake’s heart in his throat. She was teetering on the edge of the cliff, hanging on by her fingernails. He quickly holstered his gun and ran to help.

“Hold on, Kid!” he shouted. “I’m coming!”

“Hurry! I’m falling!”

Jake grabbed for Anabeth’s tied hands just as she let go. Her feet dangled over fifty feet of nothing.

“Hang on, Kid. I’ve got you!”

Anabeth didn’t have breath to answer. She simply pedaled her legs trying to find some toehold that would help her get back up on the rim.

Anabeth had underestimated Jake’s immense strength. His shoulders bulged as he leaned back, dug in his heels, and slowly but surely pulled her up.

And right into his arms.

Anabeth felt his heart pounding in his chest, felt his body trembling.

“You’re safe now,” he murmured. “That was too close, Kid. Too damn close!”

At first Jake kissed her on the forehead, then on the temple. He kissed her eyes closed and finally made a low, shuddering sound when he found her mouth with his.

He tore his mouth away to demand, “Where the hell were you that you got yourself caught?”

Anabeth shoved herself upright with still-shaking hands. “I was out walking.”

“Walking?”

“Along the rim. I was on my way back down into the valley when Rankin caught me.”

“What were you doing up here by yourself?”

“Thinking.”

He didn’t ask about what. After what had happened between them last night he wouldn’t have minded some time alone to think himself. “You know we have to leave here now. Rankin will be back. Next time he’s liable to bring reinforcements.”

“Dog—”

“He’s back at the house,” Jake said. “I did what I could for him but … I don’t know if he’s going to make it, Kid.”

Anabeth clutched at Jake. Her eyes filled and her throat swelled closed. “Jake …”

“I know, Kid.”

Anabeth hid her face in Jake’s shoulder. “Dog was trying to save me from the Mexican when he was stabbed,” she murmured.

“I thought something like that must have happened.”

She lifted her head and looked into Jake’s somber
gray eyes. “If I hadn’t tried to tame him, he might not have been hurt,” she choked out.

“All you did was love Dog. And he loved you back. I’d say it was a pretty good trade.” Jake realized how natural it seemed for the beast to trust the girl. He wondered when he had begun to feel the same way. Because he did trust Anabeth. Enough to give her his heart. Enough to take the risk of loving her himself.

He felt vulnerable. Too much so to admit to the girl how he felt. He wanted to savor the knowledge for a while before he shared it with her. But the thought was there. He just wasn’t sure what he wanted to do about it.

Anabeth laid her head back on Jake’s shoulder and said, “Why did you tell Rankin you had the gold? Have you found it?”

Jake shook his head. “I was stalling for time so I could save your troublesome hide.” He rubbed his hand down her back and felt her shiver. He tried to think of a good reason not to kiss her again. And couldn’t.

He slid his fingers into her hair and angled her head back so he could claim her mouth.

Jake’s lips were gentle at first. Anabeth slipped her tongue out to taste the seam of his lips. When he gasped, she thrust it inside his mouth.

Jake groaned softly as he felt her tongue come seeking the soft underside of his upper lip, the serrated edge of his teeth, the taste of him. She slipped her bound hands over his head and threaded her fingers into the hair at his nape.

“Jake,” she whispered. “I thought I’d be killed. I thought I’d never see you again.”

He tightened his arms around her. “I couldn’t bear to lose you, Kid.”

Both seemed to realize suddenly what they had said. And what it might mean. A lawman and an outlaw
admitting that they cared about each other. It was a situation full of pitfalls. And one neither was ready yet to acknowledge or confront.

Jake reacted by sliding out from under her arms. “We’d better be on our way.” He pulled his knife and slit the rope that had held her wrists together. But he didn’t let her go without checking the burns left by the hemp, soothing the raw skin with his lips.

“Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere else? I saw blood—”

“It was Dog’s.” Anabeth saw concern in Jake’s gray eyes, but nothing more. He was letting her know that what had happened last night belonged in the past. That he hadn’t forgotten who he was, or who she was.

“I’m fine,” she murmured.

“Then let’s get Dog and get out of here,” Jake said.

Anabeth suggested they rig a travois for Dog and lead the horses up the deer trail that led out of the valley.

“Is that the trail I was looking for and never found?”

Anabeth nodded.

Jake shook his head. Now that he knew where it was the trail seemed perfectly obvious. He wondered how much of his failure to find it was due to not wanting to leave Anabeth Calhoun behind.

“Let’s go, Kid.” Jake stood and grabbed Anabeth’s arm to pull her upright. When she cried out he immediately shifted his hold on her. “I thought you said you weren’t hurt anywhere else?”

Anabeth put a hand on her tender shoulder. “It’s just a bruise where Rankin grabbed me.”

Jake’s eyes looked dangerous as he scanned the horizon for the outlaw who had hurt Anabeth.
His woman
. He didn’t know where the thought had come from, and he was damned uncomfortable with it, but he didn’t deny it. Anabeth Calhoun belonged to him
in the most elemental way a woman could belong to a man. He didn’t dare think ahead to what he was going to do about it.

When they arrived back at the stone house, Anabeth knelt beside Dog and spoke softly to him, calling his name. “You’re going to be all right, Dog. I’m going to take care of you and make sure you get well.”

Dog rewarded her with a soft whine and a thump of his tail.

Anabeth carefully unwrapped Jake’s makeshift bandages. “He needs to be stitched. Do you think he’d lie still while I do it?”

“I’ll hold him for you, if that’s what it takes.”

Anabeth raced to her bedroom and found her sewing basket. She was trembling so much she had to try twice before she could thread the needle. Then she hurried back into the other room and sat on the floor beside Dog.

Jake joined her there, kneeling at Dog’s head. He gently laid his hand on Dog’s neck. He was ready, if necessary, to use more pressure to hold the animal still. “Go ahead,” he said to Anabeth.

Anabeth saw the trust and encouragement in Jake’s eyes, but was still reluctant to start.

“If you can cut a bullet out of me, you can stitch Dog up just fine,” he said.

Anabeth smiled. “At least he won’t be able to complain later about my work.” She took a deep breath and poked the needle through a flap of torn flesh.

Dog flinched, but Jake held him down and spoke soothingly to him. “You’re going to be fine, boy. Anabeth will have you on your feet in no time.”

Anabeth’s hands were slippery with sweat by the time she had stitched the deeper of Dog’s two knife wounds. “I think the other cut will be fine if I just wrap it up tight.” She sacrificed the rest of Jake’s shirt and soon had Dog bandaged. “There. I’m done.”

“He looks like a mummy,” Jake muttered.

“I was worried that he might start bleeding again while we’re traveling.”

They worked together to rig a small travois and attached it to one of Anabeth’s horses. Then Jake carefully lifted the wounded animal and carried him outside. Anabeth was ready with another blanket to cover Dog.

They walked the length of the grassy valley one last time, leading their horses past the plot where Anabeth had raised vegetables, past the pond, and up the deer trail that led them finally over the rim and down onto the malpais, the volcanic wasteland that surrounded the valley.

“Where are we going?” Anabeth asked.

“South,” Jake said. “To Window Rock.”

Anabeth sighed inwardly with relief. She had yet another reprieve from jail. And the hangman’s noose.

Jake’s eyes were constantly trained on the hills, watching for an ambush. Apparently Wat Rankin didn’t like his chances when his opponent was armed and expecting him, because they didn’t see hide nor hair of him the entire distance to Window Rock.

It was quite a homecoming when Jake showed up at the ranch house with Anabeth.

“Claire’s gone!” Shug said the minute he saw Jake.

“I know,” Jake said.

“You know? Do you know where she is? Is she all right?”

“Let me get Dog settled inside, and I’ll explain everything.” Jake was appalled at how empty the house felt. He moved quickly through the parlor to Jeff’s bedroom and laid Dog on the rug beside the bed.

“I just want to make sure he’s comfortable,” Anabeth said. “Then I’ll join you.”

Jake headed back through the house to the kitchen, where he found Shug pouring three cups of coffee.

Shug handed Jake a cup, then took one himself and said, “I’m all ears. Where is she?”

Before Jake could answer, Anabeth joined them. Jake gestured her to a seat at the table. He took a sip of coffee, swallowed it and said, “She was stolen by an Apache.”

Shug’s face blanched. “Merciful heaven help her. We have to find her, Jake. We can’t leave her to those heathen savages.”

“She wasn’t taken by a savage,” Anabeth said.

“What?”

“Anabeth knows the man who kidnapped Claire,” Jake said. “He’s a friend of hers.”

“You’re the first I’ve known to call an Apache friend,” Shug said. “I say let’s saddle up and go hunting.”

Anabeth turned stricken eyes to Jake.

“Let it be, Shug,” Jake warned. “I’ll get Claire back in my own way. I don’t want a lot of innocent people getting killed.”

“I don’t like it,” Shug said.

“I’m doing what I think is best for Claire’s safety,” Jake said. “Let it be.”

Shug’s mouth twisted in disgust, but he didn’t argue further. “I’ve got work to do. Let me know what you decide.” He left by the back door.

In the silence that followed Anabeth asked, “What are we going to do now?”

“I go looking for Claire. Alone.”

Anabeth’s eyes were haunted. “You won’t find her.”

“Not if I don’t try.”

“I’m going with you.”

“No! You stay here until I get back. Shug will make sure you have everything you need.”

“I can’t stay here, Jake. Have you forgotten I’m wanted by the law.”

Jake felt as though he had been punched in the gut.
She had just reminded him with a vengeance that he was in love with an outlaw. One he had sworn he would send to jail. One who was destined to hang. Even if he was willing to pretend that things were different, she was not.

“All right,” he said. “We’ll leave after we pick up supplies and get some shuteye.”

Anabeth slipped a hand around Jake’s nape to draw his mouth down for her kiss. Her lips were as soft as butterfly wings against his.

Jake tore his mouth away from hers. “What was that for?”

“For taking me with you.”

His eyes were bleak, his voice harsh. “You didn’t give me a helluva lot of choice.”

Jake picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. If they were going to be bound together by this unholy alliance, then he was damn well going to take what he wanted—what he needed—from her while he could.