Trusting Love (31 page)

“Oh, like hell you can. You’re in shock. You’ve been shot. It hit your arm, and we’re damn lucky it didn’t go a centimetre to the left because it would have fractured your entire arm. Instead it grazed you, but the trauma is still there. Gunshots are dangerous, Kris, so you’re not walking or doing much of anything until I say so.”

She stared at him obviously in shock. Maybe too much information wasn’t a good thing, he thought.

“I never realised how bossy you were,” she murmured.

“I am when I need to be,” he said firmly. He’d nearly died back there from the sight of her harmed. What was he going to do when he cleaned her arm? He had to do it too, he knew. Who else could? Not a hospital. He couldn’t chance waiting that long to clean it out.

She lifted her head and looked around them.

“Kris, settle down. Let me do this, don’t strain yourself like that.”

“Did you use my shirt to tie this bandage? I feel like my fingers are going to fall off and my arm hurts more from the shirt than the shot.”

“Ah, God, are you going to be one of those patients? Crying over your bandage?”

She was still weak, but her eyes were clear, focused and if he had to guess, she was a second away from giving him hell.

Rowdy suddenly tore off barking wildly making his heart jump to his throat.

“Kris? Kristen? Robert?”

“Sam,” Kris whispered. “Oh, no, he’s going to kill you.”

Rob laughed, so relieved he didn’t care what the old man said. “Hell, he can do whatever he wants, he brought horses,” he said, spotting the old cowboy heading towards them on a big grey, two horses following on leads. As soon as Sam drew close enough to talk he examined Kris, then met Robert’s eyes steadily.

“What in the name of tarnation are you doing? What happened to Kris?” Sam demanded, pulling his horse up to a halt next to them. The other two horses stomped, but stopped right behind the first. Sam’s dog barked once at Rowdy for getting too frisky and Kris whispered Sam’s name.

Robert didn’t waste time. “Kris has been shot. There are probably a dozen men in these hills that want something I have, Sam. They can’t have it. Kris needs her wound cleaned and she’s lost blood. We need to find a safe place nearby and fast.”

“Well, hello and how are you, too? Damn near scared the life out of me when I spotted the Jeep in that ravine and now you say she’s shot? What the hell have you been doing? I thought you’d be protecting her, not dragging her into all—”

“I’m not that bad, really. He won’t let me walk,” Kris started.

“Well, damn right he won’t let you walk.” Sam switched sides like an old lady switched lanes of traffic. “Now, Robert, you tighten that first horse up and get Kris on it. You know how to ride, if I remember correctly, so get behind her. And don’t give me no sass, either, miss. Gunshot wounds are dangerous,” he told her. “You shot the guy?” he demanded of Robert a second later.

“I did. But there’s more.” Robert set Kris carefully on the horse Sam had indicated and waited for her to nod before he tightened the cinch, putting foot to stirrup right after. The big chestnut stood still, waiting for him until he’d got up behind Kris to move a few steps forward. Robert stopped him with a hand over Kris’ on the reins.

“Horse’s name is Lucky, see that he behaves, he’s only three, and full of piss an’ vinegar.”

Robert nodded and took the reins from Kris, settling her back so she rested in his arms, against his chest. She trembled slightly he noticed. The horse pawed the ground and shook his head, but stood calmly enough.

“Saw those men. I knew something was wrong when I did. Here,” he handed Robert a baseball cap. “Put that on, it’ll hide a bit of you. If she could ride, we’d not stand out so much, but we can’t chance it.”

“True. Thanks, Sam. We need to get her cleaned up. Any suggestions?”

“I am right here,” Kris grumbled.

He ducked his head and brushed his face against hers, pulling her back more into his chest to keep her as warm as possible. “I know, we’re doing what we can, darling.”

“I know, but I wasn’t shot in the brain. Why not head for the ranger’s cabin? It’s empty and hasn’t been used in a few years. Would they know of it?”

Sam puffed out his cheeks and thought about it, Robert guessed by the way the old guy took off his cowboy hat and stared off at the hills. The snow had increased. Time was running out. Even Lucky seemed restless suddenly, probably picking up on his own need to get moving.

“How could you tell the men were the ones hunting me?” Robert asked.

“They stood out. Dressed in regular clothes, but they had that hard bearing of men that thought they were soldiers.”

“Thought they were soldiers?” Kris repeated.

Robert tucked her up closer when she tried to sit up.

“They didn’t look like they were anything more than stand-ups, you know? Men that wanted to be cops, but weren’t. All except for one of them. He was mean enough,” Sam said with a nod. “Yeah, he didn’t give the impression he took orders very well.”

Walters.
Robert nodded, staying silent.

“They hadn’t got the rangers in on this yet, but I saw them with the local sheriff’s men and a few state troopers. There was a fire up at the old T Bar ranch. House burnt to the ground, some kind of gas leak, they said, but these men were already there investigating it. Police told me the men had thought someone had set fire to the house and then run into the hills.” Sam shrugged. “Don’t sound right to me. Kids start fires just fooling around and we sure as hell don’t need special ops to come in and find them, but if those men weren’t wannabe military I’ll trade my last stamp.”

“They’re worse than special ops, Sam, much worse,” Robert assured him. The old guy had found out a ton of information that they could use.

“Then I guess we head to the cabin, see about Kris and then I see about getting you to Laramie.”

“And the college, Sam, we need to get to the college,” Kris said, shifting with a gasp when she must have jarred her arm. Robert immediately moved to pull her tighter, gently holding her wrist folded to her chest to keep it stable.

“Keep it like this and try not to move it,” he told her quietly.

“I’ll try,” she whispered, sounding weaker.

“Show us the way, Sam,” he said louder, kneeing his horse into moving. “Rowdy, come,” he called and watched the dog fall in behind him. “We don’t have time. I bound her wound, but it’s bleeding and she’s going to be tender for days as it is without suffering from too much blood loss.”

“She can stay with me,” Sam offered.

Kris immediately stiffened in his arms. “No—”

“No, I’m not leaving her, “Robert said clearly.

Sam raised his eyebrows and whistled through his teeth. “Well, then, maybe it’s best we get a move on,” he said. He clucked his tongue and guided his mount around a grove of fir trees. “Wouldn’t want to have to argue with the two of you,” he called back.

“You need to remember I’m not leaving you,” Robert murmured, still aching from seeing her in pain. Gunshots were dangerous. She seemed fine, but panic still ran through his veins.

“I’m trying,” she said, settling her head on his chest.

She sounded tired, weaker than before and when he gently touched her bandage he knew she’d bled through.

“Not much farther, Sam?” he asked as soon as he’d pulled up next to the old man.

Sam glanced down at Kris’ closed eyes and seemed to get his meaning. “Ten minutes. There’s a first aid kit there with a small gas stove. They keep the tank filled for emergencies. No need for a fire. I’ll leave you off and go get my truck. Have you ploughed out in no time.”

“Hear that, darling? Looks like we’ll have some alone time, soon,” Robert whispered when Sam moved on ahead of them.

She groaned and tucked her head in tighter to his neck. “And you won’t let me do anything about it, I’m sure. Probably for weeks.”

He laughed, amazed all over again by her. The panic eased at her words. The wound was small, luckily missing anything that could have harmed her drastically. She’d hurt, but after they cleaned the wound, she’d heal quickly, he hoped.

“Nah, not weeks, but until that arm of yours is healed over, we’re going easy on you, that’s for sure. No more samplings any time soon.”

“Oh, Robbie,” she said with another groan, “Don’t make me laugh. It’ll hurt too much, I think.”

“Damn, I’m sorry, I won’t do it again,” he promised, holding in his laughter.

Chapter Twenty-One

“You do know you made me do this to you, twice, no three times so far, not counting the head wound in the crash?”

Robert gave Kris a cool look for that, but didn’t pull the angry expression off as well as he must have hoped because he was so white. She never would have thought he’d be squeamish over blood, but hers seemed to have him white as a ghost.

“I just don’t want to hurt you.”

“And that’s what you’re going to have to do to make sure I don’t get infected. So, just do it. I promise not to cry,” she told him, not sure if she should make that promise. He needed to pour the hydrogen peroxide right on the wound. No doubt it would hurt pretty badly.

His grip on the brown bottle tightened until she tugged at his arm. “You’ll bust that and then what will we do?”

He didn’t answer but his grip loosened. He looked so lost, like a little boy being told to do something so horrible he couldn’t. She’d never dreamed he’d be like this, but then she’d never dreamed she’d be shot and needing him to do this.

“Robbie, if you can’t, I can do it, really. I can.”

That seemed to be enough to shake him out of it.

He frowned at her and his face tightened in that way it had when they’d been on the run. “I’ll do it. Just hold still, I’ll have to use it all, and flush the wound after with water to make sure nothing remains.”

She didn’t wince, but she wanted to. Her skin was cold, but hot too, varying in degrees based on what she was conjuring up in her mind. “Just do it please. I’m getting freaked just—ahhhh!”

He grimaced at her cry and she shut if off by biting her lip hard enough to leave a mark. The icy cold peroxide turned to heat almost instantly and that heat burned her open wound as if he’d punched it with sharp needles. She concentrated on Robert’s face, refusing to even glance down at what he was doing.

Drops of sweat dripped down his dark hair line, through his sideburns, and along his jaw as he turned her arm this way then the other with the torture he inflicted. He stopped pouring the liquid from hell, but then she felt more trickle over the wound, then he pressed a cloth right against her raw flesh. His jaw bunched, and the sweat rolling down his cheek followed a new path along the tight muscle. He clenched his teeth and blew out his beautiful nose, firming his lips to thin lines of pain as he worked.

Her own pain made her stomach sick, but she counted the seconds and concentrated on being somewhere other than where she was. She pictured Robert in a bed, under a tropical moon, making love to her with the sound of the waves crashing nearby.

She opened her eyes, breathing steadily again, and met his worried look. She braced herself for more pain as he nodded.

“Go on,” she whispered, already torn from her fantasy beach session. Another douse of peroxide scorched her skin and she was surprised she didn’t smell anything burning as the pain reached a new level, then tapered off with a cool splash of water, she assumed. Seconds later, she breathed out deeply, tears springing to her eyes.

“Done, all done. It’s good. It’s going to be good. It’s all over now, Kris, all over.” He sounded more like he spoke to himself than her.

She reached out and caressed his shoulder. “I know, it wasn’t that bad,” she assured him, her voice only wobbling a bit to put that lie to the test.

He snorted. “It
was
that bad, it was
worse
than bad. No more getting hurt. I never want to go through that again,” he breathed with such feeling she smiled through the pain.

“Okay, I’ll put that down as a requirement, okay?”

He finished with her new bandage, much less tight around her arm, before he met her eyes. His were red, so intense with emotion she held her breath. He carefully pulled her into his arms, making sure her arm was untouched and held her. His breathing was so deep, she knew he was battling something she couldn’t understand—fear maybe? She caressed her unhurt hand up and down his strong back and soaked in his warmth.

Slowly her arm felt better. Well, she thought, not better, but at least the throbbing eased and it didn’t hurt nearly as bad. After a bit longer, he breathed her name and turned his head to press a kiss to her temple.

“Don’t do this to me again,” he said with feeling.

“I won’t.” The words came out automatically and she smiled into his cheek laughing lightly at the promise.

“Don’t, just don’t. I can’t do this again. I know you want to come with me, but hell if I can chance you again like this. You could have been killed, Kris.”

He tightened his arms around her until it almost hurt, but she didn’t stop him.

“I don’t want you getting hurt either.”

He sighed at her words as if he’d wanted her to argue. “I know,” was all he said.

With one more kiss to her hair, he pulled up and looked at her. He examined her face like he saw something he wanted to memorise. Her heart clenched tight in her chest.
He’ll leave now, won’t he?

“We stay together. I can protect you better if you’re right here, by my side. But I need a damn weapon.”

“I’m sorry, I thought—”

“Shh, I know and if I had been a mobster, throwing my weapons in the snow would have been one hell of a good move.” He snorted again and sat back. “I need a phone. You think Sam has one?”

“A cell phone?” she asked and shook her head. “Not a chance, but the college will have one or I can buy one at a store.”

“Going near a store is out for now. They have me pegged for flaming some house. You’ll be on the six o’clock news as my accomplice by tonight.”

Stunned, she could only stare at him. Then, slowly, she said, “Bonnie and Clyde, huh?”