by Stacey Kayne
His gaze collided with the pot of coffee beside the fire.
"Kid," he said to Garret, "you better take your sister her plate and a canteen full of coffee. I don't want her falling asleep during her watch."
Garret shot to his feet, and Tucker told himself he was concerned about his horses, not Skylar...but he wasn't sure he believed it.
Chapter 6
Riding a wide stretch of ground between straight cliffs and a deep gorge, Tucker reflected that the Colorado countryside took some work out of herding the horses. His gaze swept across the land as his white stallion plodded along the left side of the herd, shadowed by the steep ridge. As they rounded a sharp bend in the cliff, he spotted a dozen or more tall wooden structures adorned with feathers and strands of beads rising up from the flat land on the other side of the ravine.
Indian burial ground.
Not seeing any buzzards flocking overhead in the clear sky, he figured the bodies laid out on the high trellises had been there for a time. Hopefully they'd been left behind by a migrating band of Indians who'd long since moved on.
Glancing back toward the horses, his gaze homed in on their trail boss heading up the herd. They'd been traveling together for over a week, but Tucker had a feeling he could travel with this woman for years and never get used to her presence.
No matter how hard he tried to think of Skylar as just another foreman, he couldn't do it, being all too aware that she was a woman. A damn pretty and desirable woman. A woman who took offense to any type of offered assistance from a man. He continued to irritate her by showing her the slightest bit of courtesy. I need to find myself some female company, he thought, his gaze following the slight sway of Skylar's body. It wasn't healthy for a man to be in a constant state of arousal. He'd never had the problem before, but then he'd never been in the company of a beautiful woman for any length of time, either. In fact, the only time he was around women at all he was usually naked or about to get naked.
Damn. That had to be it. His body expected some gratification, and not even Skylar's cold attitude toward him had convinced it otherwise. Finding some relief in a woman could certainly help to take the edge off.
Aw, hell. I'm married to Skylar. Would finding company for the night make him an adulterer? What the hell good was having a wife if he couldn't bed her!
"Amazing, isn't she?" Chance said from behind him.
"Yeah," Tucker answered absently, his gaze still locked on Skylar's slender back.
"Stay away from her, Tuck."
Shocked by the low warning, Tucker whipped his gaze toward his brother, who sat relaxed in his saddle, his expression dead serious. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Just what it sounds like. She's not a pretty widow lady itching for a quick tumble or a seasoned temptress whose company can be bought. She's a woman with a legal claim on our name and bent on claiming half our land. Be sure you keep that in mind."
"I don't need to be told."
"By the way your eyes have been stuck to her this past week, I say you do."
"The heat must be getting to your head. I'd have better luck roping the moon than bedding that shrew. Her eyes spark with a lethal glint every time she looks in my direction."
Chance wanted to trust Tucker's reassurances, but he'd seen Sky look at Tucker with a glint in her eyes that didn't have anything to do with anger, but could be twice as lethal. "Has she once called you Chance or mixed us up in any way?"
"No."
"Don't you find that strange?"
"Yeah. But I also had a black eye last week, taking the guesswork out of who's who."
"You're sure nothing happened between you two before I got to that cabin?"
A bark of laughter leaped from Tucker's chest. "I'm still living, ain't I? Why would I fuss with her gnashing teeth and sharp claws when I can have the delicate flower of my choice in any town from here to Wyoming?"
"Maybe because you married her. Don't try to convince me that you're not taken by her."
"That's the only way any man would bed her, with her doing the taking. If you'll recall, I was drunk when I married her, before she opened her mouth and started calling all the shots. Not that I have a problem with a woman having her turn in the saddle, but the only place that woman would ride me is straight to hell."
Chance started to speak then snapped his mouth shut. He'd be a damn fool to point out that he'd caught Sky watching Tucker damn near as often as he'd been watching her. That knowledge would only give Tucker the confidence he needed to pursue her, and screw things up worse than they already were. Discretion had never been Tucker's strong suit, and Chance held no doubt that the only reason Tucker wasn't trying to seduce the feisty beauty was Skylar's harsh attitude toward him.
That wasn't enough to ease his worries. "I want your word, Tuck, that you'll keep your hands off of her."
Tucker reined his white stallion to a hard stop and gaped back at him. "Are you serious?"
Chance reined in beside him. "She's not a fast woman who'd take a roll in the hay lightly. I wouldn't doubt that she's completely untouched. I don't want you getting a mind to tame her."
"You talk about her like she's a wild mare. Although now that I think about it," Tucker said with a wide grin, "she behaves more like a wild mustang than a woman."
"Then you'll have no problem giving me your word."
"Fine, I give my word," said Tucker, laughing as he urged his horse forward.
Chance has lost his mind.
As Tucker caught up with the horses a glint of sunlight coming from the steep hillside caught his attention. He spotted a man crouched in a thick patch of low shrubs on the hillside, aiming a rifle toward the herd.
"Sniper!" Tucker shouted the warning as he reached for the rifle in the scabbard at the side of his saddle and fired off a shot as the sniper did the same. Another gunshot from farther down the hillside pierced the air like an echo.
Tucker whipped his gaze toward the horses just in time to see Garret's horse go down, tossing the boy from his saddle.
Son of a bitch! Someone had tried to shoot the kid!
Chance began returning gunfire as Tucker set his white stallion into a hard run, weaving through the mares stampeding toward Garret.
At the center right side of the herd, Garret was in the direct path of the spooked mares. He struggled to his feet, doing his best not to get trampled. Tucker saw the relief in Garret's wide eyes as the kid spotted him riding toward him. He instantly widened his stance, preparing to leap onto the back of Tucker's mount. Tucker wrapped his hand around his saddle horn. Leaning down, he grabbed the kid by the arm and yanked him up. Garret shifted into place behind him.
"Hang on," Tucker shouted.
Garret latched an arm around his waist and pointed straight ahead. "My horse took off into that ravine."
Tucker guided his stallion down the steep slope, into the muddy bottom of the deep gulch. "Get down," he said to Garret as they jumped from the saddle. Garret landed right beside him in the mud, his thin arms sinking into the thick sludge clear up to his elbows.
They weren't going to have too much trouble rounding up the other horses. Most of them had taken shelter in the ravine and were headed upstream.
In the midst of the gunfire, Tucker climbed the steep incline to check the positions of Chance and Skylar. As he reached the top, Chance tumbled over the side.
"There was two of them," Chance said, crawling up beside him. "One left."
"Where's Sky?" asked Garret as he moved between Tucker and Chance.
"Keep your head down, kid!" Tucker placed his palm on the boy's scalp before he could peek over the ridge. "Did you see Skylar?" he asked his brother.
"She dived off her horse the second you shouted 'sniper.' She popped up with a rifle in her hands and shot down whoever had taken a crack at her."
"Was she hit?"
"I don't think so."
"You don't know for sure?" asked Tucker.
"Hell, I was busy trying not to get sho
t myself! The way she responded to your warning and took out that gunman told me she's not new to being ambushed."
Hearing rifle fire he thought to be hers, Tucker looked over the ridge.
Skylar stepped out from behind the wide trunk of a lone oak tree a good thirty yards from the ravine, firing her rifle as she sprinted across the open ground. Instead of moving toward safety, her long strides were taking her closer to the location of the other gunman.
"Damn crazy woman!" Tucker shouted.
Firing another shot, she dived behind a large boulder.
Tucker dropped down as a bullet kicked up dirt just a foot away, letting him know the sniper hadn't forgotten about them.
"That rotten bastard is shooting at my sister!"
Tucker grabbed Garret by the back of his shirt before he
could stick his head up again. "Damn it, kid, I said stay down! One crazy Daines is all I can deal with!"
The next three shots that rang out didn't sound like rifle fire. "She's using her revolver," Tucker said.
"Her rifle must be out of ammo," said Chance.
Tucker's gut began to burn with tension. Things were going from bad to worse. "Stay down," he said to Garret before he lifted his rifle to the top of the ridge and added to her gunfire.
Scanning the hillside, shooting at the clusters of sagebrush and manzanita, he couldn't see the gunman, but he didn't have to know the man's exact location to know he had the upper hand. From his high vantage point, he was out of range of Skylar's revolver, and without her rifle, Skylar was a sitting duck.
"You happen to notice we're near a burial ground?" Chance asked as Tucker dropped back down to reload his gun.
"Yeah," Tucker said, glancing at the opposite side of the gorge.
"All this gunfire is bound to attract attention," Chance said in a low tone. "Disrespecting their dead is sure to stoke some rage. We'll be lucky not to all end up staked out in some Ute or Apache camp."
"Not if we get the hell out of here," Tucker said, passing his rifle to Chance. "You and Garret lead the horses farther up the ravine. I'll help Skylar."
"How are you going to—"
Before Chance finished his question, Tucker scrambled over the edge of the ravine shouting, "Cover me!"
"Tucker!" Chance gave a curse and started shooting.
Chapter 7
Her back pressed against the boulder, fire burned inside Skylar's left shoulder. Morgan's rifle fire was giving her a bit of a reprieve from the fragments of rock that showered off the top the boulder when the gunman began shooting. With her target out of range, her long gun out of ammo, and a revolver that was doing little more than making noise, she figured she might as well check her wound.
Gritting her teeth, she lifted the side of her leather vest and glanced down at the bloodstained hole in her shirt. The bullet had whizzed right under her vest as she dived from her horse, lodging itself deep in her shoulder. The wound hadn't bled much. Her shoulder burned, but the pain was surprisingly tolerable, which she took to be a good sign. She tugged her bandanna from her neck then ripped at the bullet hole in her shirt.
She poked the cloth into her wound to prevent any further bleeding and swallowed a cry from the sting. Hearing what sounded like someone approaching, she dropped her vest and raised her revolver.
"Tucker!" she shrieked as he collided against her. Despite the jolt of pain, Skylar felt a rush of relief as Tucker's arms closed around her, clamping her against his broad chest as he gained his balance."Hey, darlin'," he said, easing back as he sat beside her. "That shotgun out of shells?"
His light tone didn't belie the true irritation burning in his eyes. "Yeah," she said with reluctance.
"Then what the hell do you think you're doing trying to rush that gunman?" He dipped his hand into his vest pocket and held out a handful of ammo.
Skylar ignored his stern gaze as she loaded her gun. "Where's Garret?"
"With Chance, down in the ravine about thirty yards east of this rock. You really should be worrying about yourself right now." Counting off Chance's shots, Tucker peeked up over the rock and scanned the dense patches of shrubs tapering down the hillside. He didn't spot a damn thing before he was forced to drop back down.
Skylar's gaze locked with his and he knew the intense worry in her eyes had nothing to do with concern for herself. "The kid's not hurt," he assured her, although he hadn't exactly stopped to ask the boy if anything was damaged or broken.
"Thanks for going after him the way you did."
Fragments of rock scattered over their heads as more gunfire rang out across the sky. Tucker grabbed her and shifted their positions. When the gunfire ended, Skylar lifted her head and found herself sitting between Tucker's raised knees, his arms clamped around her middle. He'd been holding her against him as he curled forward, shielding her with his body.
Stunned, she looked up at the man behind her and realized anew just how large Tucker truly was. No wonder he'd pulled her between his legs. The breadth of his shoulders was twice the span of her own, making the large boulder barely wide enough to give him adequate shelter.
"So, what's his position?" Tucker asked.
"Do you think he'd still be chipping away at this damn rock if I knew that? I can't exactly pop my head up to see which patch of scrub he's hiding behind when he starts shooting."
The sound and feel of Tucker's low chuckle confused her. She hadn't been joking.
"Now that you've got that rifle loaded, let's see if we can't flush him out," he suggested. "You shoot, I'll scout."
Skylar nodded. Shifting position, she raised the barrel to the top of the boulder. She fired in the direction she believed the man to be hiding. She fired off a few rounds, her shoulder burning with each blast. Just before dropping back down for cover, she paused, seeing a single spray of light flash from a thick cluster of brush high on the ridge. Higher than she would have guessed him to be.
"Tucker—"
"I saw it," he said, tugging her back down behind the shelter of the rock. He hugged her against the center of his body as more bullets pounded into their boulder.
"Hand me your rifle, angel," he instructed.
Without question, Skylar set her rifle into the palms stretched out on either side of her and prayed Tucker's skill matched the confidence reflected in his deft movements as he shoved another shell into the chamber. In the next second Tucker sprang up and fired a single shot.
Skylar peeked around the rock as a man began to tumble down the cliff. The large body rolled end-over-end down the steep hillside before dropping some thirty feet and thudding against the hard ground a couple yards away from them. If Tucker's bullet hadn't killed the man, the fall certainly had.
Tucker reached back, grabbed her by the hand and tugged her to her feet, pulling her after him as he strode toward the unmoving body. His eyes widened with surprise as he stopped.
"I'll be damned," he said, staring down at the man.
"You know him?" Skylar's gaze flickered across the mangled face long enough to recognize him as one of Randal's men. He'd ambushed her camp the evening her father was killed.
"A mercenary," Tucker said. "We crossed paths a couple years back when we were after the same bounty."
Skylar's head snapped up. "You're a bounty hunter?"
"Past tense, honey. I used to apprehend outlaws for bounty. I wasn't a murderer like this one. Did you recognize the other gunman?"
Skylar looked into Tucker's hard green eyes and realized she'd never seen him truly angry before. For the first time, she saw how folks could mistake him for Chance. The thought sent a chill across her skin. "No," she answered. "I was running for cover when I shot him."
"What about this one? You recognize him?"
"He's one of Randal's men."
'That explains why they had you and Garret in their sights. Let's hope Randal only sent two of his cronies to tie up his loose ends."
Before Skylar could respond, a rumbling sound coming from overhead drew her atte
ntion. Horses. Judging by the rumble rolling down from the hillside, their gunfire had drawn quite a crowd.
Tucker heard it, too. A look of deep concentration came into his eyes. His large hands gripped her waist and hauled her against his side. Skylar was yanked off her feet as he darted toward the cliff. Tucker took a few long strides before he brought her feet to the ground. "Run!" he ordered, his eyes scanning the broad side of the cliff.
"What about Garret and—"
"They should be down far enough in that slick ravine to not be spotted."
"The two bodies—"
"They can have their scalps," he said, tugging her by the sleeve so she didn't fall behind, "but I'm quite partial to mine."
They ran along the steep drop of dirt and rocks, none of which would provide any cover from the riders nearing the edge of the ridge.
"There," Tucker said, pointing to a crack in the hillside. A large slab of stone stuck out over the top of the gap.
Skylar gauged the width of the narrow crevasse and doubted they'd both fit into such a small space. "There's no room."
"We'll make room."
Tucker placed her into the crack and piled in behind her. Skylar growled his name. Right now Skylar's temper wasn't nearly as threatening as a band of hostile warriors looking to see who was disturbing their dearly departed. Although, the mumbled curses falling from her lips did give a man pause.
"Darlin', I'm not enjoying this any more than you are," Tucker whispered near her ear, hoping the Lord wouldn't strike him down for lying straight through his teeth. His temporary wife had the power to bring out the evil in him because he was enjoying the hell out of having her snuggled up against him, knowing full well he was the last man she wanted to have pressed against her tight little butt.
Sweet God, but her long body was a perfect fit to his. Too perfect The swell of her backside pressed against his groin was far too arousing.
"If you plan to breathe, you might want to turn around," he suggested.
"No!" she whispered.
"Turn around here before you get a mouthful of the mountainside." Taking a firm hold on her waist, he turned her so that she faced him.
