by Myla Jackson
“The other one, get the other one.” Zach nearly dropped her, his hold slipping.
Jake snaked the rope around her other ankle just as she wiggled free of Zach’s grip again.
The woman threw herself toward the tree line, jerking the rope from Jake’s hands.
Zach dove for the end of the rope and pulled tight.
Her feet cinched together and the woman toppled like a falling tree, throwing her hands out in front of her. As she hit the ground, a bundle rolled out from under the blue shirt she wore.
With the end of the rope, he yanked her hands behind her back and trussed her hands together. As the dust settled and Zach’s breathing returned to normal, he stood back and surveyed his catch.
“That’s my shirt you have on, woman.”
She remained facedown in the dirt, her eyes narrowed, red curls tumbled, without uttering a word.
Jake nudged the bundle with his bare toe. “Looks like your trousers too.” He dropped to his haunches and unrolled the bundle. The bag of beans fell out. Jake scooped it up and poured the contents onto the ground. Beans spilled in a neat pile. When the bag emptied, a shiny rock dropped amongst the beans.
The woman gasped. “Is that what I think that is?”
Jake lifted the nugget and held it up to the sunlight. “If you think it’s gold, you’re right.”
“And that would make you a thief.” Zach glared down at the woman. “Do you know what they do to thieves in the mountains?”
Chapter Three
“Do they hang thieves up in the mountains?” Honor gulped as she crooked her neck to lift her face out of the dirt and look up.
The tall dark-haired man towered above her. His angry face appeared set in stone. His blue eyes narrowed and his lip curled in a snarl. “In the most horrible way you can’t even imagine.”
The man with the curly reddish-brown hair started to shove the gold into his pocket.
Before he could, the angry one held out his hand. “You better let me hold on to that.”
Curly handed him the nugget. “Maybe you better. Seems my hiding places aren’t nearly safe enough.” He squatted next to Honor. “So, Zach, what are we going to do with her?”
Zach paused for a long time, working the nugget between his fingers.
Honor held her breath, her heart pounding against her ribs.
“Kill her.” He turned and walked back into the cabin.
“You can’t,” she cried, struggling against her bonds. “That would be murder.”
“You see a lawman around here?” The big man’s voice carried from inside the cabin. “Jake, if you’re not gonna kill her right now, you think you could start that fire so we can eat tonight?”
Jake scooped up the beans and grinned across at her before he straightened and headed for the cabin.
“Are you going to leave me here all tied up?” she shouted, snorting dust into her nostrils.
Neither man answered, but something suspiciously like a chuckle reached her ears.
Honor struggled to free her hands, only managing to tighten the already snug ropes. The more she wiggled, the more dust she inhaled, causing her to cough and sputter.
Several minutes passed and still no one emerged from the cabin, but smoke rose from the chimney.
“If you let me loose, I’ll cook,” she offered, anything to get the men to untie her.
Nothing. Not a sound from her captors.
After struggling and wiggling until she’d rubbed her wrists raw, she must have fallen asleep, exhausted from her escape from Running Bear, her fall down the hillside and moving through the woods throughout the night and day.
How long she slept, she didn’t know, but the scent of beans and biscuits woke her, making her stomach clench in pain. Dusk had settled in around the clearing, lengthening the shadows, the sun dipping below the rocky bluff. The temperature dropped as quickly as the sun disappeared.
Dressed only in the man’s shirt, Honor shivered. “You know, even prisoners are granted food,” she said, her voice weak, her hopes fading with each passing moment. “When I get out of these ropes, I’ll do the killing.” Tears slipped from her eyes to make mud in the dirt. “I just wanted to go to San Francisco. Open a hat shop. Be independent.” A sob rose up her throat and she swallowed hard to keep the men from hearing her cry. She wouldn’t let them know how defeated she felt.
Hadn’t she escaped a wild Indian? Hadn’t she traveled miles on her own without anyone’s help? She’d more than proven she could survive. This was yet another challenge she would overcome if she used her brain.
Dark claimed the mountain, the eerie sounds she’d listened to the night before even more prevalent while she lay completely defenseless in the dirt. Having asked to be released several times, she refused to beg any more. If they wanted her to die, starving to death had to be better than being hung.
Then again, hanging would end her life sooner. She wouldn’t lie there for days, wasting away. “If you’re going to kill me, get it done,” she shouted.
Zach sat across the table from Jake, his fork poised over the beans he’d been picking at for the past half hour.
Jake had cleaned his plate and sat nursing his second cup of coffee. The man had the good sense to keep his mouth shut through preparation of the meal as well as during the consumption. Twice he’d opened his mouth, thought better of it, and then closed it again.
Finally, Zach laid his fork to the side of his uneaten meal. “Spit it out.”
“You gonna leave her out there for the wolves?” Jake asked.
“What do you suggest?”
“Well, it ain’t right to leave a defenseless woman outside in the cold.”
Zach snorted. “Defenseless?” He held up his arm, displaying the cuts and scratches and a bite mark. “She’s not defenseless.”
“Trussed up like that, she is.” Jake glanced toward the open door.
Zach had his back to the woman. She’d been quiet now for almost an hour. Guilt gnawed at him and the guiltier he felt, the angrier he became. He’d seen her legs stretching out beneath the hem of his best shirt. When she’d squirmed in his arms, he’d felt the shapely curves of a woman. Even now he remained affected by her feminine parts.
His cock hardened, pressing against the buttons of his trousers. He had to shift and readjust twice before he got any relief. Across the table, Jake stared at him, a smirk curling the corners of his lips.
Zach frowned. “If you laugh, I swear I’ll punch you right in the nose.”
“We’ve known each other, what? Seven years?”
“So?” Zach looked down at the food on his plate.
A grin spread across Jake’s face. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so confused.”
“What did you expect? After what happened out there…” He nodded toward the door. “I don’t know what to think.”
Jake laughed, immediately holding up his hands to ward off Zach’s promised punch. “That’s what I’m talking about. Confused.”
“Gentlemen, it’s getting cold out here,” the woman called out, her voice weaker than earlier.
Another pang of guilt knotted Zach’s belly, making it bubble.
“She’s a pretty little thing, don’t you think?” Jake fiddled with his cup, his gaze on the coffee, not Zach.
“That’s the other thing. How am I supposed to act around the ladies after… Ah, hell.” Zach rose so fast his chair fell backward, thumping against the dirt floor.
Jake shrugged. “The same. You act the same as always.” He stood slowly and walked around the table. He reached out and laid a hand on Zach’s shoulder. “Look, it’s nothing to get your breeches in a twist. You and I, we’re friends. That won’t change.”
Zach stared into Jake’s face. “How could it not change?”
“Hello? Anyone listening? It’s getting extremely cold.” This time the woman’s voice shook.
“I’ll always be your friend.” Jake glanced toward the door. “Don’t get me wrong, I sti
ll like women and look forward to having me one in Idaho Springs, but what we did was special. Don’t make something dirty out of it.” He faced Zach and stuck out his hand. “Friends?”
Zach sucked in a deep breath and let it out, then clasped Jake’s hand in a firm handshake. Man to man. “Friends.” The word was brief, gruff and not nearly as fancy as Jake’s flowery speech, but he meant it. No matter what, he still had a great respect for the other man.
Jake’s smile widened. “Good. Now, are you going to do something about our little thief, or am I?”
Zach pushed the sleeves of his shirt up his arms and braced himself for his next round with the hellcat.
He stepped through the cabin door, for the first time realizing just how cold it had gotten since he’d gone in to cook supper. A chill shivered across his skin as he glanced down at the woman in the dirt. Still he didn’t move to untie her or carry her into the cabin. “You gonna fight me?”
She twisted her head to look up at him, dirt streaking her face where tears had dried. Fiery red hair sprang out in wild disarray, the lustrous curls only slightly dingy from the layer of dust. Long, slender legs ended in moccasin-encased feet.
The little bit of relief he’d gotten at Jake’s hands in the pool didn’t seem nearly enough. A woman like this could provide even more enjoyment if a man didn’t have a sense of morals and responsibility. He bent beside her. “That’s my shirt.”
She glared at him. “You can have it back. Just untie me.”
He stared at her for a long moment, admiring the emerald green of her eyes and the dusting of freckles across her nose. “You stole our gold.”
“I swear I didn’t know about the gold. I was hungry. I only wanted the beans.” As if to emphasize her words, her stomach grumbled loudly.
Jake laughed. “Can’t be lying about that, not with the noise her belly’s making. Let the girl up. We have some of those beans she tried to steal left in the pot.”
“Please,” she said, her eyes pleading with him. “Please untie me. I promise not to steal anything. I’ll leave and you’ll never see me again.”
Zach didn’t know what to do with the woman. The cabin barely had enough room to house two big men. If he left her out in the open, the wolves would finish her off. If the wolves let her be, the cool mountain temperatures would be the death of her, dressed in nothing but his best shirt. Zach rubbed his chin.
Bruised, scratched and thin, she could use a good meal. His dead mother’s voice poked at his conscience, urging him to take care of those who couldn’t take care of themselves.
This woman in front of him had stolen from him. She didn’t deserve his charity.
Then again, he couldn’t leave her out in the open.
Zach sighed, scooping his hands beneath her legs and back. He stood, slung her over his shoulder like a sack of seed and strode through the cabin door. Once inside, he dumped her on his bed, flipped her onto her face and untied her feet and hands. With one hand holding her arm, he pulled her to her feet and spun her around to face him.
Her free arm swung out and she slapped him hard across his cheek.
He jerked her forward, slamming her into his chest. Both arms wrapped around her, pinning her arms to her sides. “What’d you go and do that for?”
Her green eyes blazed, bright red staining her cheeks beneath the dirt. “That’s for your poor treatment of a lady.”
“Why I should—”
“What?” She practically spit the word in his face. “Rape me? Murder me? Leave me out in the cold to die from exposure or as wolf fodder? Go ahead. You deserved that and more.”
Behind him Jake chuckled.
“I don’t know what you’re laughin’ about, but you better shut yer goddamn mouth.”
“I wasn’t the one to get slapped.” Jake laughed louder. “And if you’d seen your face when she did it…”
Honor’s chest rose and fell with every breath. “You can’t do anything short of killing me that hasn’t already happened. I’m sick and tired of men treating me like a slave. Here, give me your gun, I’ll do the deed for you. I’ve had quite enough—”
His ears ringing and no spare hand to shut her up, Zach did the only thing he could.
He covered her mouth with his, kissing the fool out of the angry redhead.
Chapter Four
Shocked into utter silence by the big man’s lips pressing against hers, Honor stood stock-still. Running Bear had never tried to kiss her when he took her. All he wanted was to satisfy his carnal needs.
Parson Whitaker only ever kissed her cheek or forehead, never her lips, not even when coupling with her. Fornicating was a duty. A good parson didn’t find pleasure in the act, nor should his dutiful wife.
When the man called Zach leaned back and his lips left hers, Honor took several seconds to reel in her thoughts.
“Why did you do that?” When she should have demanded an explanation in an angry tone, her words came out in a breathy whisper.
He inhaled and exhaled twice. “To shut you up. Why’d you think?”
From shock to anger, her temper flared. “Of all the beastly things you could have said or done, that tops them all. Why, if I could, I’d slap you—”
Zach kissed her again, his lips completely covering hers, halting the words spewing from her mouth.
Determined not to let the shock slow her down this time, Honor muttered against his lips, “I will not be—”
When she parted her lips and teeth to utter the words, his tongue darted in, thrusting into her open mouth, twisting around her tongue.
He tasted of beans and coffee, all warm, wet and flavorful. Like nothing Honor had ever experienced before. Instead of fighting him off, she slid her tongue around his, her eyes drooping to half-mast, her breathing labored and shallow.
Heat surged through her body, awakening desires she’d never known existed. Her breasts rubbed against the coarse fabric of his shirt, the tips beaded and firm. All this from a simple kiss.
Zach’s arms loosened even as the ridge pressing into her belly tightened. Parson Whitaker had stiffened when he wanted to couple with her. On several occasions she’d caught him staring at her as she brushed her hair in front of the mirror in her nightgown.
Honor’s eyes widened. She’d aroused the mountain man. Would he rape her as Running Bear had? Would he throw her on the bed and spread her legs, ramming his cock deep inside her? Her body quivered.
Why did she not cringe in terror? Instead, heat built between her thighs, her woman’s place slick with the honey of desire.
Images of the men touching each other in the pool flashed before her, the remembered lust filling her belly, making her ache with a need she knew not how to satisfy.
As Zach’s arms loosed around her, her own hands slid around his waist and she pulled him closer, instinct prodding her actions. Her hips rubbed against his, the fabric of the shirt rising higher. How she wished she could be naked, with his work-roughened hands raking across her body.
Honor trailed her fingers down his back to the swell of his buttocks and back around to squeeze between their bodies where she caressed his cock, frustrated by the buttons and thick fabric of his trousers.
When her fingers closed around him, Zach went still. His tongue quit foraging into her mouth and retreated. His lips left hers and he jerked her away from his body. “Woman, are you a witch?”
Honor stared up at him, her vision blurred, her mind in a fog of desire. “What?”
Zach retrieved the rope from where he’d dropped it on the floor. He looped it around her wrists and pulled it tight. The rest of the rope he held in one hand while he pushed his other hand through his hair. “I don’t know what trickery you’re planning, but know this. I am not a simple-minded fool.”
Honor shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“While you are here, you will not work your feminine wiles on me. I will not be seduced and robbed by a bit of fluff.” He dragged her like a horse on a lead to the t
able and pushed her into a chair. “Eat, while I still feel charitable enough to allow you to.”
Desire boiled into anger. “You are the most annoying man I’ve yet to deal with.” Honor tried to stand, but his firm hand held her in place. “I will not be treated like a child or tramp.”
“And I will not be lulled into a stupor by a seductress.”
The man called Jake sat across the table from her. “I like her, Zach. She’s got spunk.”
Zach snorted. “She’s a menace.”
“Can we keep her?” Jake grinned.
Honor sat straighter, with as much dignity as she could muster wearing nothing but a man’s shirt. “You two are not gentlemen. You’re nothing but barbarians. I demand you release me at once.”
“Shut up and eat, or I’ll feed you to the wolves.” Zach crossed his arms over his chest and stood like a prison guard, rope in hand, ready to dish out punishment if necessary.
She opened her mouth, about to flay the man with a litany of his transgressions, thought better of it and bent to the plate placed in front of her. If she wasn’t so hungry, she’d tell him a thing or two and damn the consequences.
With both hands bound, she lifted the fork clumsily and dug it into the beans. She placed the food in her mouth, the burst of flavor filling her senses. Her eyelids closed and she moaned.
“Don’t do that.” Zach jerked her rope and the fork flew from her grasp, clattering to the table.
Honor glared at him, swallowing the beans. “What? You told me to eat.”
“Not like that,” he thundered.
Jake laughed. “My friend can only take so much, Miss—” His eyes rounded. “We don’t even know your name.”
Zach scowled. “Why do we need to know her name? Isn’t it good enough that we call her Thief or Hellcat?”
Honor shot an angry glare at the odious beast of a man. “My name is Honor—Honor Whitaker. I’m a widow, not a miss.”
