by Carol Finch
“I intend to eat and rent a room for the night. You can scour the town for a guide, if you’re so inclined, but I plan to be refreshed and ready to ride at dawn.”
Jonah glanced around to locate Crested Butte Saloon and Clark’s Mercantile. Although he wanted the matter settled and out of the way, he followed Maddie inside the restaurant and took a seat. The café was bustling with patrons, several of whom darted speculative glances at Maddie, then at Jonah. He had the unshakable feeling that no one in attendance thought the attractive female belonged in his company. It was a prejudice he’d encountered for half his life.
Since the crowd seemed harmless, Jonah ordered his meal, then stood up. “I’ll check out one of the other possible scouts before lunch arrives.”
“Fine,” Maddie said stiffly. “Heaven forbid that you have to spend another few minutes with me when you could be locating someone to pawn me off on.”
“Look, princess—” he tried to object, but she cut him off with a slashing gesture of her hand.
“Just go.”
And off he went. Jonah walked across the street to request that the barkeeper at Crested Butte Saloon point out the potential scout. Jonah frowned disapprovingly when his attention was directed to a scraggly haired buffalo hunter half sprawled across a table, his hat askew on his head. An empty glass sat a few inches away from the man’s grimy hands, which were tipped with filthy fingernails. Flies buzzed around him.
It was high noon and Henry Selmon, the sorry son of a bitch, had already passed out.
No way in hell was Jonah going to entrust Maddie’s safekeeping to this pathetic drunkard. Without shaking the snoring buffalo hunter awake, Jonah wheeled around and exited the saloon. Two down and one to go, he mused as he strode toward the mercantile store to locate Yancy Clark.
Jonah introduced himself to the short, stocky Clark brothers, who were carrying supplies to the back of the store to load in the wagon waiting in the alley. When he explained his request, Yancy shook his frizzy red head.
“Too busy,” he said as he shoved the wooden crate across the wagon bed. “I’m heading out to Dodge City with supplies in the morning.”
Frustrated, Jonah returned to the restaurant and plopped into his chair to devour the meal that awaited him.
“That was fast…. Well?” Maddie prompted.
“Selmon is a drunk and Clark is taking a shipment of supplies north first thing in the morning,” he reported between bites.
“Then the matter is settled,” Maddie declared. “Since you refuse to accompany me, then I will use your tactic of avoiding the open road and following tree-lined creeks. I’ll ride west tomorrow and you can head east.” She dropped money on the table to pay for her meal, then rose to her feet. “If you feel inclined to say goodbye, you can find me at Horning’s Hotel.”
Exasperated, Jonah watched her walk away—and noticed that at least a dozen admiring male gazes followed her until she disappeared from sight. Jonah sighed heavily. That woman drew entirely too much attention, just by living and breathing. It would be impossible for her to make an unescorted jaunt across the frontier without getting herself in trouble.
Maddie paid for her hotel room and carted her satchel upstairs to find meager but tolerable accommodations. All she wanted was an afternoon nap on a real bed. Then she would gather a few supplies before she enjoyed a hearty supper and settled in for a good night’s sleep. She also wanted to forget that Jonah Danhill had stomped on her feminine pride and hurt her feelings by racing around town, trying to foist her off on someone else so he could be rid of her.
She supposed this was her comeuppance for rejecting several suitors who didn’t interest her in the least. Suddenly she had stumbled onto a man who intrigued her and inspired a host of feminine yearning. Unfortunately, Jonah viewed her as a nuisance and inconvenience, and he didn’t trust her.
Being rejected was hard on her pride, but she would learn to deal with that, just as she’d learned to deal with all the obligations and difficulties she’d encountered after her father disappeared. For sure and certain, her personal disappointments were no match for the terror Christina was enduring. Maddie resolved, there and then, to focus all of her thoughts and efforts on blazing a path toward home to deliver the ransom money.
Sprawled faceup on the lumpy bed, Maddie closed her eyes and ignored the image of coal-black hair and intense green eyes that floated across her mind’s eye. Jonah Danhill was just a footnote in the annals of her life, she reminded herself sensibly. She had survived without him before she met him and she would manage just fine without him now.
On that determined thought Maddie fell asleep.
A century later—or maybe it was only a few minutes; she couldn’t say for sure—Maddie was jolted awake to see that the same two cowboys who had been chasing her were hovering over the bed. She felt the spitting end of a six-shooter jammed against her throat.
“Give us that money and you can be on your way,” one of them growled ominously. “We’re damn tired of chasing you all over creation. Now hand it over.”
Maddie had no weapon with which to defend herself, and the money that might save Christina’s life was stuffed in her satchel at the end of the bed. Although she didn’t want to involve Jonah, she said the first thing that popped into her head in order to buy herself precious time.
“My husband is carrying the money,” she wheezed.
The other man’s eyes narrowed on her as he stuffed his pistol a little deeper into the side of her neck. “Where’d you find a husband so fast? Nobody told us about him.”
Rattled though Maddie was, she realized that these two men weren’t working alone. The only other individuals in Fort Worth who knew she was carrying a hefty stack of money were the family attorney and the bank teller.
“My husband should be here soon,” Maddie insisted nervously.
When her assailants glanced expectantly at the door, Maddie bolted into action. Her hand shot upward to shove the pistol away from her neck as she rolled off the side of the bed. Amid snarls and foul curses the pistol discharged—sending feathers flying from the pillow where her head had been. Heart pounding like a tom-tom, she slithered beneath the bed and screamed down the walls. All the while she kicked at the protruding arms that reached beneath the bed to grab hold of her.
“Better get the hell out of here while the getting is still good,” one of them muttered when the sound of doors opening and closing and the thump of footsteps indicated that Maddie’s wild screams and the gunshot had drawn attention.
Maddie poked her head out from under the bed as the two cowboys slipped between the dingy panels of the curtain and escaped through the window. Bounding to her feet, Maddie darted across the room to watch the would-be thieves drop down onto the wooden crates they had stacked up in the alley to form a makeshift staircase. Although the crates toppled as the men clambered hastily downward, they reached the ground, split up and sprinted off in different directions at a dead run.
Maddie sagged heavily against the windowsill and dragged in a shaky breath. Her gaze swung back to the bed to focus on the pillow and scattered feathers.
That could have been her head, she thought with a gulp.
She was still trying to collect her wits when the door crashed open and Jonah dived inside. With both pistols drawn, and looking as formidable as the devil himself, he rolled across the floor.
When he bounded to his feet, her first reaction was to fly into his arms like a homing pigeon coming to roost. But Maddie clamped her fingers on the windowsill and willfully stayed where she was. She had to remain independent and rely on no one but herself. And by damned, she was going to teach herself to be as unflinching and unruffled as Jonah!
Ignoring the curious bystanders in the hall, Jonah kicked the door shut with his boot heel, then shoved his six-shooters into the holsters. When his assessing gaze landed on the defeathered pillow, he snatched it up to note that the bullet had gone clean through the mattress.
He spit
out a succinct curse and focused his absolute attention on Maddie. “What the hell happened?”
“When?” she asked smartly. “Before or after my two friends jabbed a pistol in my throat and demanded the money?”
He stalked to the window and stared down at the disheveled stair steps of crates. He spouted a string of profanities that apparently offended Maddie’s ears because she stared disapprovingly at him.
“That will help the situation,” she said sarcastically. “Wish I’d thought to do it.”
“Sorry,” he muttered, then looked her over carefully to determine how much damage her assailants had done. She seemed fine—a little peaked, but still in one piece.
Jonah felt an uncharacteristic shudder riddle him as he slumped in relief. He’d been on his way up the steps when he heard the shot and the screams. He’d knocked bodies out of his way to reach Maddie’s room and he nearly suffered apoplexy when he spied the bullet hole in the pillow and mattress. He considered it an incredible stroke of luck that she hadn’t been shot full of holes.
Maddie pushed away from the window and half collapsed on the end of the bed. She grabbed the satchel containing the money and hugged it protectively. “I was taking a nap and awoke to find those same two scroungy-looking men looming over me, demanding the money,” she elaborated. “I told them that you had the bills stashed away and that you’d be here any minute. When they glanced toward the door I knocked aside the gun and rolled under the bed.”
“You knocked the gun…” His voice disintegrated into a horrified gasp. “Damn it, woman!” He erupted in bad temper. “You could be the deadest woman who ever lived!”
Maddie bolted up to confront him, toe-to-toe and eye-to-eye. “What was I supposed to do? Lie there submissively, waiting for you to show up when I didn’t know if you would? I can take care of myself. I will take care of myself!”
“Yeah, that’s what worries me,” he grumbled as his gaze returned to the brutalized pillow. “I don’t like your daredevil techniques.”
“They don’t seem to bother you when you’re the one performing them. And what purpose was that drop-and-roll tactic supposed to serve?”
“Most men aim for the chest. I prefer to come in low and fast. Loaded for bear.”
“I’ll add that to my self-defense repertoire,” she said, then frowned pensively. “One of those men demanded to know how I’d acquired a husband so quickly.”
Jonah’s attention zeroed in on Maddie’s waxen face. He didn’t like the sound of that. Of course, he only had her word for it. She could have made it up to reinforce her claim that she had no idea who the two assailants were. Now she implied there was a conspiracy working against her.
Silently he watched Maddie retrieve the money from her satchel, dump the water from the pitcher out the window and replace it with several bundles of cash. After tucking part of the money in the pocket of her riding breeches, she strode toward the door.
“Where are you going?” he demanded. “Haven’t you invited enough trouble for one afternoon?”
“I need to gather supplies for my trip,” she called over her shoulder. “Unlike you, I can’t live off the land so easily. I’m also going to buy a pistol because I’m probably going to need it.”
“No, you won’t,” he insisted as he followed her into the hall. “I’m going with you.”
She halted in the process of locking the door then narrowed her amber eyes at him. “No, you aren’t.” She drew out several bills and crammed them into his shirt pocket. “You’ve been paid for your trouble. Now kindly get out of my way. I have places to go and things to do.”
“I said that I’ve decided to escort you on the next leg of your journey and that’s what I’m going to do,” Jonah said in no uncertain terms. “I’ll turn back when you reach familiar territory.”
“If memory serves,” she said as she walked off, “you swore up and down that you were going no farther than Fort Griffin. You said this was the end of the line for you—or something to that effect.”
He fell into step beside her. “Well, I changed my mind.”
Maddie and Jonah halted in their tracks when they rounded the corner to see Kiowa Boone propped negligently against the wall, arms folded over his thick chest.
“Heard you had trouble,” Boone remarked as his acute gaze made a slow, assessing sweep of Maddie’s arresting figure.
“Minor incident,” she said as she thrust out her hand. “I’m Maddie…Danhill. Nice to make your acquaintance, Kiowa Boone.”
The rugged, bronze-skimmed scout stared at her tapered fingertips, as if he didn’t quite know what to do with them, then shook hands. “Just plain Boone will do fine,” he requested. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”
When Maddie descended the steps, the scout’s curious gaze riveted on Jonah. “What happened?”
Jonah offered an abbreviated version of the encounter. “The two unidentified men who have been following us overtook Maddie, but she managed to frighten them away.”
Boone’s dark gaze monitored Maddie’s departure from the hotel. “She must be tougher than she looks. Maybe the two of you aren’t such a mismatch, after all.”
“Of course, we are. You know it. I know it. The whole world knows it. But Maddie has toughened up. That’s what scares the hell out of me,” Jonah added as he pivoted on the landing and headed down the steps.
“Decided to go with her,” Boone said from behind him. “She obviously needs a protector. But just so you know, I’m doing this as a favor to one of my own kind.”
Although Jonah had finally found a willing, competent scout to take Maddie west, he was reluctant to send her off, knowing her two assailants were still determined to relieve her of the money—even if it meant riddling her with bullet holes. “Thanks, but I’ve decided to take another two days and escort her into familiar territory,” he told Boone.
The scout’s wide shoulders lifted in a casual shrug. “Your wife, your choice.” Then he asked abruptly, “Which tribe raised you?”
“The Comanche,” Jonah replied as he stepped onto the boardwalk.
“So you are going to walk over the graves of our people.”
“Looks like. I’m asked to face danger every damn day on the job. Might as well learn to face the bitter disappointments and resentments of the past, too. Why should I expect you to do what I don’t particularly want to do myself?”
“You do the Comanche proud, my brother,” Boone murmured as he veered toward Wild Card Gaming Hall. “I do not envy you facing the ghosts of our lost clans.”
Jonah hiked across the street and stood as posted lookout while Maddie purchased canned beans and fruit, a canteen and a tin of coffee. She pretty much ignored him as she strode to the mercantile to buy a bedroll and an extra change of riding breeches. He allowed her to have her own space as she wandered down the boardwalk, pausing occasionally to peer into the windows of various stores before she entered the gunshop. Although she didn’t seem to want his company, he never let her out of his sight and kept a constant vigil, hoping to spot the cowardly hombres who kept harassing Maddie.
There was nothing Jonah would like better than to corner those two rascals and twist their arms a dozen different ways until they told him the truth about their association with Maddie. Unfortunately, the men seemed to have gone into hiding again. They reminded Jonah of a couple of snakes that kept slithering under rocks to avoid detection.
Jonah frowned thoughtfully when he recalled that Maddie had informed the men that he was carrying the money. A wry smile pursed his lips as he ambled toward the saloon. Maybe it was time he posed as bait. He’d let those pistol-packing rascals come to him and maybe he would finally get the truth.
An hour later Maddie returned to her room with her purchases, then checked to ensure the money was where she’d left it. Sure enough, it was. She did notice, however, that someone had rummaged through her satchel without replacing the items exactly as she had packed them.
Muttering, she sta
lked over to the window to note that the wooden crates had been restacked. Since the lock on the window had been damaged Maddie moved the dressing screen in front of it, then piled up the cans of beans and fruit to form an obstacle path. If the intruders decided to make another surprise visit they would knock over the pyramid of cans and unintentionally give her advanced warning.
Satisfied with her improvised booby trap, Maddie strode down the hall to refill the pitcher with water, and then freshened up for supper. She donned the green gown she’d brought along with her and took time to twist her hair into a fashionable coiffeur.
Locking the door behind her, Maddie descended to the hotel lobby to see Jonah parked nonchalantly in a chair, puffing on a cheroot. The instant his gaze drifted over her in thorough appraisal heat coiled inside her. Damn the man! He was the only one who had ever been able to draw a tingling reaction from her with just a look. She was entirely too sensitive to him, too attuned to him.
That was going to stop, she promised herself as she swept regally out the door. Starting now, she was going to ignore him completely and see how well that worked.
Jonah smiled in amusement as he watched Maddie sashay outside and pretend he wasn’t there. The woman had sass and spunk, even if she was too stubborn to rely on common sense. No matter what else happened she was not going to continue her journey alone, not when she had to cross some of the most unforgiving and demanding terrain Texas had to offer. There were miles of craggy stone escarpments and winding ravines inhabited by wild animals and dangerous outlaws.
Dust storms blew up without warning. Anyone who wasn’t familiar with the area could become hopelessly lost in the time it took to blink. Although Jonah had no inclination to revisit the Llano Estacado—the Staked Plains, where his people had once roamed freely—he was not going to allow Maddie to make that perilous journey alone.
But he was definitely turning back after two days of hard riding, he promised himself. And you could write that down in stone.
