Reluctantly, Drake reined the horse in and guided it to the river’s edge. Though he would rather have pushed on, the stallion’s sides were starting to heave and a fine lather was coating the silky flesh beneath his knees. If he didn’t stop now, he wouldn’t have a mount to ride.
Swinging off the saddle, he looped the reins over the powerful neck. The mustang dipped his nose in the cool, flowing water and, kneeling on the bank, Drake did the same.
Twice, he plunged his head into the icy depths. The flesh on his neck prickled with the water’s chill as he came up gasping. Trickles of moisture poured down his chest and back. The wetness mixed with the sweat coating his body to turn the trail dust embedded inside his clothes to an itchy paste.
Swiping the dripping hair from his brow, he glanced up at the sky. Dawn was still hours away, and until the sun broke free of the midnight sky, he would have to keep stopping to make sure he was still following the same tracks. He’d wasted precious time doing that, but it couldn’t be helped. The sooner he found Hope, the better. He wouldn’t wait until daylight and risk Tubbs hurting her—or worse—before he could reach her.
The thought of Tubbs’ greasy hands anywhere on Hope’s body sent a bolt of rage shooting through Drake’s blood. He’d rip the man to shreds with his bare hands if he found the bastard had so much as bruised Hope’s little finger. As it was, he thought he’d have a hard time not killing Tubbs for having taken her in the first place.
He grabbed the hat he’d carelessly tossed aside and crammed it on his still-wet head. Tubbs! How the hell had the bastard found them? Drake had purposely avoided taking a ship from San Francisco, knowing that to be the first place Tubbs would look. And he hadn’t wired ahead to Boston, suspecting that Tubbs would have hired no-good thugs like himself to watch the depots and trading posts.
So how had he found them? And why had he taken Hope!?
With a ragged curse, he grabbed the reins and pulled the horse’s nose from the water. In one lithe motion he’d swung into the saddle and kicked the horse on. The clouds in the sky were darkening, and the first drops of rain splattered the top of his hat and his bare forearms. Soon, it would be coming down in sheets, washing away the tracks. If that happened, he’d never find Hope.
Swallowing past a sudden lump in his throat, he spurred the horse on. The tired stallion grunted in protest. Drake felt a momentary pang of guilt. He’d never ridden a horse so hard. But then, he’d never had a reason to charge through the night as though demons were biting at his heels. He hoped to God he never would again.
“So you remember me, do you?” Tyrone Tubbs asked sarcastically, as another bolt of lightning shot through the sky. “I was wondering how long it would take.”
Hope chafed the flesh prickling on her forearms. “Did you think I’d forget someone who tried to steal my gold?”
Although she couldn’t see his face, she could feel his anger. “Steal!? Funny, the way I remember it, you were just itching to give those little nuggets to the first man who’d lead you to Drake Frazier. Standing in my shoes, you owe me big for making me look like a fool in front of my friends.”
Hope stared incredulously into the darkness. She winced when the gun barrel jabbed her ribs. “Is that what this is all about? You followed us to God knows where and kidnapped me just because you think I made a fool out of you? Don’t you think that’s a bit extreme?”
“Don’t flatter yourself, sweet thing,” he snarled. “If I’d wanted to get back at you that bad, I could have done it in Thirsty Gulch. Lord knows, I had plenty of opportunity.”
She shivered as his tone took on a whole new, sinister air. “I don’t understand. Why else would you—”
“Definitely not for you. Tempting though you seem to think you are, you’re just an added bonus. Frazier’s the one I’m after, and you’re the one who’s going to get him here for me. This time, I’m not leaving anything to chance.”
Hope could have laughed at the irony of it all. Could anything be farther from the truth? Lord, it would be more likely that the gunslinger would get down on his hands and knees and thank his lucky stars she was gone, out of his hair for good.
“You think Drake’s going to come for me?” she scoffed. “Think again, Tinks, Tudd, or whatever the hell your name is. He won’t come. He has better things to do with his time than traipse all over the countryside looking for me.”
“Wanna bet?”
A shuffle of footsteps told Hope he had neared her side. Her gaze flickered between her abductor and the door. The sky chose that moment to deliver another lightning bolt. The indecision in her eyes was painfully obvious in the flickering, white-yellow light.
Again, the pistol was shoved into her wet side. “I wouldn’t try it, sweet thing. My patience with you is already wearing thin. If you’re smart, you won’t push me.”
Lifting her chin high, she dismissed the threat. “What do you want with Frazier, Tinks? Did he make a fool out of you, too? Seems to be a popular pastime these days.”
She gasped as his fingers bit into her upper arm and she was brought up hard against his wet chest. The urge to yank away was strong, but she squashed it, as a rumble of thunder echoed in the distance. Rain sliced at the windowpane. His breath fanned her face and Hope tried not to gag on the rancid stench.
“I told you not to push me. You’d better start listening to what I say, woman, or you’re going to find yourself in the corner, trussed up like a chicken with a gag stuffed down your throat. How does that thought appeal to you?”
Hope’s blood ran cold. She didn’t doubt he possessed the audacity to make good on the threat. That she would allow him to do so without a fight, however, was questionable.
He didn’t wait for an answer as he reached in front of her and grabbed something off the table to her left. The gritty sound of a match being struck was followed by a sudden flare of light. She blinked quickly to adjust her eyes to the unexpected brightness.
“There,” he said, as he set the globeless lamp back in place atop the rickety table, “now I’ll see it if you try to pull anything stupid.”
He ran the tip of his finger down the smooth line of her jaw, and it took every ounce of willpower she possessed not to turn her head and sink her teeth into his flesh. Instead, she pulled back, straining away from the repugnant touch as far as she dared.
“What do you want with Frazier?” she asked again, her tone dry, her glare angry and dark.
“What do you think I want with him, sweet thing?”
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be asking you.”
Her head snapped back under the force of his slap. With a startled cry, she covered her stinging cheek and glared at him angrily. She bit down hard on her lower lip to keep a furious retort at bar. The taste of blood on her tongue increased her fury.
“What are you doing?” she demanded when he crossed to the saddlebag dropped carelessly in the corner.
She watched him crouch, his hands rifling through the worn leather pouch before emerging with a strong piece of rope and a rag. A smug smile of satisfaction spread over his thin lips as he straightened and turned back toward her. Her heart skipped a beat with every step that brought him closer. Swallowing hard, his gaze flickered between the contemptible strip of rope and the sinister glint in those fathomless, coal-black eyes.
“I told you I wouldn’t take any more of your flak,” he sneered. Grabbing her wrist, he wrapped the cord tightly around her tender flesh. She flinched, but steadfastly refused to cry out. “I’m not like your lover, sweet thing. When I say I’m going to do something, I do it. Maybe next time you’ll listen when I tell you to watch your tongue.” His beady gaze met hers. “If there is a next time.”
His fingers felt cold and clammy as they brushed against her skin. The pungent smell of his sweat gave a new meaning to the word repulsive. Trying to ignore the churning in her stomach, Hope waited until he dipped his head to secure the rope in a knot at the base of her thumbs, then made her move.
Chapter 12
With dexterity, Hope pulled her knee up and slammed it painfully into Tubbs’s groin. A whoosh of air rushed from his lungs as he instinctively doubled over.
Again, her knee ascended. This time it crashed into his jaw. He was propelled backward, collapsing onto the dust-strewn floor with a resounding thud.
Hope wasted no time in bolting for the door. As she ran, she pried free the rope and let it drop to the floor. Throwing open the door, she dashed into the cold, wet night. She could hear him following, but his pursuit was slow.
Her feet squished in the mud as she rounded the corner of the shack, skidding to a stop in front of the dappled gray. She had just pulled free the reins and thrown them over the horse’s neck when her captor came bounding around the corner. In his haste to catch her, she noticed, he’d left his gun behind.
Hope vaulted atop the gray’s back, wincing as pain jolted through her shoulder. A hand closed around her ankle as she grabbed the rain-slick leather in her trembling fingers.
Looking down, she was captured by his sinister glare. His thin lips curled back in an ominous smile that made a shiver of dread ripple over her shoulders.
“Let me go!” she tried to jerk her leg free, but his brutal grasp held firm.
“Nice try, sweet thing,” he groused, “but you aren’t going anywhere.”
“The hell I’m not!” she pulled her hand back and delivered a resounding blow to his temple.
He staggered backward, but his fingers stayed painfully molded to her ankle. It was all Hope could do to keep her seat. The horse snorted nervously, sidestepping the man at its side. One lethal hoof pounded the dirt.
In a last-ditch attempt at freedom, she grabbed the leather crop from behind the saddle and brought it down across his leering face. The man grunted as he fell back. This time he was successful in bringing her down with him.
Hope toppled from the horse’s back and landed on her side in the mud, the riding crop still tightly clutched in her hand. The pain that exploded in her shoulder made her world go treacherously dark. Groaning, she willed her surroundings to stop their nauseating spinning. Desperately, she tried to scramble to her feet, but the mud made the ground too slippery. With his weight pinning her legs to the ground, getting up proved an insurmountable task.
She raised the switch to strike again. He knocked it from her hand. The crop splattered into a puddle, too far away for any hope of getting it back again.
In an instant, he was on top of her, his weight pinning her to the ground. The knees that tightened around her ribs made even the smallest breath impossible.
“No!” she screamed as his eyes settled on the mud-caked length of her neck. The last of her breath left her. A feral smile curled his lips as his fingers quickly followed his gaze.
“Told you my patience with you was thin, woman. You should’ve listened.” His fingers tightened around her throat. His smile turned into an evil leer when a strangled croak escaped her lips. “Too bad you didn’t, because now you’re going to have to pay the price for disobedience. I don’t tolerate disobedience, sweet thing. Not from anybody.”
Hope struggled, her fingers clawing at the hands that were squeezing the life from her throat. He seemed completely unaffected by her struggles.
“Don’t think I need to keep you around to get to Frazier. He knows I’ve got you. He’ll come, whether you’re alive or dead. No way he’s going to know which you are. Not that it matters, since he’ll be buried by your side soon enough.”
Oh my God, he’s going to kill Drake. The thought ripped through Hope’s mind with all the force of the lightning bolt that cut through the sky.
Frantically, she reached out and seized a handful of mud. She flung it at his face, and it hit his skin with a sickening slap. Thunder crackled overhead, overriding the man’s cry of surprise when the mulch embedded itself in his eyes.
His hold weakened enough for Hope to push him back. His hands released her throat as he tried to rub the mud from his stinging eyes.
Gasping for breath, she attempted to squirm out from under him. In her struggles, her foot smashed into the horse’s rear leg. Already skittish from the storm, the contact made the gray rear up on its hind legs. Another streak of lightning illuminated the magnificent stance of the horse pawing the air.
Its front hooves hit the dirt with a crash. Again, the gray bucked, its back hooves shooting out to catch Tubbs in the temple. Just as he was reaching for Hope, he toppled lifelessly into the mud.
With a cry, she shoved the body away. She was shaking badly as she raised herself to her feet. She had taken no more than a step when her legs buckled beneath her.
Her knees hit the ground in a bone-jarring collision that made her eyes water. Her hands were buried up to the wrists in mud. In her mind, the sight of Tubbs being struck by the deadly hooves played over and over again.
Hugging her arms around her stomach, she leaned forward as nausea racked her stomach. When she was done, she numbly collapsed atop the cold wet mud.
How long she stayed like that, she didn’t know. It seemed that for an eternity the rain lashed at her face and neck, soaking her already wet clothes, but it might actually have been only a few minutes. She’d lost all track of time.
At the feel of a hand on her shoulder, she screamed. So convinced had she been it was Tubbs, come back from the dead to seek his revenge, that she almost wept with relief to find herself staring into a pair of familiar sea-green eyes.
Without thinking, Hope threw herself headlong into his outstretched arms. “Drake! I—I didn’t think you’d come,” she sobbed into his shoulder. The tears that had been building now burst from her. Desperately, she clung to the warm strength pressing against her.
“Shhh. I’m here, Hope. I’m here.” Drake wrapped his arms around her back and cradled her against his shoulder. His hands stroked the mud-streaked hair that limply hung to the small of her back.
“He tr-tried to kill me, D-Drake,” she whispered against his throat, her voice trembling almost as much as her body. “He tried to strangle me. I couldn’t st-stop him.”
“Hush, sunshine,” Drake murmured in her ear as he hugged her close. “You don’t have to talk about it. It’s all over now. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
With a ragged sigh, she nodded. Instinctively, her arms tightened around his neck when his weight shifted.
“Come on. Let’s get you inside where it’s warm.” Instead of leading her, as she had expected, Drake bent and swept her up into his arms, offering a harbor of safety unlike any she had known before.
Drake turned toward the deserted shack, rainwater pouring down his harshly chiseled face. His arms supported her weight easily, as though he was carrying nothing larger than a small child. His boots squished in the mud with each long stride until he stopped at the shack’s door. He had only to nudge it with his foot to send it flying open.
He stepped into the center of the room and tenderly lowered her to her feet. The feel of his wet, sinewy body slipping against hers made her tingle.
Hope shivered. She was soaked to the skin, he clothes thoroughly drenched. The pieces of hair that insistently escaped the leather thong at her neck were etched with dirt and plastered to her face. She pushed the filthy tresses from her brow as she returned his appraising glance.
He guided her over to the single chair beneath the window and pushed her down onto the cane seat. Like a lifeless puppet, she complied.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” he promised. His eyes were dark, their expression unreadable, as he reached down to caress her muddy cheek. The touch was wonderful and much too fleeting as he sighed, pulled away, then turned for the door.
Hope sat, shivering with emotion as much as cold, waiting expectantly for the gunslinger’s return. It wasn’t long before, true to his word, he was back, almost as quickly as he’d gone. A saddlebag was tucked beneath one arm, a faded bedroll beneath the other.
“Are you all right?” he asked, as he dropped his burde
n onto the dirty floor. A cloud of dust billowed up from the floor.
Hope nodded, her smile weak. Now that Drake was near, her strength was slowly beginning to return. “Yes. I just—I just need you to hold me.”
Drake plucked the wet hat from his head and tossed it into a dusty corner. All traces of concern were suddenly gone from both his voice and his expression, replaced by an inexplicable warmth. Insistent fingers wrapped around Hope’s wrist. Before she knew what he was doing, he had tugged her into his tight embrace.
Hope savored the contact. She could feel the furious beat of his heart beneath her cheek. His clothes were as wet and dirty as her own, but she didn’t mind. The warmth of his body made up for it.
“I thought I’d lost you, sunshine,” he whispered in her hair, his voice so soft she had to strain to hear him. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in my life.”
A nervous laugh escaped her. “I was scared to death myself. That man was going to kill me—then you. I still don’t know why.” Her voice was strong compared to the weakness that invaded her knees. Instinctively, her arms tightened around him. Drake’s body responded in kind and she was rewarded with a deep whiff of his thoroughly masculine scent.
“Tubbs was a sick man,” Drake said, his tone serious. “His depravity was topped only by the man who hired him.”
“Hired him?” she gasped, pulling slightly away to stare into his eyes. “Someone hired him to kidnap me and then kill us? Why? Who would do such a thing?”
“My brother,” he replied solemnly.
Hope shook her head, her eyes wide. “No. No, it can’t be true. Nobody would do something like that to his own brother I tell you.”
His gaze hardened. “You’ve never met Charles, Hope. You have no idea what the man is capable of. Murder would be a small enough price for him to pay to have me out of his life for good.”
“But how can you be sure? Maybe—”
The finger he slanted across her lips stifled Hope’s words. She glanced up at him, her gaze wide-eyed and innocent.
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