William slowly put his gun back in his holster, shook his head and sighed. “Don’t worry about it. He was a jackass that didn’t want to share his horses. So we took them.”
Annabelle smiled and took a deep breath. “I just hate jackasses. They’re so dumb.”
They’d shot that poor farmer over his horses and then burned his home to the ground. These sadistic savages would just as soon shoot a man if they thought he would betray them. She swallowed, her stomach tight with fear and nausea. Her and Beau were in so much danger.
“Beau, honey, don’t you think it’s time we called it a night? I’m kind of missing the feel of your sweet arms around me,” she said, as she stared at him with a smile. She had to get him to smile or act like nothing was wrong. If he stayed angry, they were going to die.
The men snickered.
“You better take advantage of her wanting to spend the night with you. As soon as the honeymoon is over, she’ll be complaining and pushing you out of bed. Enjoy it while you can,” William said, watching the interaction between the two of them.
Annabelle’s knees were knocking beneath her skirt. She knew she had to appear like she was unafraid and she didn’t know how much longer she could continue this charade.
Beau stood and walked to Annabelle’s side. “Night gentleman.”
His voice was curt and he didn’t respond to William. They walked a short distance from the fire.
“You newlyweds don’t go too far,” William said. “I’m setting up a sentry tonight to keep guard. We don’t need any surprises during the night.”
Somehow Annabelle knew that the sentry was watching over them. William may not seem too bright, but he was a cautious man. A man who didn’t leave anything to chance. And he wasn’t about to let her and Beau slip off in the middle of the night. It was a subtle warning, but a warning just the same.
“You can’t get angry,” Annabelle whispered, slipping her arm around his waist as they walked away from the circle of men. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close.
Beau’s mouth had a hard edge around it, like he was gritting his teeth. “The man pulled a gun on my wife. What am I suppose to do? Sing and dance?”
“Your make believe wife.” She watched as a muscle twitched in his jaw. “You pretend that nothing is wrong or we both die. Your choice.”
He made a snarling face at her. “I don’t like anyone threatening what’s mine.”
She laid her hand on his arm and gazed up into his green eyes, like he was the man who had stolen her heart. She was a consummate actress when their lives were on the line. And right now she knew one wrong move would find them both dead.
“Honey,” she said, and ran her hand on Beau’s chest and leaned in close. “They’re watching us. They’re making sure that we’re a happily married couple who are going to sleep in each other’s arms tonight.”
Beau took her by the arm and they made a spectacle of laying out their one and only bedroll.
“That being said, I want you to put a blanket between us tonight. Don’t even think about cuddling up next to me,” she whispered.
“The hell I’m not,” he said, standing close to her ear. “We’re newlyweds. We’d be all over each other like a bear to a honey tree. And there are no extra blankets.”
“But we’re not really married.”
“You have to pretend,” he said, and his lips turned up in a smile.
For a moment, she wanted to double up her fists and hit him, but she knew that wouldn’t look good for a couple of newlyweds to already be fighting.
“Damn you, Beau,” she said real sweet with a smile on her face. “It’s not nice to throw a woman’s words back at her.”
He laughed softly in her ear. “Do you want to live?”
She nodded knowing it was true. Her life was ahead of her. She wanted to have a good man’s arms around her, get married and have a family. Hell, she even wanted to return to the farm and raise her children there and talk to the chickens again. They’d probably stopped laying eggs because she wasn’t there urging them to get their business done.
“Then keep playing the game. We’ve got to convince them we’re a happy married couple.”
“When this is over, I’m going to insist that my sisters have my brain examined for being crazy.”
Annabelle was never one for rash decisions and this was the reason why. She’d jeopardized so much when she’d followed Beau, trying to prove to her sisters she was just as capable as they were. That she could bring in a bounty on her own.
“If we’re still alive, you won’t need a doctor to tell your sisters, I’ll do it in person,” he said. “I’ll tell them how you followed me, like a bitch in heat.”
“Hrmph,” she said. “You can tell them from your jail cell, but they’ll never believe you.”
Chapter 6
Beau lay in his bedroll, grateful to once again be sleeping on something other than the hard ground. But he feared he’d get very little, if any, rest tonight. Annabelle stood over him, frowning down at the blankets. He motioned for her to join him and she scowled. Good lord, the woman was the one who mentioned them sleeping together and now she was having second thoughts. Reservations that could get them killed. And while she was ornery enough to drive a sane man to drink, he wasn’t ready to meet his maker just yet. There were things that he’d yet to accomplish.
If his mother were to find out there was a wanted poster with his picture on it, she’d be happy to see that he was following in his brothers footsteps, but angry that he wasn’t going after northern banks. His brothers had names well known enough to scare men away. So he didn’t utter Jesse’s or Frank’s name to anyone. “Would you get your pretty little self down here,” he said, looking up at her. “Or am I going to have to toss you onto these blankets?”
That was an image he didn’t need in his head right now. Tossing Annabelle onto the blankets and him covering her body with his. Just the idea of the feel of her womanly curves against him was enough to have his blood pumping like a stampede of cattle.
She shook her head, sunk to her knees and then laid down beside him, pushing her skirts down. “You’ve obviously never worn a skirt with petticoats beneath it or you’d know that if you’re not careful, they can balloon out around you.”
“Nope, I’ve never worn petticoats. Can’t get a seamstress to make them in my size,” he said, laughing into her ear, trying to get his raging hard on under control. “But I don’t think that was the problem.”
Now that he had her on the ground, he was just sorry there were so many men around. He’d love to spend the night nuzzling on her earlobe. Putting his nose against her sweet neck and breathing in her essence. Already his dick was harder than stone, and this was certainly not the time or the place for his shaft to wake up to the soft, engaging smell of the woman next to him.
He pulled the blanket up over them and snuggled in next to her. It was then he felt the outline of a gun hidden in her petticoats. A sense of danger prickled the back of his neck. “When were you planning on using that gun on me? Were you going to shoot me in the back?”
“My pa taught me to always be prepared to defend my honor.” She shrugged. “I’ve been just waiting for my sisters to catch up to us and then you would have seen my petticoat pistol.”
The idea of her sisters threatening him and her pulling her pistol on him was daunting, but he’d never let her know. Laughing he shook his head. “And here I thought you were a prim and proper young miss.”
“Ha! If I were a prim and proper young woman, I never would have had to take a job as a waitress who had to dump food on men, to get them to behave. I’d be married and have a whole passel of kids by now. Besides, high-falutin women are boring. One thing I’m not is dull.”
“No, you’re definitely not boring or dull.” Beau pulled her up against his chest and wrapped his arm around her. “Sometimes what makes us stronger prepares us for what life throws at us.”
He thought
about his own past and how dealing with his outlaw brothers was what made him into the man he was today.
“What would you know about being a woman forced to find a job to survive?”
“I don’t, but I do know about people thinking you’re something you’re not.”
For a moment, Beau was afraid he’d revealed too much. But since he was a young boy and his two brothers made a name for themselves as America’s most wanted outlaws, people had expected him to be cut of the same cloth. And while they had the same blood, that didn’t mean he was the meanest hombre south of the border. Jesse and Frank held that title.
Her breathing slowed and he could tell she was thinking about what he’d just said. “Besides, being a waitress taught you how to deal with men.”
“Being a waitress improved my sharp-shooter skills. I can nail a can or a man from fifty yards.”
While he thought the idea of her nailing a can funny, he didn’t want to be the one she was aiming for. He laughed, reached down and pulled up her petticoats.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m removing your gun,” he said.
“Don’t even think about it or these outlaws are going to witness our first marital fight,” she warned him.
His hand hovered about her holster. He wanted to take that gun away, but knew there would be a fight. Okay, maybe now was not the time to divest her of that sweet little pistol. But the opportunity would come sooner or later and she’d find herself with an empty holster.
“But honey, thanks to you, they think we’re ten yards away from them making love,” he said nuzzling her neck, breathing in her sweet scent and feeling himself growing harder by the second.
“Don’t think about that either,” she cautioned.
“You brought it up,” he said teasing. Maybe right now she needed to keep things light so that the men around them would think they were adorable newlyweds.
“And I can feel just how excited you got at the idea. Pretend that you’re asleep.”
“That’s going to be difficult.” He let out a pent-up frustrated sigh.
She laughed and fell silent. Yet he could feel her heart pounding in her chest and her soft breathing. Finally, she asked, “Do you think we’re going to get out of this alive?”
“All we can do is try,” he told her not really certain himself. “But you did real good today. Even when that outrider asked you about the peaches.”
“That was too close,” she said.
“You handled it well.”
“Why thank you, Mr. Samuel. Coming from an experienced outlaw like yourself that’s a real compliment, I think.”
He frowned. There was no reason for her words to irritate him, but they did. He didn’t like it when she called him an outlaw. He didn’t like it when she compared him to the men of the gang, yet that’s what he was. An outlaw on the run, with no need for a woman by his side, even a beautiful, soft, willing woman. “You better get some sleep.”
“That’s going to be difficult. I’m in a real precarious position here. I have a man behind me with a loaded weapon in his pants and a band of outlaws surrounding me. Could you sleep?” she asked her voice taut with nerves.
A chuckle rumbled from his chest. His weapon was loaded and just needing a signal from her to unload into her sweet, womanly body. He kissed the back of her neck. “If those outlaws weren’t surrounding us, no, we wouldn’t be sleeping. We’d be doing what all married couples do.”
“But we aren’t married,” she said quietly.
“No, but you said we could pretend.”
And Good Lord, he wanted to feign that they were man and wife and celebrating their wedding night. He wanted to bury himself so deep in her that she’d be begging him. Yet it was all a sweet lie that was just a temptation that interfered with his focus and kept him off kilter.
“And then you’d leave me, possibly with a bun in the oven. Just what a woman needs. More heartache and a baby to raise with an absent father, a man wanted by the law. No thank you.”
No, he didn’t want a child brought into this world without him being with the mother and child. A father was important to a boy or girl. There would be no children raised without him.
“You really do like to put a damper on things, don’t you?”
“That’s my job. I’m always the reliable, sensible sister. Always looking out for my sisters, never thinking of myself. Never the one who takes risks or does things that put me in jeopardy,” she said with a sigh. “Until now.”
In the darkness, his brows drew together in a frown. An uneasy sense of fate overcame him.
“So what happened to bring you out of your shell? Your boyfriend break your heart and you decided to get even?” he asked, wondering what had caused Annabelle to choose to follow him out of town.
She didn’t sound like a woman who risked everything on a whim.
“Nope, nothing so romantic. Just the need to catch one last bounty to end my sisters traveling days. Only it didn’t work out like I thought.”
A snicker escaped his lips. “No, it didn’t.” He paused, the idea of two more women who looked like Annabelle searching for her disheartening. “How far behind do you think your sisters are?”
He didn’t want two more women to protect from the Harris gang. Two more women they would think was a gift to satisfy their lust.
“I don’t know. I would have thought they would have caught us by now. But maybe they’ve taken a wrong turn or something. I’m worried about them. I don’t want to be riding with the Harris gang when they locate me. It could get ugly.”
“Yeah, that wouldn’t be good. Go to sleep, Annabelle. Shut your eyes and try to get some sleep. Tomorrow could be a long day,” he said, worried about what the morrow would bring.
“What are you going to do?” she asked
“I’ll be awake, listening and watching.”
“Good night, Beau.”
Why did her words, the sound of her voice send warm ripples through him? Why was he even more worried now than ever before? How could he secure the money, protect Annabelle, and get them both out of here alive?
For the first time ever, he regretted the decisions he’d made with regards to his own life. There were times he wished he could be the kind of man who settled down with a woman and a family. Being with Annabelle made him regret the choices he’d made.
Later that night, Annabelle awoke with an insistent need to find a bush and relieve her long, denied bladder. She’d not gone to the bushes since they’d joined the Harris gang for fear of some outlaw walking up on her with her bloomers down.
Slowly she tried to rise without waking Beau, who breathed deeply and evenly. The arm that had been wrapped around her, like he was shielding her, dropped to the ground. She stood and walked away from the dying campfire and the sacked out outlaws into the dark. Quiet as possible, she stepped into the shadows away from the men.
Hurriedly, she did her business. Once she was finished, she started to walk back into the camp when she heard the voices. Slinking down behind the bushes, she watched in the glow of the dying campfire as William and Tom stood talking quietly. They had not been there when she’d left the camp area.
William was giving Tom direction. “At first light we’ll leave. Let’s plan on reaching the Red River tomorrow instead of the day after like Beau thinks. Then we can have him locate the money, the day after tomorrow and by sundown he’ll be staring at the sky seeing nothing.”
“Do you think it’s necessary to kill him,” the night sentry asked.
“He says he’s robbed all those banks, but I got that tingling in my gut that’s warning me he’s dangerous. Besides, it’ll mean more of the share for each of us.” William lit a rolled cigarette and took a deep puff.
The sentry nodded. “Yeah, I’d like to have his part of the robbery money. What about his wife?”
Annabelle held her breath, fear filling her as her imagination ran wild with what they would do to her once Beau was dead. God, she
would never ever stray from home again, if only she could find her way back.
“I’m sure you boys will enjoy her and then we can send her off to purgatory to meet up with her husband.”
“Yeah, I’d like to get a piece of that fluff. I still think they found that farmer. Those were the same peaches,” he said his voice rising. “She lied.”
Annabelle cursed the peaches she’d taken from the root cellar. How could a jar of fruit cause so much trouble? A shiver traveled down her spine at the realization they were going to kill them both.
“I didn’t notice until you mentioned it. But I think you’re right.”
“The spices were the same. Not everyone puts cloves in their peaches and those had the same spice as the ones that farmer fed us the night before.”
William took another drag on his cigarette and blew the smoke out slowly. “She can certainly talk her way out of a situation. Now I’m questioning whether or not they’re really married. Has he ever mentioned a woman before?”
“Never.”
Silence filled the night for several moments and Annabelle stood in one spot, not moving hoping they wouldn’t discover her hiding behind the bushes. An owl hooted nearby and the cold night air had her shivering. She had to make it back to Beau.
“Is she wearing a wedding ring?” the sentry asked William.
“I don’t remember seeing one,” William said squatting down on his haunches and stirring the fire. “I’ll look first thing in the morning. If I discover they’re not married, I’ll torture the location from him and then we’ll dump the bodies and move on. In the meantime, keep a watch out so they don’t get away.”
He rose from the fire.
“Will do.”
The two men strolled off into the darkness and Annabelle breathed a sigh of relief. She stayed where she was for a long time, waiting, her knees knocking, longing for her bed at home. An ache filled her chest and a yearning for her sisters, brought tears to her eyes. She wanted to go home to the donkeys braying and those damn chickens scratching in the dirt and clucking when they saw her coming. She’d never curse their existence again.
Lipstick and Lead Series: The Complete Box Set With a Bonus Book Page 41
