The Texas Ranger's Daughter. Jenna Kernan

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СКАЧАТЬ and remembered all her father had taught her. Why was it easier to remember than to forget?

      Boon returned a moment later with a lead line that he fastened between her horse’s bridle and the rear rigging dee of his saddle. Clearly he did not believe she could ride or did not trust her to ride in the same direction as he did.

      Did he think she’d run?

      Once mounted, he twisted in the saddle to look back at her. “Don’t fall off. If you feel sleepy give a holler. We’ll be riding faster as the light comes up. With luck we’ll find another way out of these canyons.”

      He didn’t have an escape route planned? Laurie felt the anxiety prickling in her belly like a stalk of nettles. She glanced back at the way they had come and could see their horses’ tracks in the sand. The shroud of darkness was dissolving like mist, retreating against the rising moon, and the outlaws were back there, coming for them.

      Her father had hanged George Hammer’s little brother. That meant Hammer wouldn’t stop until he caught them.

      Did Boon know who her father was?

      Was he rescuing her, or perhaps her father had offered some bounty and he was trying to collect the ransom himself. She hoped he hadn’t taken her with something else in mind.

      Laurie wondered if knowing that her father was John Bender, the Indian fighter and renowned Texas Ranger, would help her or hurt her. Boon was an outlaw. He might not want to save the daughter of a man sworn to hunt him down and kill him.

      Laurie decided to keep silent until she knew more about this man and his intentions. Until then she’d look for a chance to escape.

      “Hold on,” Boon called and then kicked them to a gallop.

      Laurie gritted her teeth and lifted the reins. If they managed to escape, would her father even want her back?

       Chapter Five

      They’d ridden through the night past the silvery tufts of sage grass and squatty juniper that somehow survived growing in nothing but dry gravel. Boon followed the channel that had cut this canyon, up a wide dry wash that could fill in a moment with runoff from a storm upstream. When they veered off the main channel, he hoped he’d chosen wisely and that this finger would bring them back to the surface without having to abandon their horses. Boon had stopped only to brush away their tracks back as far as the last draw. Hammer knew this territory, but the steady wind eroded their tracks and only the fading quarter moon marked their passing, allowing them greater speed.

      He glanced back at Laurie, motionless, her chin on her chest and her posture defeated. She’d stopped her sniffling, but her tears still tore into him worse than cat-claw thorns.

      If there was any doubt in anyone’s mind about his suitability as a Texas Ranger, Boon’s actions had settled the matter. What he’d read as Laurie’s consent turned out to be only her inexperience. What he’d thought was a gift, a way to distract and comfort, ended up being neither. Paulette had told him this was what all women wanted. But then why did it make Laurie cry? She’d seemed to enjoy it at the time and it sickened him to think that he had taken advantage of her, when he’d only meant to give her pleasure.

      Paulette, a new arrival to the Blue Belle, had taught him that this was how you gave a woman her release and that there was no danger of unwanted children this way. Then why was Laurie so grieved?

      The truth settled heavy in his chest.

      He’d taken advantage of a woman in his care, something he knew a Ranger would never do. He was no better than the animals on their trail, just another brutal outlaw who used women for sport. He thought of his mother and his shoulders sank another inch.

      He glanced toward the sky again, certain this time that the stars had begun to vanish. Dawn was coming and with it the desert heat. Something rustled in the brush. Likely a porcupine or armadillo, he thought, continuing on. The cry from behind him brought him about in his saddle. Laurie gripped the saddle horn with both hands and was hauling herself back into the saddle seat.

      He turned his mount.

      “I fell asleep,” she admitted.

      Boon nodded, reaching for her.

      “What are you doing?”

      He pulled her from the saddle and settled her in front of him.

      “I’m awake now. No need to trouble yourself.”

      “If you fall, you might bust something. You rest a bit.”

      She wiggled her hips to settle before him and he gritted his teeth against the physical reaction of his body to hers. He’d not touch her again, he vowed. Laurie stilled, suddenly motionless as a rabbit before a fox.

      “Where are you taking me?” she asked.

      His first thought was Mexico, but he knew he couldn’t just ride off with her. That would be wrong. Then why did his mind fix on the notion like a feather caught in tar?

      He wrapped one arm about her waist and nudged the horse to a fast walk.

      “I’m bringing you home, Laurie.”

      “You are?” Her voice echoed with astonishment. Could she not even conceive of someone like him doing the decent thing?

      “That’s right.”

      “To my father?”

      He didn’t know her father or his connection to the captain.

      “I suppose. I’m here on orders from the Texas Rangers under Captain John Bender. You heard of him?” He puffed up a little when he said it, proud to be associated with Bender, even if the association was only temporary. He wondered again if he could make it permanent. Maybe the captain would see, when he brought Laurie home safe, that he’d be a welcome addition to Bender’s division.

      Laurie turned and stared up at him, her expression confused.

      She clarified. “Captain John Bender, famous lawman, legendary Indian fighter, that John Bender?”

      “The same.”

      Boon lifted his chin a notch, hoping she was impressed.

      “He sent you?”

      Uncertainty flickered down low in his belly, but he nodded.

      “I just said so.” Had she heard of him or not?

      “That John Bender is my father.”

      Boon swayed, and had it not been for the saddle cantle behind him he’d have likely dropped over backward. He felt as if she’d punched him in the stomach, would have preferred it in fact. She still stared at him, half-turned in the saddle, one brow lifted in speculation.

      “You didn’t know,” she said.

      He shook his head in answer as the truth descended upon him like a cloud of locusts from a blue sky. She wasn’t Bender’s woman. This was his child and Boon had done things to Laurie to which a father would surely take offense. СКАЧАТЬ