Seized By The Sheik. Ann Voss Peterson

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СКАЧАТЬ boots hit the ground. The crazy way the sound bounced off the canyon walls made finding the source nearly impossible. She pointed in the direction she thought she’d first heard the sound. “There. Can’t tell for sure.”

      He gestured to a formation, and they slipped behind it. Walls of red-and-tan rock rose around them. A miniature version of a box canyon. Safe, but only until the shooter decided to block off the only escape route.

      “We can’t stay here,” Callie whispered. “They had to have seen where we went. We’ll be trapped.”

      “I’m not planning to stay.” He squinted into the sun. Lines fanned out from the corners of his eyes. He looked concerned, yet calm. A man used to being in tight places. “Do you have a phone?”

      “No reception out here.”

      “What’s closest? Town?”

      She shook her head. Dumont was a good distance by foot or by horse. Even the ranch owned by family friend Helen Jefferies would take an awfully long time to reach through this canyon. Faster to get out of Rattlesnake Badlands as quickly as possible and head in the other direction. “My family’s ranch is closest. If we exit the canyon to the south, we can probably make it by nightfall.”

      The sheik arched his black brows. “Your family?”

      “I grew up here.” For some reason, she’d assumed he knew that. Strange. But every time he looked at her, it felt like his dark eyes saw everything. Her innermost thoughts and feelings. Even her past.

      “Then you know the land.”

      “Yes. Any ideas who is shooting at us?” She’d like to think it was a local out shooting targets on the BLM, something she and her brothers did more times than she could count. But she knew that was unlikely at best.

      “Russian mob? That might give us some room to work.”

      “Room to work?” That was her worst fear. A sniper like the one who had tried to kill Prince Stefan. A man whose aim was to kill, ruthlessly, and who had the skill to pull it off.

      “He probably doesn’t know the area. Not like you do.”

      A silver lining, if only a shred of one. “You’re right. So we have an advantage there.”

      “We sure don’t have one in firepower.” He held up his pistol. A nice weapon, but not much use at a distance. “Are you a good shot?”

      “Won some shooting contests when I was in high school.” She held up her rifle, showing him the brass plaque on the stock proclaiming her Wind River County Champion Marksman, Junior Women’s Division. The whole idea of shooting competitions seemed ridiculous and trivial in light of the situation they were in. Fun and games in the face of life and death.

      He nodded, as if it was exactly what he was hoping for. “Okay. Then you can cover me.” He handed her his horse’s reins.

      His words jolted her like a slap. “Cover you? Where are you going?”

      “That first shot, it wasn’t meant for us.”

      “Who was it meant for?”

      “Whoever is up on that ridge.” He pointed across a rough area of the canyon floor to a ridge of rock. “See him?”

      She shielded her eyes with her hand.

      “To the right. You can see something white, a sleeve.” Lightly touching her cheek, he tilted her face in the correct direction.

      She tried not to think about the feel of his touch and focus on spotting what he was trying to show her. Sure enough, some sort of white cloth was flapping in the wind. “I see it. You think it’s a person?”

      “I think it’s a body.”

      “You saw him get shot?”

      “Not exactly. I didn’t realize he was there. Not until after the shot was fired and he suddenly wasn’t.”

      “And you plan to climb up there?”

      “We can’t leave him.”

      “Do you know who it is?”

      He shook his head. “Let’s hope not.” Holding his weapon at the ready, he stepped forward.

      “Wait.” She grabbed his shoulder. “If this is a sniper…”

      He looked back. His eyes fixed on hers. “That’s why I’m relying on you. Can you cover me?”

      Her insides shook so badly that she didn’t even know if she could manage to get her finger to the trigger. The dossier she’d studied on his background had mentioned military service, as with the other COIN leaders. But even though she’d grown up around guns and knew the terrain, she was no soldier. At the sound of that first gunshot, adrenaline had hollowed out her stomach and turned the rest of her into a quivering mess.

      He leaned toward her, closer than a man had been in a long while, and tapped on the award plaque on her rifle stock. “You’ll be fine.”

      She nodded, even though she wasn’t so sure. She squinted up at the ridge and the wisp of white fabric flapping in the wind like a flag of surrender.

      “Wait.” She stepped to her mare’s side and rummaged through the saddlebags with her free hand. Her fingers touched the pair of binoculars she had used to find the sheik. She pulled them out and handed them to him. “You should be able to see the area better from up there, maybe spot our shooter.”

      “Good thinking.”

      She shouldn’t feel so warm at his praise, but she couldn’t deny the flicker in her chest. A flicker that for a moment eclipsed the shaking. She stood up a little straighter. “Please be careful, Sheik Efraim.”

      “Just Efraim. Please.”

      “Efraim. Be careful.”

      He nodded. Pistol in front of him, he started climbing up through the eroded and crumbling rock.

      She shouldered the rifle and scanned the area through the scope. She’d ridden out here to bring him back to the Wind River Ranch, and that’s what she’d do. If there was one thing her daddy taught her, it was to do what needed to be done.

      A lesson that had served her well so far.

      The crunch and scrape of his footsteps faded into the wind. She forced herself to breathe, stay steady and alert. Next to her, Efraim’s horse tossed his head. Her mare, Sasha, pawed the ground.

      “Callie,” Efraim called, his voice rasping, as if his throat was filled with sand.

      She lowered the rifle slightly and glanced up.

      His dark head peeked over the edge of the cliff, bent over the body they’d seen from below. “I need your help.”

      “I’ll be right there.”

      “Can you find a СКАЧАТЬ