Lone Rider. B.J. Daniels

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СКАЧАТЬ she said now. “Can’t we stop? Just for a few minutes?” He’d given her a drink of water back down the mountain, but her throat was dry again, her mouth dusty, lips cracked. “I need more water.”

      “Ya need to keep walkin’. Ya said people’ll be comin’ lookin’ for ya. If ya don’t want ’em dead...”

      Was someone looking for her yet? She couldn’t bear to think about spending days up here with this man. Nor could she stand the thought of what would happen once they stopped and made camp.

      She’d pleaded with him to let her go. “I won’t tell anyone.”

      He’d laughed at that. “That’s what they all say.”

      Her blood had curdled at his words. “I have money.”

      He’d seemed interested until he’d realized she meant back at her father’s house.

      “I’m worth money,” she’d heard herself say. “My father will pay for my return unharmed.” She had known what she was suggesting was more than a little dangerous. But it was the only thing she could think of that might keep this man from killing her. If he knew that she was worth more alive than dead...

      “Oh, yeah?” Ray had seemed only mildly interested. “How much do you think you’re worth?”

      She had no idea. “A million?”

      He’d laughed again, harder this time. “Sure ya are. Anyway, I don’t need no money up here in the mountains. A woman, though, I been hankerin’ for one for weeks. And now I got you.”

      Those words had sent a shudder through her, and she’d shut up. There was no negotiating with this man. She had nothing to negotiate with.

      Even as the sun set and twilight turned the mountainside to silver gray, Ray kept going, urging her horse on from high in her saddle, jerking at the rope he’d bound her with and half dragging her deeper into the mountains.

      She could barely see where to step as daylight vanished and the trail filled with deep shadows. She stumbled and almost fell again.

      “Ain’t far now,” Ray said. “Got jest the spot.”

      * * *

      DARKNESS CAME QUICKLY in the dense pines of the mountains. Once the sun set, a cool breeze had moved through the trees. The shadows grew longer and blacker.

      Jace had been following Bo’s trail for hours. The going was slow because he’d often lose it in the thick bed of dried pine needles and have to find it again. He’d seen the remains of other campsites. Telltale blackened rock rings with the remains of a campfire marking the sites. None of those had been used in the past twenty-four hours, though.

      Which meant Bo hadn’t wanted just a night of camping. She’d been set on total isolation farther back in the mountains. Knowing that gave him no peace of mind. More and more, he thought Bo Hamilton had looked to get away from civilization. But was it because of a guilty conscience and saddlebags full of loot? Or was there more to it?

      He could understand wanting to escape a situation. Many times he hadn’t been able to deal with his sister. He’d wanted to turn his back, run away from the problem. But he hadn’t, and neither would Bo Hamilton when he found her.

      Jace realized he wouldn’t be able to track Bo much longer. He needed to make camp before it was too dark to see.

      But just as he started to look for a spot to spend the night, he saw the footprints in the dirt. The tracks were man-size, large, moving in a scraping manner that dislodged a lot of dirt.

      What caught his eye, though, was the fact that the tracks crossed Bo’s horseshoe prints. Someone had walked past after she’d ridden up into the mountains.

      Swinging out of the saddle, he studied them in the waning light. Seeing the man’s boot prints in the dirt, he decided he wouldn’t build a fire tonight. He staked his horse some distance away from where he’d rolled out his sleeping bag.

      The last thing he wanted was to become the hunted, because if he was right, Bo Hamilton was on the run—and she wasn’t alone.

      * * *

      WHEN RAY FINALLY quit dragging Bo up the mountainside in the dark, she collapsed on the ground in tears. Her wrists were rubbed raw from the rope cutting through the duct tape he’d bound her with. The fabric of her shirt was torn at both elbows, the skin beneath it scraped and bleeding.

      “Get up,” Ray ordered as he swung down from her horse. “And stop yer blubberin’ or I’ll give ya somethin’ to cry about.”

      She couldn’t move, couldn’t walk another step. Nor could she stop crying. The sobs racked her body, generated by fear and exhaustion and the bitter taste of defeat. She was at this man’s mercy, and he had proven he was merciless.

      He took an intimidating step toward her. She closed her eyes and curled into a tight ball, bracing herself for the kick. To her surprise, he bent down close to her.

      “Ya done good,” he said, his voice sounding both surprised and pleased. “Yer tougher than ya look.”

      She didn’t feel tough as he dragged her to her feet. As he untied the rope from her wrists and peeled off what was left of the duct tape, she flinched at the damage that had been done.

      “There’s water in that creek over there. It’ll make ya feel better if ya clean up.” The tenderness in his voice suddenly frightened her more than the gruff ruthlessness she had come to associate with him.

      Before she could protest, he swept her up in his arms and carried her over to the water. It was full dark now, the sky overhead lit with stars and the gleam of a full moon as it rose up behind the pines to the east. The creek’s surface shimmered in the silken light.

      Easing her down on the creek bank, he pulled off her boots and her socks. When he reached for the buttons on her jeans, she tried to pull away.

      He slapped her hard enough to snap her head back. “Don’t fight me. Don’t ever fight me.”

      She swallowed, her skin stinging from the slap. Closing her eyes, she felt him fumble with the buttons of her jeans before he jerked them down to her ankles, then off. She pressed her eyes closed more tightly, expecting him to remove her panties, as well. Tears leaked from beneath her lashes, but she was sobbed out.

      Instead, she felt his fingers on her shirt. The snaps loudly clacked as he jerked her shirt open then eased it off one shoulder, then the other. She hugged herself, praying he wouldn’t try to remove her bra.

      “I’ll help ya into the water,” he said next to her ear a moment before he lifted her into his arms again. Wading out into the creek, he lowered her slowly into the icy water.

      The cold took her breath away as she balanced precariously on the smooth silken surface of the rocks beneath her, the water up to her thighs. He let go of her. She wobbled there in the middle of the stream, water rushing around her. The freezing water made her lower body ache.

      “Wash yerself,” he ordered, taking a step back, but not so far that he couldn’t reach her if she tried to scramble out of the creek and up the adjacent bank.

      * СКАЧАТЬ