Caine's Reckoning (28 page)

The stirrup, as always, was a long way off the ground. The amount of leg she’d have to show just to get her foot up there was scandalous, but the least of her concerns. Just lifting her leg that high was going to cripple her. If she wasn’t already overworked into being too sore to make it happen. She took a breath, and another step. She grabbed the wooden stirrup. Just the thought of lifting it exhausted her. Getting herself into the saddle was going to be impossible. “You say someone placed a bet on me making it today?”

“Yes.”

Bless that someone’s soul for believing in her. “Then someone’s going to be happy tonight.”

She grabbed the apron of the saddle in her left hand and leaned back farther and farther as she raised her foot. Lily sidestepped away. Desi stumbled, falling against the horse. She didn’t pull away, didn’t even care when the horse brought its head around to her butt. Let it take a chunk out of her. Right now exhaustion and muscle pain commanded the moment.

A hand touched her shoulder. “Gypsy?”

He hadn’t called her that in a week. It didn’t sound so good now, with his voice full of pity. She waved him away. “I’m fine. Just taking a rest.”

“We can let this go to another day.”

And not measure up in his eyes again? She didn’t think so. Caine might have gotten the worst of a bad bargain with her as a wife, but she could learn to be as strong as any western woman. “I can’t disappoint my only believer.”

“He’ll survive.”

She looked at him over her shoulder, eyeing with pure envy all that heavy muscle sitting so gracefully on his big-boned frame. She shook her head and pushed away from the horse. “Maybe, but I’m not sure I will.”

“You’ve had your back up for the last week.”

She bounced on her toes, stretching her muscles, tears burning with the agony. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Caine pushed his hat back, and she had a clear view of his eyes and the concern within. “Whatever you’re trying to prove, it’s unnecessary.”

The patient set of his mouth, that small smile that could mean anything—oh, it was very necessary. “Maybe not to you.”

“Who else matters?”

She grabbed the saddle and the stirrup. “Me.”

As soon as she had her weight off balance on one leg, the horse crowded her and snapped its head around. She yanked up and away from those teeth. The mare snorted and tossed its head. Two crow hops that had her whimpering with pain, and she was dangling off the saddle. Lily gave a little buck. Desi screamed and hung on.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Caine reaching for her. She kicked out with her free leg. “Get away from me.”

“Damn it, you’re going to get hurt.”

She hung on for dear life, dragging herself up with muscles that screamed. “You said she was gentle.”

“Nothing’s that gentle.”

The damn horse better be because she wasn’t failing again. “I…can…do…this!”

For once, luck was on her side. The next half buck tossed her up. She made a wild grab, hooking the saddle horn with her elbow. Metal bit into bone, her squeal was half victory and half pain. It was easier to get up now that her weight was against the horse rather than dangling off it. The next minute wasn’t pretty, but little by little, eyes closed tightly, scrabbling with fingers and toes, she got herself onto the saddle. Knee, calf, hip, then total collapse over the horse’s neck.

Desi sucked in a deep breath that reeked of horse and leather. Her back screamed in relief or rebellion, she wasn’t sure, but she did know if the horse would just stay still, she could fall asleep right there. Just snore her way through the terror.

Boots crunched on the hard ground. Desi didn’t have to open her eyes to know who was crooning to the horse. Only one man stayed that unflappably possessed when wrestling with demons. And Lily was definitely a demon. A big hairy, smelly, four-legged, hay-munching demon.

“You planning on taking a nap now that you’re up there?”

“I was thinking about it.”

A pause and then, “It’d be a shame to waste all that work by getting right off. Might as well get a lesson in while you’re up there.”

Getting a lesson meant bending over and turning the right stirrup so she could get her foot in. “No.”

There was a longer pause. Caine probably hadn’t expected that, but she didn’t think he’d ever dealt with a completely exhausted, nothing-left-to-lose woman before.

“You’re too sensible to waste all that effort.”

He thought she was sensible? She cracked an eye as he came around the right side of the horse. “What makes you think that?”

“I’ve been watching you, Gypsy.”

“You always watch me.”

He picked up the stirrup and turned it. His hand around her ankle was firm through the too big boots she’d borrowed from Tia. He gently turned her foot and put her toe in the stirrup. “You make a damn pretty view.”

She shouldn’t be warmed when he said things like that. Men always said things like that to women. It meant nothing. But she was. “You are so stubborn.”

“Just a mite.”

She opened her other eye. His hands were tanned and lean, appealing in a masculine way as he gathered up the reins. “Sit up straight.” His command didn’t come as a surprise. He was relentless.

With a silent groan she sat straight in the saddle. “I did just fine riding when we first met.”

“You couldn’t tack out the horse and had to escape on foot, which led to me capturing you. If Sam hadn’t snatched you out of the saddle when you put your heels to that paint, you’d have broken your neck on the next break in stride.”

He didn’t have to make it sound so much like a fact. “That is supposition on your part.”

“I know a fact when I’m looking at it.” His big hand came down on her thigh, the heat permeating her skirt. “Tuck your heels down.”

“Bastard,” she hissed under her breath, grimacing as she did as he asked.

He walked beside the horse, green eyes alert, measuring every inch of her posture. A touch on her knee and she forced her foot down a bit more. “That’s better.”

Under the guise of a sigh, she breathed, “Sadist.”

His head canted to the left, revealing the smile tugging at his firm mouth. “If you keep calling me names, I won’t haul water for a bath for you tonight.”

That was a serious bargaining chip. She’d been making do with basin baths for the last two days, too tired to even contemplate hauling even one bucket of hot water to warm that, let alone what it would take for a bath.

“What kind of bath?” If he was talking a little hip bath, she had a few more names she wanted to toss out.

“A full soak in the tub for as long as you want.” His fingers squeezed her thigh, absorbing her wince.

She narrowed her gaze. No one did something for nothing. “Why?”

“Because you’ve been working hard, and I think you deserve it.”

So he had noticed. A kernel of warmth bloomed inside.

Lily’s head came up and her sluglike pace perked with sudden energy.

“Keep those reins taut,” Caine ordered as he headed toward the barn.

Desi gasped and did more than pull them tight. She hauled them back. Lily sat back on her haunches, which had Desi grasping the horn for dear life. Caine grabbed the reins and soothed the horse. “Easy. You hurt her mouth.”

The horse buried her head in Caine’s chest and cast Desi the most soulful look from her big brown eyes. Despite everything, Desi felt a stab of guilt. And envy. The only peace she’d known for years had been found in her husband’s arms. And it’d been denied her lately.

“She scared me.”

“She’s just eager for her oats.”

And
she
was eager for her bath. Caine pulled the horse up at the barn door. He tugged at the reins. Desi let them go gladly. As he looped them over the hitching post with a flick of his wrists, she braced herself for the effort to get down. “That’s all for today?”

He patted the mare’s neck. “I think you’ve both been through enough.”

Guilt flicked along her conscience again. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”

His hands came around her hips. “She knows that.”

Desi closed her eyes. His touch felt so good. Something soft brushed her hand. Had he kissed her?

A glance down revealed Caine wearing that half-amused, half-something-else smile on his face. And he was looking at her in a way that made her feel flustered for reasons she couldn’t define. For something to say she asked, “Who was the one who believed in me?”

He took his hat off and put it on her head, seating it with a little tap, protecting her eyes from the sun. “Me.”

She blinked, not only because the sun was in her eyes, but because of the way he said it. As if he knew a secret no one else did, as if he knew
her
the way no one else could. The smile started deep inside. Caine Allen believed in her.

She kicked her feet free of the stirrups and reached for him. As she twisted, something whined past. Lily screamed a horrible sound and her head snapped back, slamming into Desi’s nose. Lights streaked out from behind her eyes. She grabbed the rearing horse’s neck. Something hot and wet seeped into the front of her dress. Blood. Oh, God, Lily had been shot. Rawhide slapped the backs of her fingers as the reins snapped, while the report of a gun rebounded off the canyon walls.

The horse reared and spun, tearing her away from Caine. Terror laced the normally placid animal’s shrill scream. An answering terror ripped along Desi’s nerve endings as the ground fell away. For an instant Lily teetered between falling backward and landing on four feet.

“Jump, Desi!”

She heard the order but couldn’t obey. The mare bunched her powerful muscles and plunged forward, racing away from the ranch. Away from safety.

Behind her Caine cursed and Tia yelled. Desi blinked the tears from her eyes and looked over her shoulder. Caine’s hat blew off. She grabbed for it in a purely reflexive move, overbalancing as a result. Stupid! So stupid. She scrambled for the stirrup with her foot as everything listed to the left. The overused muscles in her arms and thighs burned as she pulled herself back up. If Lily hadn’t veered sharply to the left around the barn, she never would have made it. As soon as she got upright again, Desi buried her face dead center of Lily’s neck and clenched every muscle she had. If she fell at this speed, on this rocky terrain, she’d break her neck for sure.

Damn it! This was all Caine’s fault. She stretched for the dangling bit of rein. He’d made her get on this horse and now it was carrying her away. A shout yanked her head up. At the edge of the rocks a man stood waving his arms. She couldn’t make out his features because his hat was pulled low. She closed her eyes as Lily bore down on him. At the last possible second the horse veered to the side. The man lunged for the mare’s head. Lily squealed and snapped her head back. This time Desi avoided getting her nose smashed.

The stranger called her name. Desi didn’t recognize the voice, didn’t recognize the man. He lunged again for the horse’s head, or for her, she wasn’t sure. She kicked out. Her foot grazed his cheek as his hand clutched her ankle. She kicked again, terror clinging to her as tightly as she clung to the mare. The boot slipped off her foot. She had just one moment to savor her freedom before Lily plunged down an embankment. She was too far over the horse’s neck to counter the downward force.

Oh, Lord, oh, Lord.
Lily didn’t slow on the uneven ground, just ran, weaving here, leaping there, giving Desi no chance to recover her balance. Trees rushed past in a blur. Her heart thundered in her ears. With every stretch of the powerful animal’s stride she listed farther and farther. A fall was inevitable, but Desi refused to accept it. She clutched the horn and Lily’s mane, sure deep in her heart that Caine would save her if she just held on.

A glance ahead and she groaned. A creek. Surely too wide for the horse to jump. She tightened her grip. Lily gathered her weight onto her haunches and with a lurch, soared across the creek. Desi soared right along with her, time stilling as she parted from the saddle, drifted on air…A surreal moment of peace in the middle of chaos. She landed with a splash. Frigid water flew up her nose, poured down her neck. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t assimilate anything beyond the bone-numbing shock of the temperature. From the far bank came the sound of Lily’s fading hoofbeats. And on the path she’d just traveled, the sound of another horse coming fast. One horse. Just one.

Her heart skipped a beat. Fear clogged her throat. Caine wouldn’t come alone. Not with a threat out there. He’d come with an army of Hell’s Eight. Desi crabbed her way backward through the water, frantically scanning the sides of the creek for a place to hide. Her hand dipped into a hole. Her elbow buckled. She went down hard. Water filled her ears. She couldn’t hear him coming, couldn’t tell where he was. It had to be the man who’d tried to stop her.

She rolled over onto her stomach, gasping as the cold hit her breasts and abdomen, shaking her hair out of her eyes as she scanned the bank. Twenty feet ahead on the right, a tangle of tree roots stretched down into the creek like a fortress. It wasn’t much and it wouldn’t hide her completely, but if she could lie behind it, maybe her brown dress and wet hair would make her blend with the shadow of the frozen bank. If the stranger didn’t look too hard, it might do. Desi couldn’t feel her hands. Her feet were uncooperative blocks. Her thighs were painfully stiff. She couldn’t keep her teeth from chattering, couldn’t stop the raw explosions of terror from bursting past her lips in harsh gasps. She wanted to jump and run. She forced herself to stay low and crawl.