Each Time We Love (20 page)

An hour after dawn the demands of Adam's stomach became too
pronounced for him to ignore any longer. Having spied several game
trails leading to a narrow stream, he decided to stop long enough to
set some snares and see what he could catch—and Micajah could go to
hell!

Just the thought of food set Savanna's mouth watering, and in
spite of maintaining an outwardly indifferent air, she hoped that Adam
was a competent hunter. He was. Skillfully he fashioned several snares
and set them along the game trails. It was still early enough in the
morning for small game to be moving freely about, and in a rather
gratifyingly short time, Adam managed to catch a fat turkey and two
plump rabbits.

Animosity momentarily forgotten with the prospect of fresh
roasted meat in the offing, Adam and Savanna quickly produced a
credible fire and in a startlingly brief period managed to demolish the
two rabbits. Her stomach full for the first time in what seemed like
days, Savanna inelegantly wiped her mouth on her sleeve and glanced
consideringly at the dressed turkey carcass lying near the stream bank
where Adam had left it.

Catching the longing expression on her face, Adam laughed not
unkindly and said lightly, "Not yet, sweetheart! I'm hoping that before
we have to eat that turkey to keep it from spoiling, we'll pass a
dwelling where the inhabitants will be willing to trade the fresh meat
for something we can use." His mouth twisted. "And Lord knows we can
use just about everything!"

The tension between them had lessened some due to their full
stomachs and deciding that his prickly captive was in as amiable a mood
as he had seen so far, Adam let his curiosity get the better of him.
"How did you hook up with Micajah and Jeremy?" he asked.

Determined to treat his questions as he had hers, Savanna
smiled seraphically and murmured, "None of your business."

Adam scowled. "All right," he said reluctantly, "I'll answer
any question you ask… but you have to answer one of mine. Fair enough?"

Savanna nodded and, staring at him intently, inquired bluntly,
"Why did you kill my father?"

It wasn't the question he had expected and it was the one
question for which he had no ready reply. He looked across at her for a
long time composing his answer, the answer he suspected that Jason
might have given. Very carefully he said, "He died because he deserved
to die. He killed my friend, would have killed me, but most of all,
because he defiled the person dearest to me."

"That's a damned dirty lie!" Savanna burst out furiously.
"You're just making that up to excuse your actions!"

Adam shook his head slowly and there was something about the
set of his features that chilled Savanna. Was it possible?
Had
her father done those things? Micajah had claimed that Davalos had
confessed to killing someone named Nolan… didn't that lend credence to
what Adam was saying? She didn't want to believe him, everything within
her rebelled against it, but there was the unmistakable ring of truth
to his words.

Unconvinced, but greatly troubled by his revelations, Savanna
looked away from his steady blue gaze and muttered, "What about the
gold? Is that a lie, too?"

Adam started to remind her that it was his turn to ask a
question, but then he shrugged and admitted candidly, "Two people I
trust implicitly have confirmed its existence—they have seen it."

Still grappling with what he had said about Davalos, she drew
little comfort from his confirmation of the gold and demanded sharply,
"Are you going after it?"

"I think it's my turn to ask some questions, don't you?" he
inquired silkily.

Savanna grimaced and shrugged her shoulders.

Taking her actions as an affirmative, Adam queried softly,
"What is Micajah to you?"

If Savanna was surprised by his question, she didn't reveal
it, and tired of sparring with him, she answered truthfully. "I've
known Micajah Yates since I was a child, and for just about all of that
time he's been nothing to me but a dangerous aggravation. I'd like to
cut out his guts"—she flashed Adam a dark look—"after I've cut out
yours, of course, but unfortunately, I haven't had the chance lately."

Ignoring her gibe, Adam frowned. "If there is bad feeling
between you, why the hell were you with him? I would have thought he'd
be the
last
person you'd ask to help you find the
gold!"

"No,
you'd
be the last person I'd ask!"
Savanna shot back smartly, rather pleased with her barb.

Adam looked at her, relishing the thought of putting his hands
around that slender neck and… Rising to his feet, he said coldly,
"Since it's apparent you're not going to keep your end of the bargain,
I see no reason to waste any more time here. Get on your horse."

Feeling rather chastened and a little guilty, Savanna complied
without argument. Her subdued state didn't last long, however, and they
hadn't ridden far before she began to dwell on his crimes. Hadn't he
killed her father and
lied
about him? Wasn't he
one of the most fascinatingly despicable bastards it had been her
misfortune to meet, and hadn't he made her his prisoner? She knew the
answers to those questions, and the question foremost in her mind right
now was how the devil was she going to get away from him?

Frowning with sudden concentration, she stared at Adam's broad
back as they rode. If only he would drop his guard for an instant… Her
gaze narrowed. She needed some sort of distraction, something to occupy
him while she attempted to escape or made him
her
prisoner. A smile tinged with more than a little malice curved her
mouth. Oh, yes, she would enjoy having Adam as her prisoner!

He pulled their horses to a sudden halt and her heart leaped
with excitement when she saw what had caused his actions. Through a
break in the trees in the distance she caught a glimpse of a large
clearing with several small buildings clustered around a square log
cabin. A half-dozen hounds, chickens and a sow with a litter of piglets
were scattered out in front of the cabin, and a couple of black
children played in the red dirt at the side of the building.

The hounds had not yet caught their sound or scent and Adam
was grimly determined for things to stay that way, at least until he
had stashed Savanna away somewhere safe. Flashing a dark look in her
direction, he growled, "Not one sound out of you, or it will be the
last noise you make for quite some time!"

One look at the expression on his face convinced Savanna of
the wisdom of obeying him. She would have been willing to risk his
wrath if she'd had the least hope of being rescued, but there was such
a desolate air about the clearing that she doubted anyone was there who
could help her. There'd be other chances, she reminded herself as Adam
took them in the opposite direction from the clearing.

When he stopped a few minutes later and, after a short,
violent tussle with Savanna, left her gagged, her hands bound and her
ankle shackled to a stout oak sapling, Savanna wished heartily that she
had screamed the instant she had first spied the clearing. Torn between
fury and astonishment, she watched him as he hung the key to the
shackles on a small branch high above her head.

"I'm going to see if I can trade our turkey for something we
can use but if something should happen to me and I don't return, you
should eventually be able to release your hands and reach the key,"
Adam explained coolly.

Savanna glared at him.

Adam shrugged and walked over to his horse. "At least this
way," he continued, "I won't have to worry that I left you to die in
the forest." He swung up into the saddle, and glancing down at her from
his horse, he said dryly, "Try not to pine for me while I'm gone."

Savanna's magnificent eyes flashed all sorts of retribution,
but the insults she hurled at him were muffled by the gag. Adam
grinned. "I know, sweetheart. I'll miss you, too."

He disappeared into the forest and Savanna continued to glare
at the spot where she had last seen him for several more minutes,
before it dawned on her that he had truly left her bound and gagged and
alone in the forest. Longingly she looked at the key dangling above her
head and began to struggle to free her hands. The rawhide bonds proved
unyielding and it seemed impossible that she would ever free herself.
Suddenly she found herself praying desperately for Adam's safe return.

Adam was gone nearly all day, and though periodically she
fought with her bonds, he had tied her too securely for her to escape
easily. Her mouth was dry from the gag and her wrists were raw where
she had struggled against the rawhide, and she was just beginning to be
really fearful that he had simply abandoned her to die when she heard
the sound of a horse's approach. Weak-kneed with relief, she watched as
he rode carelessly up to her as if he had left only moments ago and had
not deserted her this way.

He was smiling as he swung out of the saddle and immediately
untied her gag.

"You bastard!" she raged. "Don't you
ever
go off and leave me like that again!"

"Ah, you
did
miss me," he drawled, a
teasing glint in the dark blue eyes. Effortlessly he reached up for the
key that had hung so temptingly above her head all day.

Savanna growled something extremely ugly under her breath and
Adam laughed.

"I'm sorry," he said as he proceeded to finish freeing her. "I
never meant to be gone this long, but you'll be happy to know that I
managed to gain us a few much-needed supplies."

"How?" she snapped, rubbing her bruised wrists. "You haven't
any money. Or have you added thievery to your list of misdeeds?"

Adam didn't reply, and walking over to his horse, he reached
for a medium-sized cloth bundle and tossed it to her. "Treasure these
meager offerings— I labored very hard for them." At Savanna's look of
disbelief, he smiled suggestively. "The lady's husband and eldest son
have left the plantation and gone to New Orleans for six weeks, taking
the huskiest slaves with them, and there were several, ah,
tasks
that only a man with my abilities could accomplish."

Outraged, she glared at him, the image of him lolling around
all day in the bed of another woman while she had been left abandoned
suddenly leaping into her mind. Beneath the rage, Savanna experienced
an odd feeling of something that came perilously close to jealousy at
the thought of him with another woman, and turning her back on him to
hide her emotions, she tore open the cloth bundle.

Inside she found a heartening array of odds and ends: a tiny
packet of sugar, a bit of salt, a small pouch of coffee, a slab of
smoked pork and a bag of beans. The food items made Savanna's mouth
water, but it was two of the other articles included in the bundle that
made her feel like she had discovered a treasure: an old comb and a
partial bar of soap. There was also a worn white shirt, a pair of
equally worn brown breeches, two scuffed boots, a slightly moth-eaten
wool hat with a floppy brim and a razor.

The razor Adam promptly removed from the pile and said, "As
soon as we find a decent stream, I'll have use for this. As for the
clothing, I think you'll find it more appropriate for the journey than
that garment you're presently wearing."

Savanna had grown to despise her wretched brown gown, but at
Adam's words, she decided that she was actually very fond of it and had
no intention of getting rid of it—and certainly not to trade it for
clothing that he had acquired by spending his time with another woman!
Her aquamarine eyes suddenly very green, she glanced at Adam and said
haughtily, "If this is all you earned today, you must not have pleased
the lady that much!"

Adam's mouth tightened and he shot her a narrow-eyed look that
made Savanna's heart pound uncomfortably in her chest. There was a
tense moment and then he smiled and ran a finger down her cheek.
"Believe me, the lady was pleased," he said softly. "Women usually
are
with my efforts."

There was no mistaking what he meant and Savanna's face blazed
rosily as she jerked away from him. Muttering under her breath, she
angrily piled the foodstuffs to one side of the clothing, wishing
viciously that just for once she could get the better of him.

They spent the night as they had the previous one, and as he
had done the morning before, Adam woke Savanna while it was still dark.
She had been certain that she wouldn't be able to sleep a wink with him
lying at her side, but again that assumption had proved false. Despite
his disturbing nearness and the shackles that once more bound them
together, Savanna had fallen asleep almost as soon as her head had hit
the ground.

No time was wasted breaking camp and, despite the addition to
their stores, breakfast had been another handful of corn. When the sun
finally rose, they had been on the move for nearly an hour and Savanna
was bitterly resigned to another day of hard riding. As the sun climbed
higher in the bright blue Texas sky, they continued to ride steadily
southwest, and some three hours later, hungry, tired and miserably
conscious of the grime on her body, she was concentrating so furiously
on what a coldhearted, mean-spirited bastard her captor was that when
he reined his horse to a stop, she wasn't aware of it for several
minutes. It finally dawned on her that they weren't moving and she
glanced resentfully over at him.

"Why are we stopping? Have you caught sight of another lonely
plantation mistress who is in need of your
services?"
she asked sarcastically.

Swift as a tiger, Adam reached for her, freeing her hands and
jerking her off the horse, he dragged her across the front of his
saddle. Though her breasts were pressed tightly against his chest and
her arms were held in a viselike grip, she glared unrepentantly at his
dark, angry features. His sapphire-blue eyes hard, his mouth thin and
his temper barely suppressed, he growled, "Keep taunting me that way
and I'm liable to start believing that you'd like to avail yourself of
my services!"