The Outlaw (3 page)

Pulling one of the pistols from the gun
holster around his hips, he handed it to her, folding her skirt
around it. “Keep that. I’m sure someone will be along for you
soon.”

Her eyes widened as she stare down at the
gun. “You’re brave handing me this.”

“How so?”

She narrowed her eyes and leveled him with a
look that promised violence. “I could shoot you the moment you turn
your back.”

Colt grinned and leaned down, bracing his
hands on his knees, to be eye level with her. “You could. Of
course, the others will probably kill you once you do. Well, after
they’ve raped you repeatedly, that is.”

Her color turned a funny shade of white
before he saw her shudder. “Fine. I won’t shoot you.” She looked
toward the others again before turning her attention back to him.
“Am I to assume you’re leaving me here, then?”

“Have no choice, sweetheart. You don’t want
to be around that bunch, now do you?” He glanced at the others.
“Just sit tight and shoot anything that comes near you.” He grinned
and lifted one eyebrow. “Assuming you could actually hit it, of
course.”

She scowled and wrapped her hand around the
gun. “I could have hit you if I’d really wanted to.”

Colt wasn’t too sure about that. “If you say
so.” He stood to his full height and stared down at her. He was
loathed to leave her there but he didn’t have a choice. What he was
about to do was too dangerous to involve her. She’d be safer there
alone than she would be with him.

Giving her one last look, he turned and
walked to his horse. The others were watching him but he ignored
their stares. When he was in the saddle, he gave the order to ride
out. He waited until the others were through the opening before
turning to look back at the girl. She was standing, his gun
clutched to her chest. She looked so tiny standing there, so young.
Leaving her to fend for herself tore at his conscience but he had
no choice. He couldn’t take her with him regardless of how much he
wanted to.

Tipping his hat at her, he turned his horse
and rode out, leaving her alone to find her own way back home.

* * * *

Sarah gaped at his back as he rode away. How
could he leave her in the middle of nowhere? Sure he was an outlaw
who robbed her father’s bank but he saved her from Virgil. That
proved he had to have a heart, right? “Apparently not.”

She shook her head. “What do I do now?” She
glanced around the clearing, lost. She’d been kidnapped, almost
raped, and now left stranded in the middle of the desert with
nothing but an old bandana and a gun. She wasn’t even sure how to
get back home and wandering the desert would get her nothing but
dead.

Tears filled her eyes and she wiped angrily
at them. Crying wouldn’t do her any good. She was still lost with
no way home and the possibility of someone finding her was
slim.

The more she thought about her current
situation, the angrier she became. Regardless of who did what, it
all came back to him. Colt. He was the cause of all this. It was
probably his stupid idea to rob the bank in the first place. He was
the reason she’d been taken and he was the reason she’d been left
behind. He was to blame for all her troubles.

She should have known the moment he pulled
that bandana away from his face in town, and she’d felt her heart
flutter at the mere sight of him, that he’d be her downfall. Her
father always told her to not get suckered in by a pretty face.
Just because someone was pleasing to the eyes didn’t mean they
weren’t trouble and she knew Colt was trouble down to his
spur-embellished boots.

Clenching her teeth, she forced herself to
not scream in frustration. If that man set one foot back in that
rock gorge, she’d shoot him just to prove she could. “I’ll see you
hanged for this, Colt!”

Hot, tired and thirsty, she started for the
entrance and spent the next half hour navigating the labyrinth of
rock the outlaws had used as their temporary hideout. Once she
cleared the mountainous maze, she inhaled a deep breath and stared
in wonder at the vastness before her. There was no way she could
walk all the way back to town. “You could have left me some water,”
she said, to no one. “This gun will do me little good out
here.”

Sweat trickled down her back as she stood
there. The sun was low in the sky, darkness only a few hours away
but a case of nerves caused her stomach to ache and fear to crawl
up her spine. She didn’t want to be out there alone in the
darkness.

Leaning against the rock wall, she considered
her options. Sit and wait for someone to find her and possibly get
eaten by some wild animal or try walking back to town and hope she
didn’t die on the way or get eaten by some wild animal. Either
option was idiotic.

Blowing a strand of hair out of her face, she
stuffed the gun into the inner pocket of her skirt. She looked at
the bandana Colt had given her. It was the same one he’d used to
cover his face during the bank robbery. The same one he’d pulled
down so she could see his face. She bit back a smile and shook her
head. Definitely arrogant. And every bit as handsome as she’d first
thought. Her pulse leaped thinking of him. She scowled at her
traitorous thoughts and tied the bandana around her hair to pull it
off her face.

Seeing a dust trail in the distance, she
walked toward it. It was probably the outlaws making their clean
get-away but she hoped it was a rescue party coming for her. Surely
William knew she was missing by now. He’d come for her. She was
positive.

An hour later, the sun had sunk below the
horizon and Sarah stopped when a strange noise caught her
attention. She hadn’t made it far from the rocks and the dust trail
she’d seen in the distance was swallowed by the coming darkness.
The rumbling noise grew and it didn’t take long for her to realize
it was the sound of horses running. A lot of them from the constant
beat of it.

Squinting into the darkness she made out a
faint shape. It was headed straight for her. She didn’t know what
it was but wasn’t going to wait around to find out. Turning, she
ran back the way she’d come. The noise grew louder and a glance
over her shoulder showed a horse and rider. She couldn’t make out
who it was but her first thought was of Virgil. He’d probably shot
Colt—the no good scoundrel—and had come back to finish what he
started with her.

Picking up her skirts, Sarah ran faster, her
breaths panted out in sharp gasps. Moments later, the horse was
right behind her. Something touched her back, the contact fleeting
before she felt an arm wrap around her waist and she was picked up
and swung into the air. She screamed, clinging to the arm around
her waist as she was placed on the horse. A look behind her showed
Colt, the expression on his face unnerving. A glance over his
shoulder and she knew why. More riders, their dark shapes darting
out of the darkness before they’d form a single blur on the
horizon.

“What’s going on?”

“Trouble. Hold on.”

She did. Sitting sideways across his lap,
Sarah wrapped her arms around his neck and kept her eyes on the
riders behind them. Something had happened after they left. “Are
those your friends following us?”

He laughed. “Never were my friends,
sweetheart. But yes, that’s them.”

“What do they want?”

“Me dead most likely.”

Sarah looked at him. “You dead?” At his nod
she rolled her eyes. “So why did you pick me up? So I could be dead
with you?”

He grinned. “I hadn’t thought of it that way,
but now you mention it…”

“You ass! Why couldn’t you just leave me?
Haven’t you caused me enough trouble for one day?”

His smile grew before he glanced at her.
“Gets lonely way out here by yourself. Figured since you had no
where to be at the moment, you’d do as good as any for
company.”

Sarah scowled at him before giving him a
small punch to his shoulder. “I dislike you very much, outlaw.
You’ve been nothing but trouble since the moment I clapped eyes on
you. What makes you think I’d want to spend five seconds in your
presence, let alone hours?”

“Intuition.”

She snorted a laugh. “You are
insufferable.”

“I’m a lot of things, sweetheart, but
insufferable isn’t one of them. I’m the best thing that could ever
have happened to you.”

Laughter came unbidden then. This man’s
arrogance knew no bounds. He may have been handsome, roguish even,
but she doubted he was the best thing ever to happen to her. So
far, he’d been the very worst of hell.

As the riders at their back grew fainter,
their shadowy figures disappearing into the dark, Sarah settled
into her abductor. Her body felt fatigued and the day’s events were
catching up with her. She hadn’t eaten since breakfast, her stomach
grumbling as she thought it. A yawn escaped her and it wasn’t until
Colt pulled her closer that she looked at him, his profile a muted
outline in the darkness surrounding them.

Since walking out of that rock maze, she’d
thought of nothing but going home but she had to admit, some
twisted part of her enjoyed being in this man’s arms, regardless of
what she told him. He was an outlaw, a gunslinger, probably,
dangerous to his core, but it felt good to be held by him. She felt
safe and with a gang of ruffians running loose, odds were in her
favor that she’d come out all right being with this man.

If only her silly pulse would stop fluttering
every time he looked at her.

His arm was still around her waist, his hold
tight, and he held her close enough to his chest she could feel
every muscle pressed against her as the horse jostled them. She
glanced at his face, his bristled jaw line where his beard was
growing in, his lips, outlined so perfectly by that dark shadowing
of hair and she swallowed against the sudden thought of how those
lips would feel against her own. Even though he was dirty, sweaty
and downright scruffy looking, she didn’t think she’d ever seen a
more handsome man.

She blinked, turned her head and mentally
kicked herself for even thinking such things. Colt was a dangerous
man, in more ways than one. She’d do good to remember that.

Thoughts of William invaded her mind and she
wondered why thinking of him didn’t cause her heart to beat just a
little bit faster. Why touching him didn’t make her think things no
decent woman would dare to think but with her arms around Colt, her
body flush against his, she couldn’t think of anything else.

This man was an outlaw and she’d do good to
remember that. Lord only knew what atrocities he’d committed. He
wasn’t the keeping kind regardless of how much her pulse leaped to
think it. He was dangerous and she needed to keep her distance.

A yawn caused her eyes to water and her last
thought was erased as fatigue stole the last of her strength. She’d
keep her distance later, when she was on her own two feet. For now,
all she had was Colt and being trapped in his arms wasn’t as
unpleasant as it should have been. Laying her head on his shoulder,
she snuggled closer to him, smiling to herself when his arm
tightened around her waist.

Chapter Three

Colt jostled the girl awake, waiting until
she sat up before climbing off the horse and reaching up for her.
Her eyes were sleep groggy, her hair a wild tangle of blonde curls
where it fell down her back. He noticed his bandana wrapped around
her hair at the base of her neck and bit back a smile.

The dress she wore, expensive from the look
of it, was dirty, the white lace around the collar dingy and the
shiny blue material had a small rip in the skirt.

She was a mess but he didn’t think he’d ever
seen anything more alluring.

When she was on her feet, he left her
standing by the horse and cleared out a small spot by the boulders.
It wasn’t the best accommodations but they’d have to do. Walking
back to the horse, he grabbed his bedroll, spread it by the rocks
and turned to face her. “Get some sleep. We’ll have to cut out
before first light and I want to make it to the Montana border by
midday tomorrow.”

She crossed her arms under her breasts.
“You’ve got to be joking.”

He grinned and walked back to the horse.
“Afraid not. Now either use that bedroll or I’ll use it
myself.”

Pulling his saddlebags off the horse, he
tossed them aside before unhooking the straps on the saddle. He
unburdened his horse, running his hand over his back and talking
softly to him before leading him to the spindly tree behind the
rocks and looping his reins around a low lying limb.

When he walked back around to where he’d left
the girl, she was still standing there, arms folded under those
enticing breasts he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about. He gave
them a brief glance then thumbed the front of his hat up. “What’s
the matter, sweetheart?”

She raised one sculpted eyebrow. “First, I’m
not your sweetheart. I have a name. It’s Sarah, if you must know.
Second,” she turned and pointed at the bedroll he’d laid out. “You
can’t possibly expect me to sleep on the ground like some… common
criminal. I need a bed. A soft one, preferably. And food. I haven’t
eaten since breakfast. Nor have any of you scoundrels offered me a
thimble full of water. Who kidnaps a woman and then lets her starve
to death?”