Trail of Kisses (11 page)

“
I’m not afraid to face danger,”
she said, reminding herself that she was brave.

He let out a frustrated breath and adjusted
his hat lower over his eyes.

“
No, really,” she insisted with a
shrug. “I’ll admit it’s there, but I can handle it.” It was the
only answer she could give that wouldn’t end with her hating
herself for being weak.

At last, he twisted in his saddle to look at
her. The fierceness of his gaze sent a shiver down her spine,
settling in her core. That was all the danger she could ever have
wanted and more. His eyes were as hard and bright as sapphires in
spite of the tired lines that still surrounded them. That tiredness
softened her desire into tenderness.

“
Cade, are you still having
trouble sleeping?” she asked before he could scold her.

Her question must have taken him by surprise.
He faced forward again, rolling his shoulders.

“
What makes you think I can’t
sleep?”

By his guilty tone, she’d guessed
right.

“
Is it the noise of the camp?” she
asked. “Has the moon been too bright lately? I’ll let you sleep in
the wagon for a while and I’ll take my turn sleeping out under the
stars. How about that?”

“
I am
not
letting you sleep
in the open,” he growled.

“
Well, it wouldn’t be right for
you sleep in the wagon with me,” she said. “That would be too
improper even for the flimsy morals of the trail.”

“
I’m not asking to sleep with
you,” he said, then turned pink.

Lynne smiled. Knowing she could bring a blush
to Cade’s face was by far the sweetest part of the arduous journey
so far.

“
Do you need more blankets then?
Is the ground too hard for you?” she asked on.

“
Will you give it a rest?” he
said.

“
Not until you give it a rest. And
by ‘it’ I mean you. Everyone needs sleep.”

“
I’m fine,” he insisted. “I sleep
enough. I’ve got my job to do and I’m doing it.”

Lynne blinked, her heart beating harder
against her ribs. “You haven’t been sleeping because you’re
concerned about protecting me?”

He glanced sideways at her, eyes narrowed.
“Yeah, that’s it.” Truth rang through his sarcasm.

“
There has to be a way for you to
get more sleep and still watch over me,” she said. Her heart didn’t
slow its pounding for a moment as her mind searched for ways to
ease Cade’s load. “After all, you bought all those guns in Ft.
Kearny.”

“
I bought two revolvers at the
supply depot,” he said. “That hardly qualifies as ‘all those
guns.’”

“
But you’ve got another revolver
and a rifle. Four firearms is more than enough to make you feel
safe, isn’t it?”

“
No,” he answered without
pause.

She wouldn’t leave it there. “Even Ben feels
safe with all those guns lying around. Don’t you, Ben?”

She twisted to look over her shoulder at Ben.
He was watching the oxen with deep concentration, but perked up
when she spoke to him, saying, “What?”

“
All Cade’s guns. They make you
feel safe, don’t they?”

The startled look on Ben’s face made him seem
even younger than his years. “Uh, yes ma’am,” he
answered.

“
See?” Lynne turned back to Cade.
“Ben feels safe too. You have every reason to catch a few extra
hours of sleep at night.”

His only answer was to shake his
head.

“
Unless you don’t actually know
how to shoot anything,” she said.

That provoked a reaction from him.

“
I’ll have you know that I am an
prize-winning sharpshooter.”

“
Are you?” She intended her tone
to be teasing, but was genuinely interested. “What award did you
win?”

Cade settled back in his saddle, brushing the
revolver in its holster at his hip. “Couple years back, there was a
competition around the Fourth of July in Denver City. Your uncle
hosted it and offered a prize to the winner, a contract to work
with him.”

“
Oh?” Lynne perked up. “What a
good idea. And you won?”

Cade nodded. “I did, but it was a close
contest. Jerry Poole, a prospector turned supplier, came close to
outshooting me in the last round. It was a fine
contest.”

As his eyes unfocused, he smiled. The tiny
lines around his eyes added to his smile instead of making him look
tired. The sight sent a satisfied thrill through Lynne’s
chest.

“
They had to keep moving the
targets back, first five feet at a time, then ten, and finally five
yards. Jerry and I, we kept shooting and hitting the
mark.”

“
So how did you win?”

His smile grew wider.

“
Bessy Harding.”

“
Who?” Lynne asked, her voice
suddenly flat, her stomach knotting.

Cade chuckled. “Bessy ran a boarding house on
the west side of town. She was so sweet on Jerry that you didn’t
have to put sugar in your coffee when they were within fifty feet
of each other.”

“
Oh.” Lynne relaxed, her smile
returning.

Cade’s grin grew wider. “Jerry liked her too,
but never worked up the nerve to say anything about it. Come the
final round, Bessy found a place at the edge of the barrier
separating the contestants from the shooters. Just as Jerry was
taking aim, she leaned over to wish him luck. Poor Jerry took one
look at her….” He cleared his throat. “At her
attractions
,”
he went on, “and fired off before he was in position. You better
believe we’ve never let him live that one down.”

Lynne laughed, but she had the distinct
impression there was more to the joke than she’d caught.

“
I take it you made your shot?”
she asked.

He brushed the edge of his hat’s brim. “Oh,
you’d better believe that I never fire too early and I hit that
mark every time.”

He was teasing her. She didn’t know how, but
he was definitely teasing her. The dancing light in his eyes and
the ease of his smile gave it away.

He shook his head and went on. “Turns out your
uncle had already decided to hire me, contest or no. He’s friends
with my father. So both Jerry and I got jobs. It was a good
day.”

“
Sounds like it.” She paused.
“What about those guns you bought at the fort? Could you hit a
target like the one in your competition for my uncle with one of
those?”

“
These?” He wrapped the reins of
his horse around the pommel of his saddle and drew one of the
revolvers from the holster in his belt. He then eased the other one
out of its concealed spot in his vest. She rather liked the look of
the smaller one, the Cade hade called a Cooper. Or perhaps that was
because it had been riding nestled against his body. “I’d be
willing to venture that I could hit most targets with either one of
these.”

“
I don’t know anything about
guns,” Lynne said. “They’ve always seemed so… angry to
me.”

“
Angry,” he repeated her word,
then shrugged. “I’ve never thought of it like that. A gun is a gun,
as far as I’m concerned. You carry them for protection.”

“
Or to kill someone,” she added in
a low voice.

Cade shrugged. “If you have to. Take this
Colt, for example.”

He tucked the Cooper into his belt and held up
the Colt. His strong thighs gripped his saddle as he rode with no
hands. Lynne wasn’t sure whether she wanted to stare at his legs or
the gun more.

“
This is a newer model army
revolver,” he explained. “I’m surprised the fort had any to sell. I
sure paid enough.” He twisted the gun to show her the handle and
trigger. “It has a—”

With a loud bang, the gun went off in a puff
of smoke. The bullet whizzed past Arrow’s ear. Arrow jumped and
lunged forward. He took off in a flat panic, his eyes huge. Cade
jerked in the saddle as Arrow shot forward. He scrambled for the
reins, for the pommel, but Arrow bucked. Cade went
flying.

Lynne screamed as Cade’s foot caught in the
stirrup. Arrow didn’t show any signs of calming or slowing down.
The horse galloped on, dragging Cade behind him for several yards.
Lynne urged Clover to race after them. She screamed again when
Cade’s boot came loose from the stirrup and he shook free, rolling
several times before flopping in the grass and dirt. He didn’t
move.

“
Cade!” she shouted. Her heart
pounded so hard she thought she might be sick. Clover ran straight
to him and Lynne pulled her mare up by his side. She unhooked her
knee and jumped down without a second thought, stumbling when her
feet hit the ground. “Cade!”

She rushed to him and threw herself to the
ground by his side. As she touched him, he moaned and tried to roll
over.

“
Stay there, stay there!” she
panted. She pushed herself to her knees and turned toward the wagon
train. Several men, including Dr. Meyers and Mr. Evans, were
already running toward them. “The doctor is coming, you’re going to
be all right,” she insisted.

Cade groaned and rolled to his back, his arms
and legs sprawling. “What happened?”

“
The gun went off and Arrow
bolted.”

He managed a weak smile. “Good
one.”

“
What?”

“
Arrow? Bolt?”

She was too far beside herself to have any
idea what he was talking about.

“
Never mind,” he said and tried to
push himself up onto his elbows. “I’m all right.”

“
You were dragged by a horse.”
Lynne pushed him down, worrying over him. “You are not all
right.”

She twisted to look over her shoulder, willing
Dr. Meyers to run faster. If she had anything to do with it, Cade
would never ride a horse again.

Every inch of Cade’s body ached. His ankle
throbbed where it had twisted while caught in the stirrup. He could
feel nasty scrapes along the side that had been dragged, and he was
pretty sure he’d have a hell of a lot of bruises in the morning.
But he was in one piece. Lynne, on the other hand, looked as though
she might go to pieces.

“
I’m fine, really, Lynne,” he
said.

His use of her name must have startled her.
She gasped and stopped her fussing to stare at him. He took
advantage of the opportunity to sit up.

“
See? Everything’s still there.”
Although his ankle would be complaining to him for the next
week.

“
I saw what happened,” Dr. Meyers
said as he rushed to where Cade lay. “Are you all
right?”

“
Yeah,” Cade answered, testing his
ankle by putting his feet under him so he could stand.

“
No!” Lynne shouted. “Stay where
you are until the doctor has had a chance to examine
you.”

She forced him down again and sat by his side,
gingerly touching his arms and laying a hand on the side of his
face. Dr. Meyers cleared his throat. Lynne continued patting Cade,
only to realize with a start that the doctor wanted her to
move.

“
Oh,” she gasped and scooted to
the side.

Dr. Meyers went through a cursory examination,
testing Cade’s limbs and joints to see if anything was broken and
rolling back his shirt sleeve and pants leg to judge how bad the
scraping and bruising were. Cade considered it a small miracle that
he wasn’t dead.

“
Where’s Arrow?” he asked as Dr.
Meyers poked at him. He tried to sit taller and search the horizon
through the pain.

“
I’ll send someone to get him,”
Pete Evans said as he reached the scene.

He nodded to one of this assistants, who
jogged off in the direction Arrow had gone. Cade could see Arrow in
the distance, stopped and chewing on a tuft of grass.

“
It’s just like him to pretend
nothing’s out of the ordinary after something like this,” he
grumbled. He winced when Dr. Meyers prodded his ankle.

“
Do you think you can stand?” Dr.
Meyers asked.

“
Oh, no,” Lynne answered for him,
shooting to her own feet. “He’s been hurt. He shouldn’t stand at
all, should he? Someone should carry him.”

Cade frowned. “I can stand.”

He proved his point by muscling himself to his
feet. He wasn’t doing his ankle any favors by putting weight on it,
and when he limped on his first step, Dr. Meyers stepped to his
side to lend the support of a shoulder under his arm. Lynne was
caught somewhere between concern and glaring at him as they started
back to the wagon train, which had kept moving the whole time and
was now slightly ahead of them. She fetched Clover and led her, but
continually watched Cade.

“
I picked up your gun,” Pete said
in a grim voice.

“
Thanks,” Cade replied. He tried
to walk on his own without letting on to the pain he was in. Lynne
scrambled to prop him up on his right side the way Dr. Meyers had
him on his left.

Pete shook his head. He took the Colt from his
belt and handed it to Cade. “I don’t know if you’re going to thank
me for it or not.”