An Unlikely Lady (15 page)

By midday they hit a wide, gently rolling meadow at the base of the mountains. The
morning chill had long since given way to an unrelenting heat; sweat had her clothes sticking to her, her throat was parched, and grime coated every inch of her body like a second skin. Having learned the hard way that complaining only resulted in being gagged, Honesty kept her discomfort to herself. Robert and Roscoe would stop when they decided to stop, and not before.

She sent up a silent prayer of thanks when they did just that a few minutes later near a tiny mountain stream. Robert dismounted first, then Roscoe, but Honesty remained in the saddle, her muscles so weary that she didn't think a charging herd of bighorn sheep could persuade them to work.

For the hundredth time in the last few days, Honesty fought the urge to weep. How was she ever going to keep up the pretense of knowing where to find Deuce? Already, Robert's impatience was beginning to reveal itself. If a miracle didn't happen pretty darn quick, she was going to find herself in a deep pot of hot water.

“Howdy, fellas; we meet again,” came a diabolical drawl from high above.

Robert and Roscoe froze. Honesty's gaze snapped upward.

Her mouth fell open and her heart gave a traitorous leap at the figure sitting high on a branch of an old oak tree, swinging his legs,
appearing for all the world like a man taking innocent pleasure in a midsummer day.

“Jesse?”

One tawny brow winged upward. “Expecting someone else?”

Honesty could only shake her head in disbelief. She hadn't been expecting anyone, least of all
him
!

Then a curse from Robert singed her ears, and her heart stopped as Roscoe reached for his gun. Before it cleared the holster, Jesse flipped backward on the branch with breathtaking agility and hung suspended by his hands as he laid a mighty kick to Roscoe's face.

Roscoe dropped the gun with a cry and grabbed his nose; the gun went off, a wild shot that made the horses bolt, save Gemini. With a twist of his body and another swing from the branches, Jesse clubbed a charging Robert in the chest, then dropped to the ground between the downed men. “What are you waiting for, Honesty? Get the hell out of here!”

“I can't just leave you!”

“I'll catch up. Now,
go
!” And before she could object further, he smacked his horse on the rump and sent him into a flying gallop.

Wind tore at Honesty's hair and stole the breath from her lungs as she tried to bring the animal under control, but even away from his master, Gemini refused to obey. His muscles
bunched and flexed with every powerful stride, and Honesty, bouncing in the saddle, held onto his mane for dear life.

Several miles later, she finally managed to bring Gemini to a halt. Her limbs shook so badly that she could barely hold herself upright in the saddle and her breaths came in harsh gasps. Honesty kept her gaze trained on the horizon and wavered between waiting for Jesse and going back for him. What if he
died
trying to save her? What if Robert shot him, just as he'd shot her father? Could she ever live with herself if she didn't at least try to help him?

Just as she grabbed the reins, she spotted him in the distance trotting toward her on Bag-o'-Bones, unharmed except for a trickle of blood near his eye.

Honesty slid off the horse, her knees so weak with relief that they nearly buckled, and stared at him in wonder as he closed the distance between them. His body bounced in time to the mule's quick gait, his hair had come loose from its ponytail and hung about his shoulders in reckless disarray, whiskers once again covered the lower half of his face, and the soiled, rumpled state of his shirt implied that he hadn't changed clothes in days.

And still he was the most beautiful sight she'd seen in her life.

As he stared back at her, making her keenly
aware of her own less than pleasing appearance, Honesty couldn't decide whether to hug him or run from him.

The fierce glitter in his eyes and forbidding set of his mouth warned her against doing either.

And so she waited where she stood, a sense of foreboding stealing into her bloodstream.

“What the hell did you think you were doing?” he ground out when he reached her. “Didn't I warn you about wandering around alone?”

She didn't make the mistake of acting as if she didn't know that he meant her flight from Last Hope. “I wasn't
wandering,
I was leaving. They ambushed me outside the Scarlet Rose. Are you all right?” She lifted her hand, wanting to erase the blood dribbling from the gash at the corner of his eye.

“You're lucky you're alive to tell the tale,” he said, rearing back from her concern. “Mount up.”

“Where are we going?”

“I'm taking you back to Rose's.”

She shook her head. “I'm not going back.”

Jesse stared at her for an interminable moment, then slid out of the mule's saddle. Two long strides brought him to her side, and he wrapped his fingers around her arm in a firm grip. “Now is not the time to argue with me,
Honesty. I've been to hell and back looking for you, and I'm in no mood to take any guff. You're going back to Rose's, and that's final.”

Honesty dug in her heels. “I'm
not
going back. I was only working there to make traveling money, and now that I've got it, I'm going to look for the—my brother,” she amended quickly.

The blunder earned her a searching study from Jesse. Honesty tossed a tangled lock of hair over her shoulder and lifted her chin in silent daring. If he planned on taking her back, he'd do so with her kicking and screaming the entire way.

Then his hand fell unexpectedly away. “Fine. If you're so damned determined to go after that brother of yours, let's go.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I don't need you. I can protect myself.”

“Oh, that's right. Two men steal you away with God-only-knows what intentions, but of course you were perfectly safe. My mistake.”

Honesty's eyes narrowed as he turned toward his horse. “Is this a trick?”

“It's no trick. We're both headed in the same direction anyway, so we might as well ride together—at least to the Texas border. If we find your brother before then, great. If we don't, then we'll find you another escort and you can go your way and I'll go mine.”

Yesterday she'd have been overjoyed at the prospect of having Jesse along. But that was before she'd overheard his conversation with the Treat brothers. “Why the sudden change of heart, Jesse? Three days ago I asked you for your help and you couldn't be budged with a pick-ax. In fact, your exact words were, ‘I already have a job.' So why the sudden insistence on being my protector now?”

He stared long and hard at her, making her feel somehow ashamed for asking, as if she'd ventured into forbidden territory.

“Because maybe if I'd agreed in the first place, you wouldn't have suffered at their hands today.”

Her mouth went slack. Jesse? A guilty conscience? Why on earth should he feel to blame for Robert and Roscoe stealing her away? Unless . . . “What are you, an outlaw?”

“Where did you get that notion?”

She could hardly tell him that no one with an ounce of respectability had anything to do with men like the Treat brothers. “Well, you're not a miner, and you're certainly no cowboy. It seems a logical assumption about a man who professes to gamble when it suits his purposes.”

“Do us both a favor; don't try getting logical.” After swinging fluidly onto Gemini's back,
he turned to face her. “So what's it going to be, darlin'? Do you want my help or don't you?”

“Not particularly.”

“Fine. Don't say I didn't offer.” He turned his horse away.

And Honesty suddenly panicked.

She hadn't a doubt that he'd leave her to suffer whatever miseries fate decided to throw at her. Going on her own would not only leave her at the mercy of every scoundrel in the Rocky Mountains, but vulnerable to Robert and Roscoe. Accepting Jesse's help would put her at the mercy of a shameless and totally unpredictable drifter.

Of the two, Jesse seemed the lesser of two evils. She couldn't trust him any more than the next person, but she could not dispute the need for protection. Deuce was dead, men like Roscoe and Robert—and possibly even Jesse himself—were focusing on her in their hunt for her father's “hidden million,” and there wasn't a soul on earth she could turn to or trust with her secret. And Jesse had saved her . . .

“All right!” she called out to his departing form. “You can ride with me—but just until we reach the Texas border.”

She should be safe with him until then. Provided he never learned the truth about her relationship to Deuce.

The first order of business, Jesse decided, was to trade that bow-backed waste of skin and bones Honesty rode for a decent mount. He didn't dare push Gemini faster than a leisurely walk for fear of losing Honesty, who lagged behind on a mule that knew nothing of the term canter and seemed to care even less. If they'd made ten miles today, Jesse would count them lucky.

Honesty didn't appear bothered by the plodding pace, though. She looked around her in avid interest, soaking in the sights as if she'd never before seen the steep granite walls of the Royal Gorge or the rushing waters of the Arkansas River. She insisted, too, on stopping near the base of every waterfall they came across as if they had all the time in the world. While Jesse couldn't deny the falls cascading down hundreds and thousands of feet of sheer rock were spectacular, the turtle's pace frayed his temper.

“Can't you make that animal go any faster?” he finally snapped during a long stretch of trail.

“Not unless we hit a downward slope. Bag-o'-Bones was not created for speed.”

No kidding. He'd learned that during the two days it had taken him to track down the dim-witted duo.

“Do you think they're following us?” Honesty asked, as if reading his thoughts.

A picture of the pair he'd left tied to a tree brought a derisive smile to his face. “I doubt they'll be in any position to follow anyone for a long while.”

She fell silent for another moment, then said, “I don't think I ever thanked you for coming after me.”

“Don't flatter yourself. I was after my horse.”

A heartbeat passed before he heard a solemn, “I see.”

Jesse waited for her to come back with some shrewish complaint. Most women did. Hell, Miranda had been an expert at laying guilt on him to distract him from her own.

But Honesty didn't complain. In fact, she didn't say much of anything for the rest of the day. Jesse should have been grateful; he didn't often have a traveling companion, and it felt odd enough having her along as it was.

Except, with nothing but the gentle breath of the wind or the rush of the Arkansas River or an occasional hawk's cry to break the quiet, Jesse found himself regretting his careless remark and longing for conversation. Something more than the silence that had been his mate for longer than he cared to remember.

He glanced over his shoulder to make sure
she was still there. It seemed almost impossible to believe that the woman riding a horse-length behind him was the same woman who'd sashayed about the stage in pink roses a few days before, crooning to a roomful of hungry men. The same woman who'd cooly descended a staircase wearing a sizzling red dress. The same woman who turned him inside out with sultry eyes and a winsome smile.

Now those eyes were glazed with fatigue and her smile seemed to have been left behind in the abandoned mining town.

Jesse faced forward and frowned. She'd had a harrowing few days of it, and though she tried to hide it, it showed not only in the tired lines of her sunburned face, but in her sagging posture. They'd have to make camp soon; she'd not last much longer.

Once again he damned the sense of honor that had not only possessed him to go after her, but compelled him to travel with her as her guard. One of the traits that had gotten him into the agency and made him a top operative was his dogged focus on any case he'd been assigned. Yet here he was, traipsing across the country with trouble in the flesh after a man he wasn't even sure existed.

Yet he couldn't help but feel responsible for her. The Treat brothers had wanted something, and if they had the slightest inkling who he
was, that something had very likely been a way to get to him.

Well, he'd get her as far as Texas; that should keep her out of the Treats' reach. If they didn't find her brother before then, he had a couple of trusted connections across the border who would see her safely to Galveston.

They left behind the mountains of green velvet, and before them lay mile upon mile of prairie land, as golden and rippling as an angel's hair. Aspen, oak, and cottonwoods lined a calm stretch of the river, and a pair of mule deer loitered near the timberline.

Jesse pushed forward, knowing that they needed to find shelter someplace less open. An hour before dark, he spotted a narrow stream lined with trees.

“We'll make camp up ahead.”

“Already?” Honesty cried in astonishment. “It's not even dark yet!”

“It will be soon. Besides, the animals need to rest, and I'm hungry.”

Now that Jesse mentioned it, Honesty realized her stomach felt a bit pinched, too. Still, now that she was actually on her way, she was in no hurry to stop. And there was the little matter of sleeping under the aspen boughs with Jesse. This was the first time she'd been truly alone with him since the night they'd spent together. Always before, she'd known that help
was only a holler away if she needed. There was no one about now—just a few crows roosting in the branches, and they'd hardly offer any protection should Jesse get it in his head to take advantage of their isolation. Though he wasn't a huge man, he possessed a wiry power to be reckoned with, and she wasn't sure she had the strength to fend him off.