My Desperado by Lois Greiman Read Free Book Online Page B

heart.
    What if it had been something more treacherous than a squirrel? What if it had been their pursuers? Eventually they would find them, wouldn't they? She'd read stories about these western trackers. Men who could follow week-old trails in the dark. But perhaps the stories had been embellished. Or perhaps not.
    Should she venture from their relative safety to hide their trail? She glanced at Soldier, who seemed to have no opinion, then, scowling worriedly, she pulled Ryland's blanket higher on his chest and scurried up the slope.
    It was dark! Katherine's heart thumped against her ribs, and her feet felt numb from the cold. Perhaps she had slept for a moment. Fragments of details filtered back to her scrambling mind. She'd come to Colorado to inherit Aunt Dahlia's business.
    Patterson had died.
    Ryland had appeared.
    There'd been shots.
    Water—cold as ice.
    A branch snapped up above. Inches away, Soldier lifted his head, the black points of his pricked ears hidden in the darkness. Moonlight filtered weakly through the freshly leafed branches.
    Nearby and above a horse nickered!
    Katherine's chest ached from lack of breath. She was on her knees, her frigid fingers reaching pleadingly for Soldier's nose, entreating him to be silent.
    "Red! You scared the shit outta me."
    "Find anything?"
    The men were close enough for her to hear their horses restlessly shuffle their feet. Katherine remained frozen, too afraid to do more than pray.
    "No, I ain't found nothin'. It's blacker than hell. We ain't never gonna find nothin' in here. And anyhow, I'm tellin' y', I blasted him clean through the chest. He couldn't a made it this far nohow."
    "Then where's the body?"
    "How the hell should I know? I'm just tellin' y' he's dead, is all. Unless you're believin' them stories 'bout him being a ghost."
    "Shut your damn mouth. Ryland's just flesh and blood. Same as me."
    "Same as you, only dead," corrected the other. "We might just as soon head downriver to New Prospect. Have us some whiskey and a soft—"
    "You ain't gonna rest your sorry ass in Prospect!" growled Red. "Y' hear me? I done too much work already to stop now. We ain't quittin' till we can drop Ryland's bloody carcass on Grey's doorstep."
    "And the girl?"
    Katherine's lungs ached.
    "Grey wants her...pronto."
    "I'd think we could at least—"
    "Grey don't pay y't' think, Cory." The horses shuffled about again.
    "And he ain't payin' me enough to be riskin' my hide out here in these goddamn woods. Why ain't Delias here doin' the dirty work?"
    "I told you before," Red snarled. "I don't need that old man doin' my job." He paused. "You say you got Ryland in the chest?"
    "Yah."
    "And I hit his leg—or maybe his horse." He paused. "They couldn't a made it this far. Come on." Hoofbeats moved away. "We'll head upstream."
    The voices faded off in a rustle of leaves and underbrush.
    Time slipped away unnoticed. Katherine's muscles felt cramped. Her knees hurt from the pressure of the rocky soil, but her hand remained pressed tightly to Soldier's dark muzzle.
    She eased back on her heels, her chest aching from the breath she'd held too long, her gaze falling to Ryland's face.
    His eyes were open, his body still as a rock. "It ain't going to help to swoon," he reasoned quietly.
    "I'm not going to swoon." She spoke without thinking, her voice sounding distant and strange.
    "Good. Then you better have a plan."
    The world shifted. The dark edges of Katherine's consciousness tilted queerly.
    "Lady!" His tone was sharp. "You better have a plan cuz I hurt like hell and I'm blamin' you."
    "Me?" The single word seemed to roll down a long tunnel and echo quietly in the night.
    "Yah." His hand caught her arm, jerking firmly. "So let's go."
    "Go?" She stared at his hand. It was square and large. "Go?"
    "Listen, lady, this is fascinating conversation, but I know you couldn't a been sitting here doing nothing the whole day. Not a smart woman like you. So tell me what you've figured out." He watched her