Rustled

“I’m not sure Hoyt knew Laura as well as I have come to know her,” Aggie said. “I could say the same for his two other wives, as well. But Laura …” She sighed. “She was like you, apparently totally enamored by Hoyt. At first. But I’m sure you’ve heard about how close the emotions are between love and hate.”

“If you’re telling me she grew to hate him, I don’t believe you. I can’t imagine anything Hoyt could have done that would have—”

“She believed he’d fathered his first three sons.”

“I don’t believe it. A simple DNA test would prove—”

“There wasn’t DNA testing yet when Laura died.”

“But there is now. And anyway, if he was the biological father to those boys, Hoyt would have admitted it.”

“Why do you keep defending him?”

“Because I love him.” She waited for Aggie to admit her own feelings for Hoyt. She heard the woman get to her feet again and quickly said, “I think you fell for him, as well.” She didn’t add that she thought Aggie had killed his other wives because she was jealous.

“I’ll admit your husband is …charming. But historically, he is also dangerous to be around.”

Not half as dangerous as you are, Emma thought. “So you’re just trying to protect me,” she said as she heard Aggie open the door to leave.

Aggie chuckled but didn’t respond.

Emma lay back down on the mattress and pulled the blankets over her, but she couldn’t fight off the chill Aggie had left in the room.

DAWSON HEARD JINX behind him. She was as surefooted as an expensive filly as she climbed up to the cave. He told himself that he could almost hear the wheels in her head turning. She would try to get away when the rustlers came back for her. Or at the very least, give away their location—if he let her. He was already outnumbered. He’d have to find a way to even the odds.

As he moved a piece of dried brush away from the entrance to the cave, he heard her come up beside him. He turned on his flashlight and shone it into the cavern. To his relief it wasn’t occupied by any animals.

“Ladies first,” he said with more gallantry than he felt.

She smirked at that as she bent to step through the small opening. Once inside, she stood to her full height of about five-seven.

Dawson stepped past her, going around a corner in the cave to the hidden cavern room. As he lit the kerosene lantern he’d left there on one of his trips to the high country, she followed him.

In the golden light he studied her, wondering what she’d try next. The one thing he knew for sure, there was plenty of fight left in this woman. He’d have to watch her closely or suffer the consequences.

“What now, Chisholm?” she asked as she glanced around. He could see that she’d been surprised by the size of the cave, surprised that he’d furnished it over the years with not only a lantern but with a cot, a collapsible table and stool, a few pots and pans and a Coleman stove.

“Sit down over here and take a load off,” he said, opening the folding stool he used when he came up here.

“Take a load off, Chisholm?” she asked with amusement. She was slim, curved in all the right places, and she knew it.

“So to speak,” he amended.

He didn’t go far from the cave, not trusting her, but he had to take care of their horses. When he returned with some firewood, he found her sitting where he’d left her, which surprised him. But he didn’t doubt she’d taken a look around for something to cut the rope binding her wrists behind her. Before he’d left he’d been smart enough to make sure there was nothing sharp she could use.

The way the cave was structured, the opening turned just inside, which meant that light from the stove or a fire couldn’t be seen from the meadow. The cave was ventilated through a crack at the back that opened to fresh air on the cliff above them, so the smoke from a fire would draft upward high on the cliffs, on the same principle as a fireplace in a home.

If and when the rustlers returned for Jinx they might catch a whiff of smoke, but they would never be able to find the cave. He doubted they would even smell the smoke if they stayed down in the meadow.

He made a small fire at the back of the cave near the vent and close to Jinx. It would be getting cold once the sun went down. Then he started the Coleman stove and dug some food out of his saddlebag.

This cave had been a retreat for years, his own private sanctuary in the high country. A part of him resented that he’d had to bring her here, resented it even more when she asked, “So you come up here and play house by yourself a lot?”

He shot her a warning look before concentrating again on his cooking. He figured she was right about the other rustlers coming back to look for her—but not for a while, he thought. They’d have to secure the cattle. It would take a while for them to even realize they’d lost her after all that confusion earlier.

Dawson suspected that the main reason they would come back for her was that they wouldn’t trust her. At least one of them, the boyfriend, would have another motive.

But given all that, he felt they were relatively safe in the cave, at least for the time being. He’d hidden the horses around the side of the mountain and covered the opening to the cave again with the dried brush. Even if they were found, the cave was high enough on the mountainside that he could hold them off for a long time. He hadn’t brought an arsenal, but he always had extra ammunition.

“Dawson,” she said, using his first name in a way that reminded him of melted honey and put him on guard. He’d been expecting her to make some kind of move and shouldn’t have been surprised that she’d chosen this one.

“I don’t want to see you get killed,” she said, sweet enough to give him a toothache. “Maybe there is some way we can work this out so we both get what we want.”

“I guess that depends on what you want,” he said, not turning around. He heard her get up and come toward him and was glad he’d tied her hands behind her back. Otherwise he’d be worried about getting his head bashed in.

“All I need is for you to let me go.”

“How would that get me back my cattle?” he asked, playing along.

“Well,” she said softly right behind him. “If you just untie me …”

JINX LOWERED HERSELF to the cave floor next to him. He glanced over at her, eyes narrowing a little as she repeated his first name, her voice dripping with sugar. She saw the male spark in his eye as she moved closer. How sad that men were so much alike, she thought, a little disappointed in this one. She thought he was too smart to let himself be seduced by her.

She hated that she’d had to resort to such distasteful behavior, but too much was at stake. If she had to use her feminine wiles, she would.

“Yes?” He was close enough that she caught his very masculine scent.

She moved so her thigh brushed his. “Why don’t we be honest with each other?”

“Why don’t we?” He pressed his thigh against hers. His leg felt warm, even through his jeans. His dark eyes locked with hers. She felt a shiver that she quickly squelched. His eyes were golden like a big cat in the firelight. He really was magnificent.

It was the intellect in that gaze that gave her pause. She saw challenge in his eyes as well as a warning. This was a man you didn’t want to fool with.

“Tell me what you’re really doing up here,” she said, not about to break eye contact first. He might be dangerous, but then again, he didn’t realize the kind of woman he’d crossed paths with either.

“Checking my cattle, just like I told you.”

He was either telling the truth or he was a damned good liar.

She reminded herself that he could just be playing along. If he knew who she was and what she was doing on his land … “Can’t you please untie me?”

“No.”

“You really think I’m going to get away?”

He smiled. “If I give you half a chance, yes.” He turned back to his cooking.

“There wasn’t another reason you just happened to come up here?” she asked quickly.

He turned off the stove and gave her his full attention. She found herself holding her breath. There was something about this man that scared her—especially the way he made her heart pound when he was this near, his gaze so intent on her that she feared he could see into her soul.

“As a matter of fact, there was another reason.”

She expected him to finally tell her that he knew who she was. That she was the reason he was here.

“I wanted to spend a few days up in this country because I enjoy it. I thought I’d be alone. But since I’m not …” He was taunting her. Her feminine wiles were wasted on this man. “So, Jinx, what exactly are you offering?”

“If you think I’m going to sleep with you, you’re going to be disappointed,” she snapped and slid away from him.

He laughed. “Hell, I’m already disappointed. I thought we were being honest with each other.”

“I should just let them kill you,” Jinx grumbled, trying to get to her feet. With her hands tied behind her, it was a struggle.

Dawson rose abruptly, grabbed her waist and lifted her to her feet. His dark gaze bored into hers. “Now that we’re being honest, no more games. Seduction might have worked on your rustler boyfriend, but quite frankly you aren’t very good at it and anyway, you’re not my type.”

She swore as she tried to kick him in the groin. He’d obviously expected it, because he stepped to the side, grabbing her as she lost her balance and started to fall to the cave floor.

“Enough foreplay,” he growled as he hauled her back over to the stool and pushed her down on it. Leaning over her, his gaze fired with anger as he said, “I’m getting my cattle back and you’re going to jail, and if your boyfriend comes after you, he’s going to get himself killed.”

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