Jayce
Malika, when startled,didn’t waste breath on screaming.She went straight into battle.
Jayce, however, was ready this time.
He clamped her arms to her sides.Her flailing feet struck nothing but air.She spat a few choice words at him, and while he didn’t understand the language she used, he understood their meaning just fine.
He didn’t like manhandling her, but if she connected with his gonads again, then rode off while he was curled up in a fetal position, she’d kill herself and Saber on the mountain at night.She thought she knew the path down, but he’d led her and Ali up a few false trails on their ride to Burning Scrub.Finding her way to the ranch, even in daylight, wasn’t as simple as she seemed to think.
Except her thought processes were impossible for him to follow, so he had no idea what she was thinking.What had possessed her last night?She must have known someone was watching, because he’d gotten the distinct impression she’d purposely put on a show.
She couldn’t do things like that, especially not in Burning Scrub, of all places.Benny would have a stroke if he found out she liked to parade around naked, displaying herself to the world.
The moon was full and bright.Jayce was tempted to load her on her horse, grab Side-eye from the stable, and guide her down the mountain himself.Maybe drive her to Butte and put her on a bus.What she did after that became her problem, not his.At least she’d be gone.
But as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t do it.
Ali had offered Mavis, Benny, and Adam twenty-five million dollars to keep her in Burning Scrub for the rest of the summer and he was leaving tonight.
And Ali was on his way out.Beau and Belle were going to give him a lift as far as Butte.
“Just… keep an eye on Malika until the preparations for her wedding are complete,” Ali said to Jayce, sounding tired.“She’s my last unmarried sister, and while I love her, I can’t do this again.It took me too long to arrange.I have daughters to think of.”
Part of Jayce wanted to feel sorry for her.The rest of him believed that Ali was right and arranging a marriage for her was the best thing to do—especially since she seemed to have no real objection to it, other than that the man in question was already married.The cultural practices of the town’s guests were none of his business.
But why did he have to be the cowboy who rode to her rescue?
“She came up with her adventure,” Mavis said, unmoved when he asked.“Bounty hunters are after her brother, and he’s about to abandon her in Burning Scrub so he can outrun them.You’re the handsome cowboy who rescued her and her brother, and since you brought them to Burning Scrub in the first place, the role of protector stays yours.”
Ali picked up his bag.“I know my sister.Make it realistic and she won’t be able to resist an adventure.She’s going to try to follow me, because she’s very loyal, but you must stop her.She has no money, and no friends in this country.”
Jayce wasn’t sure if he meant she had no money or friends in real life or as part of the adventure.Either way, here he was, rescuing her again, because Burning Scrub had twenty-five million dollars riding on her buying into her adventure and in keeping her entertained.
She wasn’t making it easy.
“Pardon me, ma’am,” Jayce said, sliding into his role.He blew a strand of her hair out of his mouth.“But I can’t let you run off and risk your life on the mountain in the dark.It’s too dangerous.And so’s you’re aware, horse theft is a hanging offense in these parts.The town won’t care that you’re a woman.”
She stopped struggling.
“What about kidnapping?”she asked, sounding hopeful.“Is that a hanging offense too?If I filed charges against A… li, would he hang?”
She had to quit talking like that.“You weren’t kidnapped.You followed your brother to Montana Territory after he killed a man while defending your honor.”
She shrugged out of his arms and spun around.Her hair had come loose from its knot, and she shoved the heavy mass of curls away from her face with both hands.
“Where did you hear that ridiculous story?”she demanded.
Burning Scrub had twenty-five million dollars at stake, he reminded himself grimly.The cut the ranch received would make up for the black-footed ferrets currently testing his parents’ marriage in his dad’s durum wheat field, and then some.
Make it realistic.
“Your brother is trying to stay ahead of the bounty hunters hired by the father of the man he killed, he needs to travel light, and he doesn’t want you in harm’s way.”
“You mean he doesn’t want me in his way.”Her sharp gaze cut straight through him.She might have been pampered for most of her life, but she wasn’t stupid.“The helicopter that just left.My brother was on it, wasn’t he?”
Her brother, Beau Jones, and Belle.Belle, who was now married.
Funny, the thought didn’t sting.
