The doctor felt the blood drain from his head, and a cold, sick feeling gripped his stomach.His hand went into his pocket and closed around the handle of the scalpel.He’d kill these bastards.But before they died, he’d make them suffer far more than anything they could imagine.
“If you touch my daughter, if there is one hair?—”
“Shut it, Doc.That don’t mean nothing to me.Dodger is the one bringing her here, and believe me, he’s keen as mustard to keep her.”
Lucas lifted his battered head from the floor at those words.Even through swollen eyes and bloodied lips, fury blazed across his face.
“If he hurts her in any way, I’ll kill him and then I’ll kill you.”
“I’m quaking in my boots, Doc.”Horner laughed.“But I’ll tell you what.I ain’t unreasonable.Maybe we can come to an understanding, you and me.”
He spat on the floor again.
“But while we wait, you go ahead and start sharpening them knives.”
ChapterThirty-Three
Caleb heldhis hand firmly over her mouth.The last thing he wanted was to frighten Doc’s daughter, but he didn’t want to alert whoever was down in that camp.
He didn’t expect the warmest of greetings, but the knife flashing toward his face didn’t exactly say,Mighty glad you happened by, Marlowe.
Catching her wrist, he stopped the blade about an inch from his eye.
He pulled his hand from Sheila Burnett’s mouth, still holding her knife hand with the other, and she spun away.As she turned, her other hand was diving into the pocket of the duster for something else.
“Hold on there,” he ordered in a low voice.
A derringer appeared, and he managed to get his hand around it before the thing went off and she put a hole in his hide.
Her eyes were flashing fire in the moonlight, and she looked fiercer than that cougar he faced earlier today.
Thankfully, she recognized him immediately, and her mouth dropped open.
“Marlowe!”she exclaimed as he let go of her.
“Keep your…” His words were cut off as she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his waist.Her face was pressed against his chest, and he could feel the butt of the knife and the little pistol against his back.He didn’t know if she was going to accidentally stab him or shoot him.
For one startled heartbeat, Caleb forgot the camp below them, the dead man behind the rocks, and every danger waiting in the darkness.She was alive.Trembling, furious, brave, and alive.
“Keep your voice down, Miss Burnett,” he said in a gruff whisper.
Before Caleb could say anything more, or even pat her on the back to comfort her, she jumped away from him with the speed of a bobcat.
He looked over the edge at the camp and the men around the fire.They were far enough away that her outcry hadn’t drawn their attention.
“You’re here,” she whispered.“I can’t believe my luck.”
“Never mind that.”He nodded to the derringer that was waving in his general direction.“Why don’t you let me hold that cannon of yours before you put a bullet in me and let them boys down there know we’re here.”
“There’s no need, Mr.Marlowe.”She slipped the pistol back into her pocket.Pulling a leather sheath from the other, she slid the knife in and pocketed that as well.
“All right.Then why don’t you tell me what the devil you’re doing out here?”
She was wearing her father’s duster, buttoned up all the way to the throat.At the bottom, a skirt protruded, as well as the boots that left the prints he’d been tracking.Her hair was hanging down her back in a thick braid, and a wide-brimmed hat was lying on the ground.
She shook her head.“I barely know where to start.”
“Hold on, miss.”He put a hand on her arm and had her crouch down next to him as he peered down at the camp.It was plenty dark out, but he didn’t want that moon reflecting anything that would make them a target.Reaching back, he picked up the hat and put it on her head.“Try to keep your face in shadow.It’s mighty bright out here.”
