AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When he started toward them, Alex took a step back. The other two were busy filling their pockets with the few valuables in the trunks and wasn’t paying attention to her. She was able to get a good distance from them when the fellow with black hair looked her way. “What the hell?”
Alex froze. When he squinted, she realized he wasn’t looking at her, but at some distant point over her shoulder. She looked too and saw a rider coming their way, his horse eating up the distance between them at a fast clip.
Silas and the other one turned to look. When the rider was close enough to make out features, Alex’s heart lodged in her throat. She recognized the horse. It was one of the paints from the ranch.
Time seemed to slow as the horse and rider rode closer. When she saw that dark auburn hair under the man’s hat, her heart skipped a beat.
She saw him. Jesse urged the horse faster as she ran toward him, the men behind her yelling for her to stop. He leaned down over the horses back and extended an arm when he neared her. “Jump, Alex!”
She grabbed his arm as if they’d done this move a hundred times before. He wasn’t sure how he managed to pull her up but when he felt her settle behind his back, he pulled the reins, the horse turning to go back the way they’d come as gunfire echoed across the prairie.
The stagecoach was a blur on the horizon before Alex found her voice. “There were people back there that needed help.”
“They aren’t my problem.”
Her grip on his waist tightened. “My bedroll is back there. My clothes.”
“We’ll buy you more.”
The adrenaline rushing through his veins slowed until his heart rate returned to normal and his limbs felt numb. The feel of Alex’s arms around him, her labored breath panted out on the back of his neck was enough for him to let go of the last bit of fear.
The images he’d let take hold of him the moment Ben told him about the stagecoach robbery wouldn’t leave. Images of her hurt—or worse—because he hadn’t made sure she would be safe plagued his mind. Anger replaced the fear and it took everything in him not to lash out. It wasn’t her he was mad at. It was himself.
They rode in silence until he could make out the town on the horizon. Alex’s breathing had calmed and her hold on him loosened. He missed the warmth of her against his back the moment she sat up and leaned away.
“This is all your fault, you know that, right?”
He glanced at her over his shoulder. “My fault? And how do you figure that?”
“You’re the one who insisted I go home. If you hadn’t put me on that stagecoach, my life wouldn’t have been in danger.”
Jesse snorted. “If you hadn’t snuck off and joined the cattle drive when you were told not to, I wouldn’t have had to put you on the stagecoach.” He shook his head. “You’re still the same immature girl you’ve always been, Alex. Hot headed and doing exactly what you want regardless of what anyone thinks. How long do you think the people in your life will bother trying to protect you when you continue to act like a spoiled brat who always wants her way?”
She hit him. It wasn’t hard but her fist on his right shoulder was enough to let him know he’d struck a nerve.
“Stop the horse,” she said. “I’d rather walk back to town than ride with you.”
“I don’t think so. I’m not letting you out of my sight, darlin’.”
She screamed between clenched teeth, the sound coming out more of a growl than anything. “Stop calling me darlin’ and stop this horse right now!”
He ignored her, thought of nudging the horse faster but feared she’d fall off.
The thought hadn’t entered his mind good when she shifted behind him and pushed against his back. He heard her grunt a second before a loud thud caught his attention. When he looked back, she was on the ground. “What the hell?” Reining in the horse, he turned him back to where Alex sat sprawled on the ground. “Are you insane?”
She stood, brushed at her pant legs to sweep away grass and dirt and lifted that arrogant chin and started walking toward town.
There was a slight limp in her gait. Jesse watched her go, amazed she hadn’t broken her fool neck jumping off a moving horse. “You really are the half-wit I always claimed you were.”
“Go to hell, Jesse. I’m through being nice to you.”
He laughed and nudged the horse to follow her. “You’ve been nice to me?” He adjusted his hat. “Damned if I noticed.”
She limped faster.
Long minutes of silence later, he sighed. The sky had been filled with dark clouds most of the day and now the smell of rain was heavy in the air. He lifted his head as the faint sound of thunder rumbled across the prairie. “You do realize you’re costing your pa money, don’t you?”
“And just how am I doing that?”
