AllFreeNovel
Share Us
By the time morning came, she felt as if she’d not been asleep at all. She sat up, rubbing her aching back and looked around her. Ty was gone from his post and Asher was in the yard in front of the cabin saddling his horse. She walked toward him.
“The old man’s giving Ty trouble,” Ash said in the way of a greeting. “We may have to tie him on his horse just to get him out of here.”
Chris stifled a yawn. “I hope he ties him face down over the saddle.”
Asher caught her arm and pulled her close to him. “This is the last time I’ll see you for a while. I hope you’ll miss me. I hope you’ll think about my proposal. I hope you’ll…” He began to kiss her neck. “I hope you’ll say yes.”
The next minute, Asher was on the ground as Tynan jerked him away from Chris. Ty stood over him, feet apart, fists ready.
“Come on, Prescott, get up. You’ve been asking for this for a long time. Or aren’t you man enough to maul somebody your own size? Do you only pick on women?”
“For heaven’s sake!” Chris said, going to Asher to help him up.
Tynan advanced on the man.
“If you touch him again,” she said, “so help me, I’ll ride out of here with him. What in the world is wrong with you?”
Tynan lowered his fists and there was a bewildered expression on his face. “I don’t know,” he said in wonder. “Prescott, you better go now so you can use all the daylight. The old man will go with you but you’ll have to watch him every minute. I think he understands now that we’re hiding out so he’ll do what he can to make money off that knowledge.”
As Asher stood, Tynan looked a bit sheepish for a moment, then he turned back toward Chris. “You wouldn’t go, would you? I mean, I’d have to bring you back and someone needs to stay with Pilar.”
Chris looked at him for a long moment. “No,” she said at last, “I won’t leave. Not if you don’t hit Asher again. Now, could you leave us alone? I’d like to say good-bye.”
Tynan didn’t move a step. “You can say good-bye right now. He has to leave.”
“If you think—” Chris began, ready to give him a piece of her mind, but a call from Pilar stopped her. “Yes, I’m coming,” she answered, then deliberately turned and put her arms around Asher, meaning to kiss him good-bye, and show Tynan that he had no right to give her orders. But her lips never reached Asher’s because Tynan pulled her away from him and held her to him, her back against his front.
“Get on your horse, Prescott,” he said in a deadly voice.
Asher hesitated for a moment, but, then, with a sigh, he put his foot in the stirrup. “We’ll settle this later,” he said, glancing back to the old man who was sitting atop Tynan’s horse and ready to leave.
Tynan, still holding Chris, stepped back. “Make sure you watch him night and day. Don’t give him a minute or he’ll take all you have and maybe your life with it.”
“Yeah,” Asher muttered and, with one quick look at Chris, reined his horse away. “Come on, old man,” he called over his shoulder and then was gone from sight.
Chris pushed away from Tynan. “Release me, you oaf!”
She turned to look at him, anger in her eyes. “What right do you think you have to tell me what to do? Just who do you think you are?”
Tynan looked completely confused, seemed to want to say something but, instead, turned on his heel and went up the hill toward the spring.
Chris stood there for a moment, glaring after him, before she went to Pilar.
“I thought there was going to be a fight there for a moment,” Pilar said as Chris handed her a full canteen.
“I’d like to take a club to his head,” Chris said. “He doesn’t want me but then he hits anyone else whodoeswant me.”
Pilar leaned back against the hay as Chris began unbandaging her shoulder. “Oh, he wants you all right. He wants you badly.”
“And I know exactly how he wants me.” Pilar smiled. “I’ve never seen him like this. Even that time with that rancher’s daughter, he wasn’t like this. We all hoped then that he was going to settle down, but it didn’t work out.”
“Was that when he ended up in prison?”
“Red tell you about it?”
“Most of it. Pilar, how do you know Tynan? Why were you living with him at Owen Hamilton’s?”
“He saved my husband’s life.”
