Читать книгу Westin Legacy - Alice Sharpe - Страница 13

He skirted the calm lake, traveling the moonlight-dappled trail at a steady gait. Now that he’d made the decision to go, he cursed the hours he’d wasted after their late supper.

Echo hadn’t shared the male-only meal. Pauline explained she and Echo had eaten hours earlier and Echo had begged off visiting that night in favor of nursing her wounds. He would have liked to see her—since the moment he’d left her side, she’d been ever present in his mind. He found her combination of audacity and humor both annoying and interesting. The Westin household could at times be pretty darn somber.

There’d been a couple of years when things had been different at the Open Sky. Right after Cody married Cassie and brought her home, every corner of the big place had suddenly filled with light. Cassie was a beauty with tumbling fair hair and angelic blue eyes, and the way she and Cody had looked at one another had made Adam curious about the kind of love that blossomed into a lifetime promise. He’d enjoyed their interactions, he’d been amused by his father’s more frequent smiles. Cassie even managed to win over Pauline who was pretty damn territorial when it came to her kitchen and household. But Cassie was like that. Easy to like, full of kindness.

At least at first. And then she’d grown increasingly quiet and concurrently, Cody had retreated inside himself. It was obvious their marriage was in trouble.

It culminated at last in a macabre reenactment of the past. Cassie left the ranch just as Adam’s mother had done decades before her. At first it had seemed she’d just be gone a few days, but time had passed and she’d just not come back.

Afterward? After Cassie left? It was obvious to Adam that Cody was determined to find her. Maybe it was because their father hadn’t tried to find their mother that he became obsessed with it. He’d hired a detective he thought no one knew about, and Adam was pretty sure it was a call from that detective that had made Cody call Pierce home months before.

Love hadn’t been kind to the Westin men, although Pierce swore his own tragedies that had included a ruined marriage had lifted the moment he met Princess Analise Emille. Adam hoped the passion he saw between them would burn forever; it worried him that his brother had chosen to share a ranching life with a woman raised in a castle of all places…?.

And yet she seemed tough under all that refined glamour, and very sure of what and who she was. What more could anyone give than the truth of their essence?

Careful, he warned himself. You don’t want to become one of those damn cowboy poets.

He urged the horse onward. Solar Flare knew the trails as well as he did—both of them could travel in near dark. Without Echo and Bagels to create a diversion, the route they traveled was a lot faster. Within an hour he was close enough to the cave to slow down lest thundering hoofbeats alert someone—if anyone was out here to alert.

Solar Flare appeared to understand the concept of tiptoeing or so it seemed to Adam as he led him along the path. The valley where a long-extinct Native American tribe had presumably summered hundreds of years before was full of shadows; the cave mouth was a short climb up the mountain face and, as luck would have it, located on the side of the mountain illuminated by the moon.

Still, unfortunately, it was impossible to tell if the covering door to the cave stood ajar. Too many shadows. He’d have to go up there and look.

He tied Solar Flare to a tree before proceeding down the hillside toward the valley. His plan was to skirt the flat areas and climb the mountain hugging the shadows. This time he’d have his rifle ready.

If the lily-livered thief was currently inside the cave busily looting his greedy little heart out, maybe there was a better way of catching him, one that wouldn’t result in more gunfire. How about guarding the cave entrance, calling Cody on his cell to get together a few guys and come on out here? Call the sheriff, too. Hell, the more the merrier.

On the other hand, the very act of disturbing the artifacts was a sacrilege and if left to do as he pleased, the thief would undoubtedly strip the burial cave clean before daybreak. He might not get out if Adam guarded the door, but the damage would be done.

A movement in the bushes ahead settled matters. The thief apparently hadn’t made it to the cave yet. If Adam could get the drop on him, he could launch a surprise attack and bundle the culprit off Open Sky. By dawn he’d be back to work and this would be over with.

All these thoughts raced through Adam’s mind as he crept down the dark side of the hill, glad the moonlight wasn’t directly overhead to give away his position. Every few seconds he stopped to listen, alarmed when he no longer heard movement. Had the thief detected Adam’s approach?

The question was answered an instant later when Adam felt the barrel of a gun jab into the middle of his back. Damn, he’d been made.

“Drop the rifle.”

The voice was muffled. Adam flashed on the bandana the thief wore over the lower part of his face; that explained the voice…?.

“I said drop it.”

Adam slowly lowered the rifle to the ground at his side. When the thief unexpectedly leaned over to pick it up, Adam seized the moment. Turning on the balls of his feet, he tackled the man.

Clutched together, they tumbled down the sloping land, Adam’s rifle abandoned behind. The guy wasn’t very big or strong though he threw some decent punches and with both hands, which meant he must have lost his weapon, too. After a few moments of wrestling and grunting, Adam pinned the guy to the ground and sat on him, keeping a forearm across his throat. They were both breathing heavy.

Gradually, it occurred to Adam that something was wrong.

He tried to blink into focus the pale oval face beneath his but the light was miserable. He felt for the bandana but it must have come off in the struggle and his fingers grazed slick lips. The click of teeth warned he’d come close to getting bitten. He loosened his stranglehold. “Who the hell—”

“Are you trying to kill me?” his victim demanded.

“Not yet. Not until I find out who you are.”

There was a long pause followed by a whispered, “Adam? Is that you?”

A waft of some kind of fruity scent hit his nose at the same time he realized the slippery substance he’d felt on his fingertips was lipstick. Echo!

How could he have not known he was sitting on a woman? Now that he did, everything about her was obvious, from her breasts pressed between his knees to the softness of her throat under his fingers…

He drew both hands back. “Are you okay?”

“Please stop asking me that.”

“Maybe if you could go more than a couple hours without throwing yourself under a bus, I would.”

“Move. You’re heavy.”

“I don’t know if I should. You’re a walking, talking menace.” He said this as he moved off her. On his knees by her side, he offered a hand, which she must have seen as she took it. They sat face-to-face in the dark.

He took a deep breath. “What are you doing out here?”

“The same thing you’re obviously doing.”

“But you were injured.”

“Pauline is a whiz with bandages and antiseptic.”

He shifted his weight off a sore leg. “Why in the world did you think it was a good idea to jab a gun against my spine?”

“I thought you were the bad guy. You were making a lot of noise—”

“I was not.”

“Oh, please. How do you think a greenhorn like me managed to get the drop on you?”

“Judging from everything I’ve seen since you got here, I’d say dumb, blind luck.”

“You wish.”

“Where did you get a gun, anyway?”

She was quiet for a second. “Well, it wasn’t really a gun.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask.”

“It was a stick.”

“You stuck a stick in an armed man’s back?”

“More like a branch. I thought you were his partner…”

Adam’s heart skipped a beat. “His partner? Whose partner? You mean you saw someone else out here?”

“Yes. I think—”

Her voice broke off as he grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet. “Where?” he insisted. “When?”

“On the mountain, right before I heard you coming.”

“At the cave?”

“He was climbing…?.”

He dropped her arm. “And then you and I made a huge ruckus fighting our way down the slope. He couldn’t have missed hearing that.”

“I suppose—”

“Which means he’ll come investigate.”

The flare of her sudden anxiety charged the still air between them like a downed electrical wire. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Maybe he’ll just leave.”

“Maybe not.”

“Let’s go find your rifle.”

“My idea exactly.” When their hands brushed, he grabbed her fingers. Best to keep her close so she didn’t go off on a tangent and get them both killed.

They climbed the slope as quietly as they could, stopping every few feet to feel for signs of broken bushes to confirm they were going the right direction. The light was slightly brighter headed uphill; a flashlight would have helped a lot but no way was Adam going to risk that.

“I need both hands,” she whispered, and broke away. After a few seconds during which he came across his jackknife which must have tumbled out his pocket unnoticed, she added, “I found the branch I used. Your rifle has to be somewhere nearby.”

The words had no sooner passed her lips when gunfire sounded from the valley and a piece of the bark—on a tree less than five feet away from Adam’s head—flew off and hit him on the cheek. The gunman had found them in the shifting moonlight. Even Adam could see Echo down on all fours patting the ground. Just as she found his rifle, another shot sounded.

“Stay down,” he hollered right before the impact of a bullet spun him to the ground. He grabbed his left shoulder. Blood seeped through his fingers. “Echo! Where are you? Find cover!”

He lay still, hoping she hadn’t been hit, as well. She’d been up the slope, behind him, but he couldn’t locate her exact whereabouts now without sitting up and he wasn’t going to do that.

And then he heard noise. Steps, breaking plants, broken twigs… Someone was coming up the hill toward them.

“Stop right there!” Echo hollered, her voice closer than Adam had figured. “Stop or I’ll shoot.” Without waiting, she let loose with the weapon.

The noise was deafening. Adam squeezed himself into the ground, willing himself to shrink and praying Echo kept the gun barrel high enough to miss him. He could imagine how terrified she was—damn, he was just as terrified but mostly of her…?.

He closed his eyes. If the unknown gunman kept advancing while being on the receiving end of Echo’s volley, he couldn’t be too big a chicken.

It seemed to go on and on in a distant fading way. Adam felt himself drifting. He was glad for the warm earth beneath him as hell raged overhead.