He swore again, viciously. Before she could react he scooped her up, rifle and all, and began running. With every step she fought him, her arms flailing helplessly against his chest.
She felt a wave of pure terror. She was a strong woman, accustomed to taking care of herself. She’d always been able to rely on her skill with a gun and her ability to fight like a man. But she had never felt such strength in an opponent before. Despite the fact that she kicked and bit, twisted and turned, he never faltered as he half dragged, half carried her into the darkness.
Her mind was reeling. She was in the clutches of a madman. What had happened to send him over the edge? And why now, in the middle of the night?
Just as abruptly as the strange attack had begun, it ended when Adam dumped her unceremoniously on the hard ground.
Now she was fully awake. It was her turn to swear. Unleashing a string of oaths, she scrambled to her feet and caught him roughly by the arm. “Are you crazy? What in the —?”
Before she could finish, the night air was shattered by the sound of gunfire. She whirled and watched from the cover of darkness as the bedroll where she’d been sleeping was riddled with bullets.
“Who? What... ?” She wasn’t even aware that she was clutching Adam’s arm so hard her nails bit into his flesh.
As suddenly as the volley of gunfire began, it ended. In the eerie stillness that followed, a figure strode into the circle of light and kicked at the blankets. Finding them empty, he swore and called out something unintelligible. At once several more figures appeared.
“It looks like our gunmen are back. And this time they mean business.” Adam tossed Diamond her rifle. “Get out of here. Take my horse and head for the safety of your ranch. And don’t look back.”
She watched in stunned disbelief as he stepped out of his place of concealment, effectively drawing attention away from her so that she could escape. “’Evening, gentlemen.”
His voice was as cold as ice. Diamond thought she had never heard anything so chilling.
“How nice of you to come calling. But you should have warned me. I hate surprises.”
One of the men lifted his rifle and took aim, but before he could fire, Adam shot the weapon from his hand and sent him diving into the dirt.
Diamond stifled a gasp. The rumors she’d heard were true. Adam Winter was a fearless, cold-blooded killer. His hand had moved so quickly, she would have missed it if she’d blinked.
“I’d advise the rest of you to drop your guns.” Adam continued walking closer.
Two more men took aim. Refusing to play it safe or back down, Adam stood straight and tall and without hesitation dropped the first one in his tracks. Before he could aim again, a single gunshot was heard and the second gunman pitched forward.
Another gunman, the leader of the group, aimed a pistol at Adam.
Adam kept on walking. “You might get off a shot in time,” he said in that dangerously calm voice, “but then again, you might not.” He came to a halt just a few feet away. “Are you a gambling man?”
“Not me,” the gunman called, tossing aside his weapon and lifting his hands in a signal of surrender. “I only play sure things.” His fear suddenly turned to relief as he stared past Adam and watched two shadows emerging from the darkness. “But right now,” he said with a mocking laugh, “I’m sure of one thing. Unless you drop that gun, my partner will have to slit the lovely lady’s throat. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
Adam whirled. A man dragged Diamond into the circle of firelight. One muscular arm was wrapped around her waist. At her throat he held the blade of a knife.
“Drop the gun,” the stranger shouted, “or the woman dies.”
Adam felt a trickle of perspiration. The gunman could be bluffing. This whole scene could have been set up by Onyx Jewel’s daughter. Was this her way of seeking revenge? Had she lied earlier when she’d told him these men weren’t her wranglers? The thought was immediately erased by the sight of the mangled bedroll. No matter who paid these men, they’d intended to kill the person asleep by the fire. And they had no way of knowing whether it was Adam or Diamond.
Whatever the outcome, he had no choice now but to see this thing through.
“Looks like you’ll have to choose your victim,” he said through gritted teeth. He saw the look that came into Diamond’s eyes, and knew that she was both pained and enraged by his words. There was no chance to explain.
The gunman was clearly shocked. “You’re willing to sacrifice the lady?”
Adam shrugged. “The choice is yours. Release her, and we’ll talk. But if you harm the woman, there won’t be time for talk. You’ll be dead.”
“He’s bluffing,” the other gunman shouted. “And even if he isn’t, you can use her as a shield until you get to your horse. He can’t shoot both of us. Come on. Move.”
Adam showed absolutely no emotion as he stepped closer. “You listen to him, you won’t walk away.” Compelling gray eyes narrowed on the man. “How about it, stranger? Ready to risk your life?”
“My partner’s right.” Sweat streamed down the gunman’s face. “You’re bluffing.” He pressed the blade of his knife to his hostage’s throat until a small trickle of blood stained her shirt. Diamond whimpered as the blade sliced her flesh and pain flashed, white hot, through her.
Something dark and dangerous came into Adam’s eyes. “You just sealed your fate,” he said through clenched teeth. And as calmly as if he were taking target practice, he aimed his gun and fired.
The sound of the explosion roared inside Diamond’s head and she waited for death to claim her. So this is what her father had felt. This searing pain, and then the darkness. She felt the arm at her waist go slack. At the same moment, the gunman began to pitch forward. Adam wrenched her free and pulled her aside, just as her captor fell to the dirt.
A horse whinnied and Adam whirled and fired, but the bullet missed the leader, who was dragging himself into the saddle. His horse took off in a cloud of dust.
Adam swore, then turned back to Diamond.
“What...?” It took a moment for her to realize that she wasn’t dead. At least not yet. She was amazed at how hard it was to speak. Her heart was still working overtime, the echo of it throbbing in her temples. She tried again. “What did you think you were doing?”
“Saving your miserable neck.”
“Saving it! You told him to go ahead and kill me. And when his knife didn’t finish me...” She gave a sound of disgust. “For a minute I thought you were going to shoot me instead of him.”
He couldn’t resist taunting her. “I’ll admit, I did think about it. It took me a while to decide which one was the bad guy.”
“But you just shot. As calmly as though...” Her eyes flashed fire. “You could have killed me.”
“I had to move quickly, before his partner got a chance to go for his gun. Then we would have both been dead. Besides —” his look darkened “— you have no cause for complaint, Miss Jewel. As you recall, I told you to get out of here. If you’d done as you were told, you’d be halfway to your ranch by now, and I wouldn’t have been forced to shoot all these men before I found out what they were after.”
The short fuse on her temper matched his. “Listen, Adam Winter. You’d better get it through your head that I don’t take orders. I give them. And if you think I’d run like a scared little rabbit from a gunfight, you can think again. My father taught me to shoot a rifle better than most men. And fight better, too.”
Adam turned away from her in disgust. Once again this sharp-tongued female was bound and determined to have the last word. Because of her, he’d missed his chance to learn who these men were and why they’d attacked.
He circled the campfire, bending to each man to check for a pulse. Dead. All of them. And not one left to tell him what he wanted to know.
He turned back in time to see Diamond sinking slowly to her knees in the dirt. All the color had drained from her face.
She pressed a
hand to her fevered brow. What in the world, she thought dazedly. This had never happened to her before. Through a blur she watched as Adam hurried over to kneel beside her.
“What’s...wrong? What’s...happening?” Her own voice seemed to fade in and out.
“I think you’re about to faint, Miss Jewel.”
“That’s ridiculous.” She was clearly outraged at the suggestion. “I’ve never fainted in my life.”
With a muttered oath he tossed aside his rifle and began to tear away her shirt. “Let me see that wound.”
“How dare —!” She brought her hand up to stop him, and found, to her consternation, that she was as weak as a kitten. Her hand was trembling so violently, she couldn’t even make a fist.
He removed his bandanna and tied it gently around her neck.
“How bad...?”
“Could you just lie still for a minute and keep your mouth shut? Or is that too much to ask?”
She was surprised by the warmth and the gentleness of his touch.
“Stop fussing. It’s nothing but..a little scratch,” she protested.
“Um-hmm.” He continued tying. When he was through he said, “I think we’ll forget about staying with the herd. What you need is a warm bed and some of Zeb’s hot stew. Come on. I’m taking you to my cabin.”
“No. I...can’t. Want to go... home.”
Ignoring her protest, he lifted her in his arms and carried her to his horse. And hoped that he wouldn’t have to listen to her litany of complaints all the way home.
But Diamond was beyond caring. She had already done the unthinkable. She had slipped into a dark, swirling tide of unconsciousness.
Chapter Five
Adam cradled the unconscious Diamond against his chest and held his horse to a slow, easy pace. He didn’t like that jagged line of blood along her throat. Or her unnatural pallor.
Anger bubbled, hot and furious, within him. What in the hell was the matter with her? The damned ornery, obstinate little female almost got herself killed. Did she have a death wish?
Suddenly he remembered a fact that had, until this moment, escaped him. Or at least, until this moment, he’d had little time to sort it out. During the exchange of bullets, there had been one shot that hadn’t been fired from his rifle. Yet all of the gunmen had fallen. That could only mean... His hand tightened at her shoulder. It had to mean that Diamond had remained, not merely to defy him, but to join him in the gunfight.
She’d saved his hide. But why, when only hours earlier, she’d tried to shoot him in the back?
Fool, he thought. He touched a hand to her pale cheek and allowed his fingers to linger a moment on the soft skin. Little fool.
He became aware of the heat of her body warming his own. Soon it became heat of another kind.
He was achingly aware of the woman in his arms and blamed it on the unusual circumstances. The gunfight, the sense of impending danger, had heightened his senses. That was why he was beginning to notice little things that had escaped his detection earlier. Like the fact that her skin, despite the harsh Texas sun, was as soft as a baby’s. In the spill of moonlight he studied a sprinkle of freckles that paraded across her nose, and wondered if there might be more freckles on other... more intimate parts of her body. That caused his gaze to move lower, to the soft swell straining beneath her shirt. Heat stirred in his loins, and he forced himself to look away. But within moments his gaze was drawn back to her. To the tiny waist, looking incongruous with the heavy masculine gun belt encircling it. For all her tough talk and mannish swagger, she was softly curved in all the right places. He studied the way her hair fell over one eye in a most seductive fashion. There was so much about a woman he’d forgotten....
Suddenly he nudged his horse into a run. Now, more than ever, he wanted to get her to his cabin. Zeb was there. The old man would help him keep his mind off this damnable female and on more sensible things.
As he neared the cabin, he saw a dark silhouette rise up from the wagon bed and knew that Zeb had heard their approach. The old man leveled a rifle and peered through the darkness.
“It’s all right. It’s me,” Adam called out.
At once the old man lowered his weapon and climbed down. “Good thing you called out a warning. I’m feeling a bit jumpy tonight.”
Adam’s voice took on a sharp edge. “Why? Did something happen while I was gone?”
Zeb shrugged. “Bunch of wranglers from the Jewel Ranch came by looking for their lady boss. Said her horse returned without her.” He moved closer as Adam slid to the ground, cradling the woman against his chest. “Looks like you found her first.”
Seeing that she was unconscious, he managed to hold back the questions that sprang to his lips as he walked ahead to hold open the cabin door. His questions would have to wait until later.
Adam strode inside and deposited Diamond on the bed.
“I’ll need some warm water,” he called. “And a clean cloth. And whiskey for her wound.”
Zeb poured water from a blackened kettle into a small basin and set it on a bedside table, then found rags and a bottle of whiskey in a cupboard.
He peered over Adam’s shoulder as the bandanna was removed, and sucked in his breath at the sight of the wound. “You going to tell me what happened?” he demanded.
“Gunmen attacked us in the night. Riddled my bedroll with bullets.”
“Us.” The old man studied his friend’s bowed head as Adam washed away the blood. “You and the lady boss were sharing a bedroll?”
“You know me better than that,” Adam said angrily.
Zeb chuckled. “Well, now, I don’t know. She’s a woman. You’re a man. And you’ve been alone a long time now.”
“If I wanted to ease the loneliness, I wouldn’t choose a prickly wildcat with claws that could tear out my heart. Besides, have you forgotten? She’s the daughter of the man I was accused of shooting.”
“Hell,” the old man cackled. “If you live as long as I have, you won’t be surprised by anything that happens in this crazy world.”
He waited a moment, watching as his friend poured whiskey onto a cloth and pressed it to her throat.
At the first contact Diamond gasped and pushed his hand away while she let out a string of oaths.
“Looks like that brought her around,” Zeb said. “Sure can cuss, can’t she?”
Diamond’s lids flickered, and she stared up at the two pairs of eyes peering down at her. Her gaze fastened on steely eyes that were quickly becoming familiar. “What did you do to me now, Adam Winter? I feel like my throat is on fire.”
“I think I liked you better when you were unconscious,” he said dryly as he pressed the cloth to her throat again.
She gave a hiss of pain and glanced beyond him to Zeb. “Can’t you stop him? He’s trying to finish the job those gunmen started.”
The old man shot her a reassuring smile. “He’s just cleaning that wound, little lady. I know it stings, but Adam doesn’t want to take any chances.”
“A shame to waste good whiskey,” Adam added. “But I wouldn’t want to have your foreman accusing me of not doing all I could.”
She grabbed at his hand. “I should have known you weren’t doing all this out of the goodness of your heart.”
He felt a rush of heat at the touch of her. “You can count on that.” He stood abruptly and handed the cloth to Zeb. “Here, old man. See that she’s made comfortable. I think I’ve had enough of her hissing and spitting for one night.”
“Where’re you headed?” Zeb called as Adam stormed across the cabin.
Adam didn’t bother to reply. Instead he wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and stretched out on a rug in front of the fire. Within minutes he was sound asleep.
With the touch of her still warm on his hand.
“Here, little lady boss.” Zeb plumped up the pillows and eased Diamond into a sitting position before handing her a steaming cup.
“What’s in this?” She studied the liquid with s
uspicion.
“Just a splash of whiskey in some coffee. It’ll ease the pain a bit and maybe help you sleep.”
“I don’t want to sleep. I want to go home.”
The old man heard the note of weariness in her voice and knew that it wouldn’t be long before she’d give in to the need to sleep.
“Adam will take you just as soon as he’s had a chance to rest.” He glanced at the blanket-clad figure stretched out in front of the fire. “He’s been through a lot today.”
“No more than he deserves. He should hang for what he did to my father.”
“He didn’t kill your pa, ma’am.”
“And how would you know that?”
“Because I know Adam. If he disagreed with a man, he’d do it face-to-face. Adam has too much honor to ever shoot a man in the back.” His voice lowered. “Besides, Adam’s the fastest man with a gun that I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t need to try any tricks. The man isn’t alive who ever beat Adam Winter to the draw. And that’s a fact.”
She shivered, remembering the determined look in Adam’s eyes when he’d faced the gunmen. Even though he’d been outnumbered, he’d never backed down. She felt a trickle of fear just thinking about the change in him. The look in his eyes had been that of a gunslinger, not a rancher.
Needing to talk, she told Zeb about the gunfight, and about the way Adam had reacted when her attacker had threatened to kill her. “He told him to go ahead. He refused to drop his gun.”
“That was just a bluff,” Zeb said softly. “The way Adam’s mind works, he was buying a little time while he figured a way to save your life and his own.”
“Maybe. Or maybe he’s just a fool. My pa taught me to handle a gun. And I’m good at it,” she said with a trace of pride. “But he also taught me a healthy respect for anyone who drew first. Adam Winter wasn’t even smart enough to be afraid.”
Zeb chuckled. “Yep. That’s Adam. Point a gun at him, or threaten those he cares about, and he’s a changed man. But he doesn’t go looking for trouble. Fact is, he’d rather be left alone. Doesn’t have much use for people these days. Except me,” he added with a twinkle in his eye. “And sometimes I’m not even sure about that.”