Secluded with the Rogue

Chapter 6

Six

B ethany’s unlikely hero fell asleep in his nest of blankets beside the fire almost the minute he closed his eyes. She knelt beside him, tracing his weary, beard-roughened features with her gaze. It terrified her to think how close he’d come to freezing to death today.

He’d risked his life to save her. Not just once, but twice.

No one had ever put her needs before their own. Her relationship with David had always been one-sided. She’d always been the one to give, and he’d taken from her until she had nothing left.

Zach would never treat a woman he loved in such a way. He’d proven he could keep her safe and make her feel cherished. She’d meant it when she’d told him she already knew him better than she’d ever known David.

With a sigh, she moved away and forced herself to eat half of one of the sandwiches left over from the sack lunches. She drank a few sips of the nasty whiskey and then climbed beneath the blankets, pressing as close to Zach as she could

His skin was still freezing cold to the touch. Only total exhaustion could have allowed him to fall asleep in such a state. Shivering, she chafed his fingers and toes until they began to warm. When the chill had faded somewhat, she snuggled close, determined to get some rest while he did. They’d both been up most of the previous night, and the day had been long and wearying. Within moments, she was fast asleep.

W hen Bethany awoke, she had no idea how long she’d slept. Zach curled around her, his big body warm at last. Cocooned beneath the weight of four blankets, she was almost too warm. Still, she didn’t want to move and risk waking him. She wanted him to sleep as long as he needed.

If he’d been on the run for weeks, she doubted he’d gotten a good night’s sleep since before he escaped, perhaps even longer than that.

As she lay in the circle of his arms, she tried to think of a way out of the mess he’d gotten himself into. If only the lawmen on his trail would believe he’d died in the wreck… She sat up, dislodging the blankets as she remembered something Zach had said when he’d returned from his latest supply mission.

Coyotes have been at the bodies. They’re barely recognizable .

Zach gave a soft moan of complaint as the cold air rushed in and touched his bare skin, but when she covered him up, he sighed and went back to sleep. The coach driver had been a young, dark-haired man. How badly had the coyotes torn at the bodies? Was there a possibility the driver could be mistaken for Zach? What if he was wearing the shackles?

Pushing to her feet, she padded barefoot across the cave, shivering as she entered the tunnel. When she reached the end, she stared outside, realizing it was morning already. It was still snowing, but the wind had died down. Zach's tracks in the snow were still discernible, leaving a trail she could follow with relative ease.

If she could return to the coach and find the shackles, she could put them on the driver’s body. It had to be done before it stopped snowing, so it wasn’t obvious it had been done after the wreck. Perhaps she could grab some things from her trunk, too.

The wind wasn’t blowing anymore, so it shouldn’t be too hard. She could do it for Zach. Lord knew he’d done far more for her.

Taking a deep, fortifying breath, she went back inside the cave to get dressed.

W hen Zach discovered Bethany had left, he went out of his mind with worry. Where the hell had she gone? Had she run away from him? Would she rather die in the snow than spend another night in his arms?

As he pulled on his damp clothes, he cursed himself for having slept so long. It had been years since he’d slept so deeply. Having Bethany at his side had allowed him to do so. Even in his sleep, he’d known she wasn’t a threat.

But her disappearance rattled him. Had she gone for help? Had she decided she wanted nothing to do with a murderer? A convict? A man who’d never had any right to put his hands on her in the first place?

His fears dissipated when he reached the cave entrance and saw the storm had abated. The snow still fell fast and hard, but the bitter wind had quieted. She’d followed his tracks back in the direction of the coach.

Girding himself to go back out into the cold, he followed.

He hadn’t gone very far when he caught sight of her, about fifty yards away, struggling to pull something large and heavy through the waist-deep snow behind her.

“Bethany,” he yelled, relief and anger warring within him. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Come help,” she called. “This thing is heavy.”

Fuming, he stomped toward her. Had she risked her life to go and retrieve a trunk full of fripperies? He hadn’t thought her vain, but now he reminded himself he didn’t know her at all.

She hadn’t managed to move the trunk very far by the time he reached her, and he wondered how long she’d been at this. She was stubborn; he’d give her that.

“What’s in here that’s so important?” he groused as he reached her side.

“Blankets. Pillows. Some honey and preserves. Some heavy clothing—coats and gloves and such.” She extended her hands, wiggling her fingers to show she was wearing gloves. “If we’re going to be living in the cave for a few more days, I thought they would come in handy.”

He stared at her, noting the shy pride on her flushed cheeks. Though she was panting from her exertion and had to be half-frozen, she seemed in high spirits. He sighed, raking his hand through his hair. “Darlin’, what were you thinking? I could have gone after this. There was no reason for you to do it yourself.”

She smiled and threw herself into his arms, nearly knocking him down with her exuberance. “This trunk isn’t the main reason I returned to the coach.”

He hugged her, breathing in her light, flowery scent, thanking God once again that she was all right. “Why did you go, then?”

She pulled away, reaching once again for the trunk handle. “Help me move this while I tell you. I want to get back to the cave as soon as possible. It’s freezing out here.”

He shook his head, smiling, but reached down and took the handle from her. “I can get it. You just talk.”

She looked as though she was going to protest, but he gave her a stern look, and she complied with a laugh. “All right. But if you need a rest, let me know.”

“Just talk.” He gave the trunk a mighty pull, surprised to find it glided pretty well over the compacted snow. She watched him for a few moments, then fell into step behind him.

“When I woke up, I started thinking about what you said last night. About the coyotes having been at the bodies?”

He turned to look at her, and she shuddered. “It was horrible, but you were right. It’s impossible to tell what they once looked like. So, I found the shackles and put them on the driver.”

“You did what ?” He stopped, staring at her in stunned disbelief.

She nodded, looking hopeful and so sweet it broke his heart. “It wasn’t easy, but I remembered where you were standing when you tossed them to the ground. Anyway, I dug through the snow until I found them. I figure when help comes, I’ll just tell them you and the marshal were killed in the wreck, and the driver went for help and never came back. I don’t think they’ll look too hard. They have no reason not to believe me. Then, in a few weeks, you can assume a new name and find me in Texas.”

Overwhelmed, he leaned against the trunk, aghast and amazed. He couldn’t believe she’d come up with such a brilliant plan, trekked through the storm to implement it, and put shackles on a half-eaten, two-day-old corpse , all so they could stay together without the law breathing down their necks.

“Ah, Bethany,” he murmured, his voice heavy with regret. “You don’t know how much this means to me, but I can’t let you go through with it. I can’t let you lie to the law just so I can go free. I’d rather go back to prison for the rest of my life than risk seeing you there for even a day.”

Her smile slipped and hurt gathered in her expressive eyes. “Let’s talk about this once we get back to the cave. I’m freezing.”

Squaring her shoulders, she turned and trudged through the snow, all the fire and excitement that had gotten her through the last few hours dampened by his thoughtless words.

He was such an ass. She’d done all this for him; he could have at least praised her plan, shown her he appreciated the thought and effort she’d put into it. With a heavy sigh, he pushed to his feet and started after her, pulling the heavy trunk in his wake.

“It’s not that I don’t think it’s a good plan,” he called, frustrated with her sudden change of mood. “I think it’s a great plan. I just don’t want you to do anything you’ll regret once this is all behind you.”

She whirled to face him, anger replacing the hurt. “Is that what you think? That I’m doing this because I’m a stupid, helpless woman stuck in circumstances beyond my control? Do you think once help comes, I’ll forget how much I’ve come to care about you and regale my friends with stories of the dangerous outlaw who forced me to make love to him?”

He stumbled to a stop, a little taken aback by her furious tirade. In truth, he did worry that once she was safe and sound at her sister’s house in Texas, she’d look back on her time with him with embarrassment, if not shame.

“You’re the sweetest person I’ve ever met, darlin’. You’d say please and thank you to a grizzly. Once you’re safely away from here, I’m afraid you’ll realize that allowing me in your bed was a mistake. I just don’t want to see you compound it by lying to the law.”

With a wordless sound of outrage, she spun on her heels and stomped away, stumbling through the snow, mumbling beneath her breath as she outdistanced him. Frowning, he watched her for a moment, then started after her, wondering what he’d done to turn his little snow angel into a fire-breathing dragon.