LITMIR.BIZ

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men pinned in the arroyo.” He adjusted his gun belt. “Let’s just hope your friends don’t shoot at me when I—”

      “You don’t have to worry,” she said. Her face was as hard as one of the granite peaks rising above them. “I’m going out there myself.”

      “Don’t be stupid,” he said. “They’ll shoot you down as soon as you stick your head out. I know how to get around them. You cover me.”

      Before she could protest, he was running around the rocks, crouched low and ready to shoot. He heard Serenity’s feet crunch on the gritty earth behind him. He prayed she was only getting into position to shoot if one of Leroy’s gang spotted him.

      They didn’t see him until he was within a few feet of the arroyo, and then only because someone out of his sight nearly got him in the leg. He half fell into the arroyo, twisting like a cat so that he landed on his feet and was firing before his boots touched ground.

      There were four horses and three men crowded between the steep walls of the arroyo—Leroy, Hunsaker and Silas—and two bodies sprawled behind them, one male and one female. The man was Stroud, clearly dead, and the woman was Bonnie Maguire. She was lying on her stomach, very still, but breathing.

      Leroy was heavily bandaged, but he wasn’t as badly hurt as Jacob had hoped when he’d seen the outlaw shot. Leroy’s eyes blazed with a very personal hatred.

      Three guns aimed at Jacob. He got Leroy in the bad shoulder again and watched the man go down before the first bullet grazed his own arm. He twisted out of the path of two more bullets and fired again.

      His shot missed, but someone else’s didn’t. Hunsaker fell with a cry. The horses shied and squealed. Hoofbeats pounded at the edge of the arroyo.

      Serenity had ignored his warning.

      “Go back!” he ordered.

      “You’d better give up!” Serenity shouted from her position somewhere above them. “You’re outnumbered!”

      Silas looked wildly toward Jacob and aimed his revolver at the female body at his feet. “Tell her if anyone shoots again, I’ll kill this bitch!”

      Jacob lowered his gun. “Serenity!” he called. “Can you hear me?”

      “I hear you. Are you all right?”

      “Yes.” The slight wound on his arm was already healing, and he was too worried to feel much pain. “Don’t shoot, and tell your friend to hold her fire. They’ve got Bonnie.”

      Neither Silas nor Leroy heard Serenity’s soft wail, but it tore at Jacob’s heart. He swallowed a growl and faced the two men who remained.

      “I warn you,” he said, “if you hurt the woman, you’ll never get out of here alive.”

       CHAPTER FIVE

      SILAS LAUGHED NERVOUSLY. “You’re going to let us go, Constantine, and we’ll be taking the woman. We’ll release her when we’re good and ready. If you try to follow us—”

      He continued with his threats, but Jacob was concentrating on the sounds of movement above the arroyo. Serenity had dismounted and was walking away. Not abandoning him or Bonnie, he knew, but planning some new and foolhardy tactic. He had no way to stop her, but at least the men hadn’t heard her. He could keep them occupied until something—or someone—broke the stalemate.

      “How do I know the woman is still alive?” he asked.

      “She’s alive,” Leroy said, clutching his bloody shoulder and rolling to his knees, his face pale as milk. “But she won’t be much longer if you don’t do what we say. Drop the gun.”

      Jacob let his pistol fall and raised his hands. “Why did you come back?” he asked.

      “You think I’d let a bunch of ugly bitches drive us away?”

      “So you thought you’d make them pay.”

      “They will pay.”

      “Didn’t you plan to take the woman and leave?”

      “I’ll be back.”

      “And I’ll find you. You think I believe you’ll let the woman go once you’re out of here? You’ll kill her, and there won’t be anything to stop me from getting you.”

      Leroy glowered. It was obvious he knew Jacob wasn’t bluffing. The fight seemed to go out of him all at once, but Jacob wasn’t fooled.

      “I’ve got a deal for you, Leroy,” he said. “Me for the woman.”

      Silas giggled, but Leroy was listening. “What’s your relation with these females, Constantine?”

      “They saved my life.”

      “You want me to believe you’d give yourself up for some bitch you hardly know?”

      “That’s right. I’ll ride with you, unarmed. Once we’re at the pass, you let the woman ride back, and you can do whatever you want with me.”

      Leroy’s eyes narrowed in calculation. He was smart enough to realize that Jacob would never expect him to keep his part of the bargain, and he had a hard time believing Jacob would keep his.

      But he couldn’t resist the temptation. “Okay,” he said. “I want to see you strip buck naked so I can make sure you don’t have any weapons on you. And you tell them bitches to keep away.”

      “I need proof the woman’s alive and well enough to ride.”

      Leroy jerked his head at Silas, who knelt beside Bonnie and turned her over. Her jaw was already black-and-blue from a nasty blow, but there was no visible blood on her clothes.

      She groaned and tried to push Silas away. He helped her sit up, and she opened her eyes.

      “Jacob?” she whispered.

      “I’m here. You save your strength.”

      “All right, Constantine,” Leroy said. “Throw your duds and gear down there, then climb up top and tell them females not to fire afore you come back.”

      Without hesitation, Jacob began to remove his clothes. He unbuckled his gun belt, set his belt knives in their sheaths on the ground, took off his bandanna and vest and shirt, pulled off his boots, and removed the tiny knife in its boot sheath. When he’d taken off the rest, Leroy gestured sharply with his gun.

      Jacob knew he could Change in an instant and be on the men before they recovered from the shock. The Code was plain about bargains and promises: you didn’t break your word, even if you were dying. But he’d been careful in his agreement with Leroy; he’d agreed to ride out with them, but hadn’t made any promises about what he would do before.

      Still, something held him back. He didn’t want to risk Serenity seeing him Change. She had enough to worry about without facing that kind of terror.

      But he still had his superior speed and strength. He began to climb up the side of the arroyo, letting his feet slip as if he found the effort difficult. As soon as his eyes reached ground level, he saw Serenity flat on the ground a few yards away, rifle in hand, waiting for the chance to get near the ravine. She met his gaze, her eyes dark with emotion and fear.

      But not for herself. He knew that as clearly as if she had told him.

      He turned his head to search out the other woman he could smell nearby. She was crouched a few yards away on the other side of the arroyo, ready to fire her own Winchester.

      “Tell them!” Leroy snapped behind him.

      The muzzle of a gun poked into the small of Jacob’s back. He dug his fingers into the dry, crumbling dirt at the lip of the arroyo. It began to disintegrate under his grasp.

      “Serenity!” he shouted. “Don’t—”

      The

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