Lady Gone Bad by Sabine Starr Page A

at the poster, reread the words, and realized his jaw had gone slack in astonishment.
    She jerked the posters out of his hands and swung up on her mare. “Let’s get the hell out of Paris.”

Chapter 15
    “Y ou think I’ve got a yellow stripe down my back?” Rafe glared, body rigid, hands fisted.
    “No,” Lady snapped. “I think we’re both in danger of hanging for no good reason.”
    “We’re going straight to the jail, to put you behind bars, and set this misunderstanding about me straight.”
    She shook the wanted posters in his face, handcuffs jingling. “You believe they’ll trust your word over your poster?”
    “I’m a Deputy U.S. Marshal.”
    “Not now! You’ve been stripped of your badge and your image is on a wanted poster.” She waved the posters. “Look, you’re not listed here as a deputy marshal.”
    He rocked back on his heels. “Lampkin! That dirty, conniving rattlesnake.”
    “Let’s get out of here.” She pulled her hat low to conceal her face, and dropped the wanted posters in the dirt.
    Rafe shook his head. “I can’t run away. I’m not made that way. I need to explain that Lampkin is the turncoat, not me. He lied. Set me up.” He gave her a hard stare. “You’ll explain about the Bend, the outlaws, everything.”
    “Why should I help you stay out of jail when you’re so determined to put me in it?” She turned Jipsey north as she looked back at Rafe. “We’re sitting ducks here. You coming?”
    “You’re using this as an excuse to run.” He grabbed his reins and leaped into his saddle.
    “Run?” She laughed. “Not me.” She wanted to drum heels against the mare’s sides and leave Rafe and Paris in her dust as fast as four hooves could take her, but that’d be drawing too much attention. She urged Jipsey forward at a sedate pace.
    Rafe rode up beside her. “I’m thinking we’ll be better off in Fort Smith.”
    “Not me. We’re both hunted now. Lot of miles to Arkansas.”
    He glanced around, his right hand hovering over his Peacemaker.
    “Eyes everywhere. Indians. Outlaws. Citizens.” She tried to ease the itch in the center of her back, feeling as if she was the target of somebody’s rifle, wanting him to feel it, too.
    “Deputy marshals and lighthorsemen,” he said.
    She smiled, shrugged. “I doubt we’ve been recognized. We’re so dirty and scruffy our own mothers wouldn’t know us.”
    “Justice,” he said.
    “Pretty showy.” She kept watch in every direction, alert for anything out of the ordinary. “You pick out that chestnut your own self?”
    “Gift.”
    “Lady friend?”
    “Sister.”
    “Your sister gave you that horse knowing you’re a lawman who needs to fade into the background?”
    “Long story.”
    “I’d like to hear it.”
    “Not now.”
    “For a law and order type of man, I’m beginning to think you shelter a lot of shady secrets.”
    “Unlike you.”
    “We all do what we have to do.” She glanced around, clearing her head, sizing up opportunities. If she got Rafe arrested, she could escape, but to do that she needed to draw attention to him. Unfortunately, that’d put her in the calaboose, too. She had to come up with a better plan. Now that he was in a pickle, maybe she could use him to help her. At the very least, he sure as hell wasn’t taking her in to the law, not with his own neck on the line. If he didn’t realize that fact now, he’d come to that realization pretty quick. She just had to keep him from doing something stupid before reality hit him.
    Rafe glanced back at the courthouse, half turning his horse in that direction.
    She kicked his boot to draw his attention to her. “What really makes us obvious are these bracelets. And think, if you get put in jail, how are you going to clear your name?”
    “Damn Lampkin’s hide.”
    Heads turned, watching them.
    “Look, let’s take it easy till we get out of Paris.” She gave him an encouraging nod, hoping to bolster his confidence in her.