The Lady Takes A Gunslinger (Wild Western Rogues Series, Book 1) by Barbara Ankrum Page B

look he sent to Smith, only a savage kind of vindication.
    "He'll be right behind you, Donovan," Smith warned. "And I'll be with him."
    "I'll look forward to it."
    Without another second's hesitation, Donovan spurred their horse forward with a savage nudge of his heels toward the freedom of the dark abyss before them.
    * * *
    The bright April moon hung high over the Texas prairie, darting in and out of thick banks of swift-moving clouds. The same Gulf-borne wind that for eons had scoured the soil, sculpted the rock, and driven less hardy creatures from the desolate sand plain now urged them on in the darkness. Shadows traversed the land like restless spirits, making their progress not only erratic, but dangerous as well.
    The only sound, save the sough of wind and the occasional distant yip of coyotes, was a feminine voice—one that was beginning to sorely test the already-frayed nerves of Reese Donovan.
    "I've never been so scared in my life," Grace exclaimed for the fourth time in the last half hour—which was, he noted grimly, when she'd found her voice.
    Reese gritted his teeth and steered the gray horse carefully around a thirty-foot-high saguaro. He stared at the ground, trying to make out hidden obstacles in the inky darkness ahead and tried to dodge her elbow as she gestured with enthusiasm at the night sky.
    "Bullets whizzing right and left! I thought we were goners for certain. You were... well, you were magnificent! It was straight out of the pages of a true western novel. And in the end it all worked out just the way we'd planned, didn't it, Mr. Donovan? Wasn't it thrilling?"
    Thrilling?
    Balls.
    Blinking back the sting of sweat in his eyes, Reese merely grunted, knowing that sound would suffice. It did.
    "Well, thrilling might be a poor choice of words," she allowed. "After all, you're used to this sort of thing, being a gunslinger and all."
    Reese groaned inwardly. Where the devil did she get this claptrap?
    "But, well, nothing like this has ever happened to me before." She paused, catching her breath. "It's, well, it's invaluable research, you know? Watch out for the rock on the left. Why, you couldn't buy this kind of firsthand knowledge in any scholarly library back East. The pungent scent of the gunsmoke, the way your heart goes to your throat at the sight of guns aiming directly at you." She flicked an uncertain glance back at him. "Well, actually, Ned Buntline did come rather close in Riders on..."
    Saints help him. He should have known she'd be a talker. Must be why the old man had been riding a full three rods behind them for the past five miles.
    Reese ceased listening, focusing instead on the dark landscape ahead. The miles they'd covered at a ground-eating pace had passed by in a dark blur. The moon cooperated only inasmuch as it peeked out from behind the clouds for protracted periods before disappearing once more, casting them into forbidding darkness. Then, as now, they'd slowed their pace to a crawl, picking their way over rocky outcroppings and saguaro-choked coulees.
    In the profound darkness of the desert night, one misstep could spell disaster. To Reese, however, it mattered little whether the pace was fast or slow.
    Each jarring step was an agony.
    He pressed his right forearm against the hole in his side and bit back a groan as the rawboned gray navigated over a particularly troublesome piece of footing. A warm wetness oozed against the wadded-up bandanna beneath his elbow.
    The dark landscape ahead blurred momentarily, and Reese blinked it back into focus. His head pounded like a smith's hammer and he wished he had a drink. He wondered how much blood he could lose before passing out? Pitching headlong down the wall of some trailside ravine wasn't high on his list of ways to go. In fact, it was right up there with hanging.
    Neither did he consider stopping, with Sanders only hours behind them, if the bastard was fool enough to send a posse out after them in the dark. Reese cursed silently.