The Bounty Hunter and the Heiress Read online

  “That’s the way Raven and Blackowl have it figured,” Hoodoo replied.

  She pulled on her boots then crammed her belongings in her satchels. “How long ago did Blackowl and Raven leave?” she asked as descended the stairs.

  “Four hours,” Hoodoo reported. “They presumed James would arrive early to search out the best location for an ambush between here and the stage station. They hoped to overtake him before someone gets hurt.”

  “If James is the one who gets hurt I couldn’t be more pleased,” she muttered as she glanced at the splint on her left arm. “He definitely has it coming.”

  Eve walked outside feeling guilty that she had tricked Hoodoo into thinking that she was settling for a bath when she intended to saddle the blood-red bay and ride off to make sure James didn’t escape again. She hoped Hoodoo would forgive her…eventually…

  Raven frowned, bemused, as he stared through the field glasses to survey the entourage on horseback. “I could swear that’s Eva down there with the gamblers and an unidentified man. But how is that possible? She’s sedated and lying in bed at the cabin.”

  Blackowl took the spyglass and frowned, too. “Same hair color, same style of shirt and breeches. How—?”

  “Must be her sister,” Raven interrupted then smiled. “Not only do they look amazingly alike, but Lydia is obviously as determined to be involved in this manhunt as Eva…See anything of James?”

  Blackowl scanned the tree-choked foothills and wild tumble of rocks. “No, not yet. If he’s here, he’s doing a damn fine job of concealing himself.” He glanced sideways at Raven. “Are you sure you want to use these travelers as bait to trap James?”

  “Not particularly but we have no choice since we can’t locate James. We’re running out of time and I don’t want to give away our location to him.”

  Raven was glad Eva wasn’t here to scold him for using her sister to lure in James. But who would have thought Lydia would have insisted on delivering the ransom money in person? Damn, those Hallowell sisters were a stubborn lot, he mused.

  “Oh, hell,” Blackowl grumbled a moment later.

  Raven jerked up his head and looked around. Blackowl thrust the spyglass at him then hitched his thumb to the west.

  “Damnation,” Raven grumbled when he saw Hoodoo and Eva racing down the trail, with Hoodoo following a short distance behind and waving his arms in agitated gestures. “Well, so much for my explicit instructions that Eva was to remain bedfast until we returned to the cabin. Obviously, she sneaked away from Hoodoo and he came charging after her since she was determined to make tracks so she could be a part of James’s capture.”

  “Maybe James will decide to back off before his luck runs out,” Blackowl remarked.

  “Doubt it. Money is an obsessive motivation for my stepbrother. Always has been. After all, he sold my father’s possessions and kept the money for himself. He doesn’t care whose money it is—he wants it all.”

  “James has to know you will come looking for him,” Blackowl murmured as he panned the area painstakingly.

  “I predict his typical arrogance will prevail. Nothing would please him more than to outsmart me by intercepting the brigade and making off with the ransom money.” Raven backed from the underbrush. “Keep close watch for James while I flag down Eva. I don’t want her to stumble into our trap.”

  Raven strode quickly to his horse then mounted up. He cut cross-country to overtake the twosome, hoping James hadn’t spotted the latecomers. Focused on Eva, who was sitting astride the muscled bay, Raven ignored the first rule of survival. He didn’t pay attention to his surroundings.

  A gunshot rang out nearby and echoed around the canyon. Burning pain seared his forehead and the coppery scent of blood flooded his senses. He blinked, stunned, when trickles of blood clouded his vision and obliterated his thoughts.

  Raven sagged over his horse, oblivious to everything except the fierce pain that made him swear his head had exploded.

  Eva jerked upright when she heard the report of a rifle echoing around her. She couldn’t see where the shot originated or where it landed, but a sense of urgency overwhelmed her. She nudged the bay, forcing him into a gallop. She wanted to be on hand to see James apprehended. By damned, she was entitled. This was her private manhunt to avenge her sister and she was ready to rake Raven over live coals for excluding her.

  She blinked in surprise when she stared downhill to see Irving, Frank, Roger and Lydia scrambling from their horses to take cover in the underbrush. Why Lydia had become personally involved in this ransom exchange Eva couldn’t fathom. Not only was Lydia on hand, but she was dressed in breeches. Was this the same sister she’d left in Denver less than two weeks ago?

  Riding at a fast clip, Eva charged toward the entourage that had disappeared into the protection of the trees.

  “Eva, no!” Hoodoo shouted. “This could be a trap!”

  No sooner were the words out of his mouth than a shot zinged past her shoulder. She flattened herself on the bay gelding and thundered toward the place she had last seen her sister. Somewhere to her left she heard more gunshots ring out. She presumed Blackowl and Raven were returning fire. Even Frank, Irving and Roger were shooting at an unseen target in the bushes.

  A flash of color caught her attention and she glanced sideways. She did a double take when she spotted Raven racing toward the entourage on his paint pony. The shooting stopped abruptly when he waved his arm to draw attention.

  Eva realized almost immediately that the rider sitting astride the paint pony was dressed in Raven’s customary black shirt and hat but he didn’t move with the same muscular grace.

  “Hold your fire, everybody! It’s Raven,” Frank Albers shouted at his companions.

  When Lydia and the three men appeared from the underbrush, Eva waved her broken arm over her head. “Lydia! Get down! It’s a trap! That isn’t Raven!”

  It was a race to see who reached the foursome first. If James managed to pounce on Lydia, she could become the new hostage and he would confiscate the ransom.

  Eva vowed, there and then, that her sister would not endure the agony she had suffered at James’s hands. The showdown would come, here and now, she promised herself resolutely.

  Like two medieval knights jousting on horseback, Eva and James plunged straight toward each other. He divided his attention between Lydia’s location and Eva’s daring attempt to intercept him. Eva took full advantage of his distraction. She used her splinted arm like a club to knock James off balance when their paths intersected.

  He yelped as he somersaulted off the back of Raven’s paint horse. He hit the ground with a thud and a groan. His hat went flying, exposing his true identity to the onlookers.

  Eva skidded her horse to a halt. Before she dismounted, Lydia shot across the meadow with a thick tree branch in hand.

  “You bastard!” Lydia shrieked as she upraised her arm and thwacked her former fiancé on the shoulder. “How dare you try to ransom my sister after what you already did to me!”

  She tried to club him on the head, but he raised both arms to shield himself so she thunked him good and hard on the shin instead.

  When James howled and tried to roll away from the multiple body blows directed at him, the three men rushed forward to hold him at gunpoint. Eva watched in supreme satisfaction as Lydia vented all her pent-up outrage on the man who had caused her so much heartache and humiliation.

  “You missed a spot.” Eva called her sister’s attention to James’s kneecaps and listened to him yowl when Lydia thumped both knees—good and hard.

  “Your turn.” Lydia thrust the club at Eva so she could give him a good thrashing.

  James yelped when Eva hammered his elbows for good measure.

  She returned the makeshift club to Lydia. “Have another go at it. Smash his fingers while you’re at it. I want this scoundrel to remember us each time he sees his welts and bruises. After what he did to—” She slammed her mouth shut then decided Lydia had a right to know the
fate of her prized horse. “He killed Hodge and beat him brutally.”

  “What!” Lydia cried in outrage.

  Then she proceeded to beat the hell out of James and no one intervened. The men stood and watched her wallop him repeatedly until he begged for mercy—and found none forthcoming.

  “Where’s Raven?” Eva asked suddenly.

  She glanced around, expecting his arrival. She had been focused completely on protecting Lydia from James’s possible attack. Then she’d become sidetracked watching her sister have her revenge.

  She had forgotten about Raven.

  How could she have forgotten him? He had saved her life more times than she could count. Not to mention that she had committed the unforgivable by allowing herself to fall in love with a man who had little use or need for her in his life.

  And there it was. The truth she had tried so hard to deny to herself. She loved Raven. But she didn’t know where he was or what happened to him.

  Unholy terror pulsated through her as she lurched around to retrieve her horse. She suddenly remembered the first gunshot that had sent her thundering downhill to protect Lydia. Dear God, had Raven been shot? Is that why James had been able to confiscate his horse and clothing?

  Despite the awkward splint, she pulled herself into the saddle then grabbed the reins to the paint pony. She rode off in the direction from which James had come, hoping beyond hope that she hadn’t delayed too long to find Raven alive.

  Her heart dropped to her stomach when she spotted Hoodoo and Blackowl hunkered down beside their horses. All she could see was Raven’s moccasined feet sprawled on the ground. Everything inside her rebelled at the prospect of Raven being seriously injured—or worse. He was practically invincible, prepared for everything—or so he had told her the first night they met. If something happened to him because of her…

  Her thoughts trailed off and she burst into tears. She reined the bay gelding to a halt then vaulted from the saddle. She raced forward to see that Raven was bare-chested and bareheaded. His face was as white as salt and blood streamed from his head wound and dribbled over his cheeks like a river of red.

  “Raven! Oh, God, J.D.!” she shouted as she elbowed the two men out of her way to crouch beside him. “I’m so sorry!” she wailed. “This is exactly what I tried to guard against when I went after James alone.”

  Her wild-eyed gaze bounced back and forth between Blackowl and Hoodoo’s grim expressions. “Is he going to be all right?”

  Hoodoo shrugged noncommittally. “Dunno, little gal. Head wounds can look worse than they are, but he hasn’t regained consciousness. He should have by now…And thanks so much for sneaking off,” he added disapprovingly.

  “I’m sorry, Hoodoo. I wanted to be there, badly.”

  Eva scooted sideways so she could cradle Raven’s head in her lap. She motioned for Blackowl to hand her the cloth he was using to compress the wound. She frowned in confusion when she felt the large knot on the back of Raven’s head.

  “James must have clubbed him, too,” she guessed accurately as she turned his head sideways to show the men the bloody knot on his skull.

  “I’ll fetch the poultice to treat the gunshot wound,” Blackowl said as he climbed to his feet. “We’ll make him as comfortable as possible so we can take him back to the cabin.”

  “No, he’s coming home with me so he can have the best medical care money can buy,” she insisted.

  Eva felt so horribly guilty about Raven’s condition she cried again. Raven had placed her safety above his need to track down James because she had fallen down the mountain. Yet, she had rushed to her sister’s rescue.

  She had placed Lydia’s welfare above Raven’s. It tormented her to no end that she’d failed him when he needed her for the very first time. To compensate she’d turn her bedroom into an infirmary. While he recuperated, she’d give him round-the-clock care and cater to his every need.

  “Where are those foul-tasting peyote buttons you crammed down my throat?” she demanded of Blackowl.

  “They’re in my pouch, but Raven won’t want—”

  “Raven is not in charge of his convalescence, I am,” she said sharply. “He sedated me when I was injured and needed to be transported. Obviously he approves of that policy.”

  When Blackowl opened his mouth to object, Eva glared him into submission. He sighed audibly then grabbed the peyote.

  “Is this him? Is this your husband who couldn’t protect you from that sneaky shyster?” Lydia demanded huffily as she walked up behind Eva.

  She glanced over her shoulder, noting again that she and her sister were identically dressed. “Yes, this is Raven and he protected me just fine,” she defended. “I wouldn’t be alive now, if not for him and Blackowl and Hoodoo.”

  She hitched her thumb toward the two men and noted that Lydia stared overly long at Hoodoo’s disfigured face before she surveyed Blackowl’s bronzed features and powerful physique. “Lydia, this is Hoodoo Lemoyne and Raven’s Cheyenne cousin, Blackowl.”

  While Lydia and Blackowl sized each other up, Eva crammed the peyote buttons into Raven’s mouth to dissolve and take effect. When she removed the compress from his head wound, she realized it was deep enough to require stitches.

  “Blackowl?” she murmured, gesturing to the clean wound.

  He came down on one knee to inspect the injury, then nodded in agreement. “I can stitch him up. There’s a pouch in my saddlebag—”

  “I’ll fetch it for you,” Lydia volunteered quickly. “What else can I do to help?”

  Eva stared at Lydia, who usually fell to pieces in a crisis. “Who are you and what have you done with my sister?”

  Lydia returned shortly with needle and thread in hand then tapped herself proudly on the chest. “This is the new improved me,” she announced. “I have decided to be exactly like you and to assert myself. And most importantly I’m not taking another man at his word so long as I live.”

  “Some are trustworthy,” Eva insisted.

  “Name one,” Lydia challenged.

  “Here are three,” Eva replied. “Then there is Roger Philbert, who has been a loyal friend to both of us.”

  “Fine, there are four. The rest I’m not sure about.” Lydia handed the needle and thread to Blackowl then looked back at Eva. “I still don’t understand why you married the bounty hunter. Hiring him should have been sufficient.”

  Eva decided to save the long involved explanation for later. The first order of business was to tend to Raven, then bind up James for transport to jail. While Hoodoo and Blackowl treated Raven’s wounds, Eva drew her sister aside.

  “It is your choice what to do about James,” she murmured.

  “James?” Lydia stared blankly at her. “James who?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “James Archer—alias Gordon Carter, and who knows what other names he goes by—is Raven’s vicious stepbrother,” Eva reported. “But if you prefer to have James incarcerated at Pueblo or Canyon Springs to avoid rumor or gossip pertaining to you then that’s exactly what we’ll do, Lydia.”

  Lydia pulled a face then glanced back to where Frank, Roger and Irving had tied James to a tree. “Those are my only choices? I want to shoot him.”

  “So do I, but there are entirely too many eyewitnesses who would have to testify against us,” Eva said dryly. “The tale would be all over Denver.”

  Lydia waved her hand dismissively. “I don’t care about gossip anymore. I’m not wasting my time with meaningless soirees or trying to live my life according to someone else’s expectations. I’m planning to broaden my horizons to include more challenge and adventure in the wilderness.”

  Eva smirked. “The last time I took you on an excursion in the mountains you claimed city life suited you better.”

  She elevated her chin. “I’ve changed my mind. I’ve decided to live on the edge like you.”

  Eva held up her broken arm. “Then beware of nasty falls.”

  Lydia flung her arms around Eva’s
neck suddenly and hugged her close. “I was so dreadfully worried about you. I’ve felt horribly guilty because every bruise and pain you’ve suffered is my fault. If I had seen Gordon for what he was, none of this would have happened!”

  Eva nuzzled her sister affectionately, knowing exactly how she felt. Eva had been hounded by guilt because Raven, Blackowl and Hoodoo had risked danger and devoted so much time and effort on her behalf.

  “Everything is fine now. I’m taking Raven home with me so he can recuperate.” Eva pulled away to stare intently at her sister. “Are you serious about wanting to undertake an adventure?”

  Lydia bobbed her headed eagerly.

  Eva grinned. “I fell downhill and landed on an overlooked vein of gold ore. Although Hoodoo told me that Raven registered the claim in my name, I want to transfer it to Hoodoo, Blackowl and Raven. If not for them, I would have perished in a gold mine that no one knew was there.”

  “You want me to work the claim?”

  “Yes, if you’ll allow Blackowl and Hoodoo to accompany you to determine its potential. It might fizzle out in a few pans of dirt or become a productive site.” She leaned close to her sister to continue. “As for Hoodoo, he was mauled by a bear and has become self-conscious about his appearance. But he’s a dear, considerate and helpful man so be kind to him.”

  “You can count on me,” Lydia said determinedly. Then her expression became quite serious. “I want to know what is going on with you and the bounty hunter.”

  Eva shifted uneasily. “I had to resort to drastic measures to enlist his help because he turned down the case. I pretended to be his wife to force him to let me travel with him on the stagecoach. He was more or less stuck with me.”

  Lydia grinned wickedly. “That should teach him not to tangle with a Hallowell.”

  “But then I fell in love with him,” Eva burst out.

  Lydia’s smile turned upside down. “How can this possibly work?” She looked back at Blackowl, who was completing his task. “That would be as ill-fated as a match between me and that brawny Cheyenne warrior I just met.”