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  Cord’s hand flew to his head, and she could see blood beginning to flow before he dropped to the ground, motionless.

  Kayla screamed, fighting to free herself from Dalton, but the man only tightened his hold on her as he screamed at the other men attacking the ranch to finish up and follow him. With the sound of gunfire increasing, Dalton turned his horse around and kicked the animal into a gallop. From her position draped over the horse, Kayla could only stare through the tears in her eyes as Cord’s still form receded behind them.

  Chapter Seven

  Kayla stared out the cabin’s small, dirty window, unseeing. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. Cord was dead. Dalton Jeffries had killed him. And then ridden off with her, bringing her to this small cabin, where he had dragged her inside and tied her to a chair. That had been last night, and she hadn’t seen him since.

  She still couldn’t believe that Cord was really gone. She had spent the night trying to convince herself that everything that had happened had just been a bad dream. In the morning, she had told herself, she would wake up beside Cord. She would feel his arms go around her, feel his well-muscled body press up against hers as he made love to her, feel his mouth linger sweetly on hers before he left to go work out on the ranch.

  But she didn’t wake up beside Cord that morning, and she never would again, thanks to that bastard, Dalton Jeffries. Her eyes welled with fresh tears.

  She supposed that she had been foolish to think that Dalton would simply give up on his plan to get Cord’s ranch. If anything, the fact that she and Cord had won it back from him in a poker game had probably only provoked him into doing something more violent.

  But surely, he couldn’t expect to get away with murdering Cord. The hands had to have seen Dalton’s face, knew he was the one that had shot Cord and grabbed her. The sheriff must have men out looking for them, she thought. But then she remembered what Cord had said about the sheriff being in Dalton’s pocket, and any hope of him being arrested quickly evaporated.

  If she wanted to make sure that Dalton Jeffries paid for what he had done, then she would have to see to it herself. But how?

  Kayla looked around the cabin. It was small with only two rooms - the main room where she sat tied to a chair, and a tiny bedroom in the back. The dirt-smudged window let in little light, but she was able to make out a wood stove in one corner. Next to it, a metal fire poker stood resting against the wall. Her gaze locked on it, and an insane idea suddenly flooded her mind.

  She could hide behind the door, poker in hand, she thought, and then when Dalton Jeffries came in she could hit him with it. But she couldn’t do anything unless she got herself untied. Looking down at her wrists, she gave her bonds an experimental tug. The ropes had been tied tightly, she saw, and getting loose would take some work. But she would do it; she owed Cord that much.

  Chewing on her lower lip, she threw a quick glance at the door, and was just about to set to work at trying to wiggle free when she heard Dalton Jeffries’ voice from outside the cabin.

  Kayla’s mouth went dry and she gripped the arms of the chair, her heart hammering in her chest as she stared at the door. Tied to the chair like she was, she could do no more than wait for him to come in.

  In the bright sunshine that came streaming through the door when it opened, Dalton Jeffries’ frame was nothing but a silhouette in the doorway for a moment before he stepped into the cabin and closed the door behind him. He looked even more arrogant and self-assured than he had when she’d seen him before, if that were possible.

  Coming to stand in front of where she sat, he folded his arms across his chest and grinned down at her. “I trust you weren’t too uncomfortable here. I meant to come back sooner, but there were things that needed my attention.”

  She glared up at him contemptuously. “Oh, yes. I’m sure that attacking poor defenseless ranchers and their families takes a lot of hard work.”

  His lip curled. “Don’t act so self-righteous,” he sneered. “If you hadn’t come into the saloon and cheated me out of what was rightfully mine, then none of this would have been necessary. Holderness would be alive now if you had just left well enough alone.”

  At his words, Kayla opened her mouth to retort, but tears suddenly clogged her throat and she could only swallow hard instead. In front of her, Dalton just chuckled.

  “What…what are you going to do with me?” she finally asked.

  He shrugged. “That all depends on you,” he told her. “If you play your card right, then I might keep you around. You wanted to marry somebody; why not me?”

  She stared at him in disbelief. “You must be out of your mind. I would never marry you!” she spat.

  He smirked. “Why not? Cord certainly isn’t around anywmore. And besides, I’m sure I’m a better fit for you than Cord ever was.”

  The thought of marrying Dalton turned her stomach. “Your former wife didn’t seem to think so,” she retorted, well aware that she was provoking him, and not caring if she did.

  His face darkened. “What do know about Hannah?”

  Kayla met his gaze unflinchingly. “I know that she preferred Cord to you, and that you beat her because of it,” she said. “I also know that she killed herself trying to get away from you.”

  “That’s a lie!” he roared, lifting his hand to slap her hard across the face.

  The blow snapped her head to the side, and she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out as stinging pain covered her entire cheek. Fighting back tears, she glared up at him.

  “You’re not even half the man Cord was,” she sneered.

  He stiffened, and she braced herself, thinking that he was going to hit her again. But instead, he reached out and, gripping a handful of her hair, cruelly jerked her head back. Pain so intense ripped through her scalp that she couldn’t stifle her cry of protest.

  “Whether you marry me or not makes no difference to me, you little bitch,” he growled. “But I’m going to take what I want from you anyway.”

  Fear gripped Kayla, but whatever Dalton would have done next would remain a mystery because just then someone pounded on the cabin’s door.

  Dalton swore under his breath. “I’m busy!” he yelled over his shoulder.

  “I gotta talk to you, Boss,” a voice said. “It’s important.”

  Dalton hesitated, his hand tightening in her hair for a moment before he released her. “We’ll finish this later,” he told her.

  She sat there trembling, watching as he turned on his heel and stormed from the cabin. There was no doubt in her mind that Dalton would have raped her. If they hadn’t been interrupted…

  She had to get loose before he came back, she thought frantically, pulling desperately at the ropes that held her to the chair.

  Outside, Dalton was talking to the man that had knocked on the door. “What the hell is so important that you had to drag me out here?” he demanded angrily, his voice so loud that she had no trouble hearing their words through the partially closed door.

  “It’s Cord Holderness,” the other man said. “He ain’t dead.”

  Kayla halted her frenzied jerking on the ropes, her brow furrowing. Could she possibly have heard right?

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Dalton was saying. “I shot him myself.”

  There was a grunt from the other man. “I know, Boss, but I saw him in town, I tell you.”

  Kayla felt her heart begin to race. She could hardly believe it! Cord was alive!

  Outside, Dalton let out a foul expletive, and she held her breath, waiting for him to barge into the cabin again. But to her surprise, the voices outside receded. She wondered if perhaps Dalton had left, but after listening carefully, she realized that she could still hear his voice among the other mens.

  She regarded the ropes around her wrists with renewed purpose. No longer was making Dalton pay for what he had done important to her. What was important now was escaping from Dalton so that she could get to Cord. But she would have to work fast, s
he realized. Dalton could come back at any time.

  With thoughts of Cord in her mind, she determinedly went to work on freeing herself. Cord had come to a few hours after he had gotten shot to find himself lying on a bed in the doctor’s office. His head had hurt like hell, and most of what had happened had been a blur at the time, but he’d remembered enough to know that Dalton Jeffries had attacked the ranch, tried to kill him, and then kidnapped Kayla.

  He would have gone looking for her right then, but when he had tried to get out of bed, his knees had buckled under him, and he probably would have fallen if Lucas hadn’t been there to grab him. The bullet had just grazed his temple, but he still had a concussion, the doc had told him, which meant that there was no way he was going to be able to get out of bed. The doctor was obviously right, but that hadn’t stopped him from trying anyway. He had agreed to rest only when Lucas had assured him that he would take several of the hands and go searching for Kayla, starting at Dalton’s ranch first. He had demanded that Lucas drag that good-for-nothing sheriff out to the Jeffries’ place with him, but had been dismayed when he learned the sheriff had been one of the men that had been raiding the ranch the night before. When Cord had asked how Lucas knew that, the foreman told him that the sheriff’s body had been found among the dead and injured after Cord had been shot. Regardless, there would be no help from the law.

  After his foreman had left, Cord had tried to fight sleep, but gave in to it almost immediately. He didn’t awaken until well after sunrise, and then it was to learn that Lucas hadn’t been able to find Kayla anywhere. Jeffries hadn’t been at his ranch, the foreman had told him, and no one there seemed to know where he was.

  Swearing under his breath, Cord grabbed his hat and lurched to his feet again. He still saw black spots and he felt like he was going to throw up any minute, but at least he could stand on his own two feet. He waved off the doctor’s concerned expression and headed for the front door, Lucas following close at his heels.

  “What are you planning to do?” the foreman asked as they stepped into the bright sunlight.

  Cord’s mouth tightened. “I’m going to talk to Rachel,” he said, heading across the street. “Hopefully, she might know where her brother is.”

  The blond girl hurried over to him the moment he entered the general store, a worried look on her pretty face. “Have you found her, yet?”

  Cord shook his head. “Have you any idea where Dalton could have taken her?”

  Rachel shook her head. “I thought he would be at his ranch.”

  “Are you sure there’s not somewhere else he might go?” Cord pressed. “Someplace that few people know about.”

  She started to shake her head, but then her brow furrowed. “I might,” she said slowly. “There’s an old cabin on the north end of Dalton’s ranch. It was our father’s, but it’s been deserted for years. It’s the only place I can think of.” She swallowed hard. “You have to find her Cord. There’s no telling what my brother will do to her.”

  Cord wished that she hadn’t said that, even though it was in the same thing he’d been thinking. His mouth tightened as he turned to Lucas. “Get some men and meet me up there.”

  The other man frowned. “Jeffries won’t be alone, Cord. You should wait until we can ride out with you.”

  Cord shook his head. “I’ve already waited long enough, dammit,” he said tersely as he headed for the front door. “Like Rachel said – there’s no telling what Jeffries will do. I may already be too late.”

  Cord felt his stomach churn even as he said the words, and images of what Dalton Jeffries could be doing to Kayla even now came to mind unbidden, and he knew without a doubt that he would kill Jeffries if the man so much as touched her.

  Kayla bit her lip to stifle a cry of pain as the rope bit into her tender skin as she struggled to work her wrist out from under it. Just a little bit more, she thought as she slowly wriggled her right hand beneath the ropes, and she would…have…it!

  Yes!

  Her fingers tingled as blood rushed back into her hand, and she couldn’t help the small giggle of glee that escaped her lips as she went to work on the other wrist. That one was much easier to untie now that she could use her other hand, and she was free within seconds. Rubbing each of her wrists in turn, she got to her feet and looked around the small cabin. She had thought that the only way out of there would be the door, and she was relieved to find a shuttered window on the back wall of the bedroom. Ignoring the stiffness in her limbs, she walked around the chair and hurried over to it.

  Prudence took over from that point, however, as she reminded herself that Dalton and his men could be anywhere outside the cabin. With that in mind, she slowly opened the shutter and carefully peered outside.

  To her relief, no one seemed to be around. But that didn’t mean that Dalton or his men weren’t somewhere nearby, which meant that she still had to use caution.

  Since the window was too high for her to climb out of easily, she first had to move an old crate in front of it so that she use it as a step. Gripping the window’s edge, she awkwardly climbed through the opening to land in a heap on the thick grass outside the cabin.

  Unable to believe that she had actually made it this far, she stood for a moment, expecting Dalton Jeffries to come around the corner and pounce on her. But he didn’t, and she suddenly realized that the longer she stood there, the better her chances were of being discovered.

  Taking a deep breath, she slowly edged along the wall of the cabin and peered around the corner. She could hear the low murmur of voices coming from somewhere, but couldn’t see anyone. She could see the horses in the makeshift corral, though, and she just hoped that the men wouldn’t be able to see her before she got to the animals.

  Nervously chewing on her lower lip, she slowly made her way over to where the horses stood. They snorted and stamped as she came near, and she jerked her head toward the front of the cabin, fearing that Dalton and his men would come running, but they didn’t. She chose the horse that was closest to her and took hold of its reins, climbing into the saddle. Nudging the animal with her heels, she turned the horse around and galloped out of the corral and away from the cabin.

  Her escape did not go unnoticed, however, and she heard shouting behind her almost immediately as Dalton and his men realized what was happening. Throwing a quick look over her shoulder, she saw that they had mounted the remaining horses and were now chasing her.

  She refused to let herself panic. She had a pretty good head start on them, so all she had to do was keep ahead of them. With that in mind, Kayla leaned over her horse’s neck and urged her mount faster. Without knowing where she was, she really had no idea where she was going, but she suspected that Dalton would have taken her to his ranch, so she kept the sun on her right and headed south, hoping that she would get to Cord’s ranch or someplace she recognized before they caught up with her.

  The sooner the better, she thought, glancing over her shoulder again. Her pursuers had cut into her lead faster than she would have thought they could. They were still a ways back, but gaining on her. She kicked her horse harder and rode as fast as she could. After a few minutes, she looked back again, and almost cried out as she realized that not only had she not increased her lead, but that they were even closer to her. If she didn’t reach safety quickly, then they would almost certainly catch up with her in a few more minutes.

  Then suddenly, she saw something that she recognized! The gorge that she had almost ridden down the day Cord had taken her on a picnic. That meant she was already on Cord’s property, she realized with relief. But another quick look over her shoulder told her that Dalton wasn’t about to give up the chase simply because she was on the ranch.

  Which meant that she had to get to the ranch house and to Cord as quickly as possible. And that meant riding down the gorge.

  With Cord’s warning echoing in her ears, Kayla gripped the reins tighter and rode straight for the gorge that had killed Dalton’s wife.

>   The quickest way to Jeffries’ ranch was across Cord’s own, and he was just racing across the valley between the two when he saw a horse and rider at the top of the gorge. He frowned, not recognizing the rider at first, but then he saw long hair whipping in the wind and the rider’s petite form, and he knew it could only be Kayla.

  For a moment, he couldn’t breathe. She was going to try to ride down the gorge, he realized. The little idiot! he thought. What the hell was she thinking? When he got his hands on her, he was going to put her over his knee and paddle her bottom so hard that she wouldn’t be able to sit for days! After he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, of course.

  Cord’s heart was in his throat as he watched Kayla maneuver her horse down the rocky slope of the gorge. He couldn’t understand it. She was riding way too fast, almost out of control. Then he saw why. She had no choice but to move quickly as two men followed her immediately into the gorge, one of them firing at her with a pistol.

  Cord kicked his horse as hard as he could toward the bottom of the gorge, but he knew it was hopeless. He could never make it there in time to help her. She would either fall and kill herself just as Hannah had done, or the men following her would shoot her.

  Rocks were flying down the slope all around Kayla, and for a moment, Cord couldn’t help but admire her riding skills. The gorge was so steep that her horse was almost sitting on its haunches to stay in control, but Kayla kept the animal moving.

  The men who had been pursuing her were apparently not as skilled. Both of their horses lost their footing, and the men were lost in the sliding rock before they were halfway down the slope. Seeing how their bodies were battered by the flying rocks, Cord could only hold his breath and pray that the same didn’t happen to her.

  With a final leap over a large boulder, Kayla reached the bottom, heading directly toward Cord. He reined in his horse and dismounted just as Kayla reached him, and she slid from the saddle to run into his arms. Tears ran down her cheeks, and though she tried to make them stop as she clung to the man she loved, she couldn’t seem to. The events of the past twenty-four hours were suddenly just too much for her.