The assault didn’t last long. One of the other bandits grabbed Clay by the back of his coat, yanking him away. She gasped and brought a hand to her mouth when she saw him get kicked in the ribs and left to lie in the dirt, gasping.
The prairie had erupted into chaos. The other ladies were trying to free themselves from the men who held them. Clay was still gasping for air as the man he’d knocked unconscious earlier kicked him, and her vision went cloudy as tears filled her eyes. This was all wrong. None of this should be happening. Violet told her she had nothing to fear, but her sister had been wrong. So terribly wrong.
The surrounding commotion intensified when the bandits grabbed the other ladies and hauled them toward the waiting horses, and she knew in an instant that she was going to be taken. Fear had her climbing to her feet and racing toward the trees that lined the road. She’d taken half a dozen steps before brawny arms banded around her waist; her feet jerked out from under her as whoever had her lifted her from the ground.
“Clay!” she screamed. She scratched at the arms holding her as the bandit dragged her back toward the stagecoach. She saw the other two women lying belly down across the horses' saddles, and the bandits who had them already mounted and ready to go. Her heart pounded, her body going numb from fear alone. A sob tore from her throat before she screamed, “Clay!” again.
The other bandits were watching them, eager smiles on their faces; she knew why these men were taking them, and she’d rather die than face the horrors awaiting her and the other two ladies. She screamed again when the bandit at her back stopped beside his horse, and she kicked her heels back, fighting like a hellcat, and all the while…the world was silent. Her fearful screams went unheard as they took her from the only security she had.
Her vision went blurry as tears filled her eyes. A moment later, she hit the ground. She whipped her head around, her arm raised, ready to claw at the bandit's face if he came at her again, but froze when she saw a bright red bloom of color appearing in the center of his chest. Her eyes widened as he fell to his knees, his eyes locked on her.
Daisy scrambled back and yelped when someone’s arm banded around her waist. She screamed again, fighting the hold, and it took several long, frantic seconds to realize it was Clay dragging her toward the tree line. In his other hand, he held a gun, the recoil lifting the barrel every time he pulled the trigger. The bandits ducked for cover as they jumped from their horses and lifted their own guns to aim them their way.
Clay set her on her feet, and they hit the trees running. It wasn’t until the muscles in her legs burned from exhaustion and darkness surrounded them, the late-day sun blotted out by the dense trees overhead, that Clay pulled her to a stop. He was speaking to her, holding her still by grabbing both of her arms, and to her surprise, he leaned down the next moment and did the unthinkable.
He kissed her.
Her eyes were wide and luminous as she stared up at him, and it would be so easy to get lost in them. Clay had dreamed of kissing Daisy Campbell so many times he shouldn’t have been surprised at how blissfully sweet she was. Her lips were soft and plump and tasted of the honey she’d smeared on the biscuits they’d shared before those no-good bandits had shown up.
With reluctance, he pulled away instead of deepening the kiss like he wanted to, but his kissing her had done what he’d hoped it would. She’d stopped screaming. Her tear-filled eyes looked haunted, her body shaking from nothing more than fear and adrenaline. It was understandable after what those bastards had done to her, how they’d touched her. He’d shot the one who groped her, but they all deserved to die.
Lifting his head enough she could see his mouth, he said, “Don’t scream.” He spoke the words slowly, so she’d understand him, and held her gaze, wiping the tears sliding down her cheeks away while repeating the phrase until he knew she understood. When he was sure she did, he looked back through the trees.
He could just make out the screams of the two ladies who had been on the stagecoach with them. Guilt gnawed at him for not taking them with him, but he’d do anything to keep Daisy safe, even if that meant leaving them to their fate.
The bandits were yelling. He couldn’t make out a single word they said or tell if any of them had followed them into the trees, but he wasn’t going to take a chance that they had, so he looked back down at Daisy and said, “We have to keep running.” He motioned at the two of them, then pointed to the left, where the trees grew more dense. “Can you do that?” It took her a brief moment to nod her head at him, but once she did, he grabbed her hand and turned, heading deeper into the forest.
His body ached something fierce with every jolting step, and it was all he could do to keep moving. That bastard had kicked him so hard, he knew his ribs were bruised from it. His torso would probably be black and blue come morning. He wasn’t sure how far they were from the town of Butte, but knew it couldn’t be more than a couple of miles. They’d left Daisy’s sister Violet and her husband, Marshal Josiah Lincoln, in Elkin early that morning, where they’d caught the stagecoach. Even though the stagecoach line ran through Silver Falls, this late in the year, it didn’t make weekly runs into town, but he hadn’t minded taking the trip to Elkin or staying the night there. It had given him more time with Daisy, something he wouldn’t have once they reached Butte.
Fatigue made their dash through the forest slow. They’d been traveling all day, and the rough stagecoach ride had been exhausting. He’d known it would be nearly nightfall when they reached their destination, and the sun had just started to go down when the bandits had stopped them, so he assumed they were close.
When Rose and Violet had come to him and asked if he would escort Daisy to the train station in Butte and see that she got on the train safely, he’d been elated that he’d get to spend a few days alone with her. That elation hadn’t lasted long when he realized they were sending her away for at least a year. Three hundred and sixty-five days without seeing her angelic face would be pure torture as far as he was concerned, but there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her. He’d almost suggested he go back east with her, but was sure they’d all find it too brazen of him, so he’d kept his mouth shut. But the fear he’d never see her again made him want to jump the train without their knowledge.
He still remembered the first time he’d seen her. He’d been in Silver Falls for three days, arriving on the stagecoach to marry her sister, Rose. Their grandfather had sent away for a mail-order groom, not Rose as he’d thought she had, and when he answered the ad, he didn't know two other men had answered it as well. Nor did he know he’d have to endure a competition to win the woman's hand. He’d been hell-bent and determined to win and claim ownership of the mercantile Rose Campbell owned with her sisters—until he saw Daisy. The moment he did, the fight went right out of him. He hadn’t been able to think of much other than her, or take his eyes off of her. She was a vision he’d never be able to forget, and nor did he want to. She was beauty personified and as lovely as she was sweet. He’d tried endlessly to speak to her when he dropped out of the competition, but she turned away as if he’d never spoken every single time. It took him almost a week to learn she was deaf and not ignoring him as he thought, so he’d doubled his efforts to get her attention.
And failed miserably almost daily. Of course, that wasn’t all his fault. Daisy was hard to impress and rarely came out of her house. She was a recluse, but that didn’t stop him from trying, so when Violet asked him to escort her to Butte, he jumped at the chance. He just never expected things to turn out so wrong. Nor did he imagine they’d be running through the darkened forest in the wilds of Montana to escape bandits he hoped were no longer following them.
It was getting darker now, the light so dim it was hard to see. When Daisy stumbled every other step, he stopped running. He looked back the way they had come and tried to still his panting breath to listen for anyone following them. He heard nothing but the usual sounds one found in the forest and breathed a sigh of relief when he realized they’d outrun them.
Daisy was staring through the trees with a blank stare. She still looked frightened, and he knew she was. He couldn’t imagine how terrifying that entire ordeal had been for her. Her limbs were still shaking, but he’d erase her fear if it was the last thing he did. He got her attention and pointed to the ground before saying, “We can rest here for the night.”
Her eyes widened. “Here?” She looked around the forest.
He did the same. It wasn’t ideal, but they had no other choice. He found a large tree and scraped the twigs away from its base before turning back to look at her. When he caught her eyes, he said, “Sleeping outside isn’t so bad.” She raised an eyebrow at him. He chuckled. “Okay, granted it's better when you have supplies to make it more comfortable, but it's dry, and it's not too cold.”
He wasn’t sure how much of that she understood, but he hadn’t lied. The air was chilled, but he’d slept through worse. Autumn was sneaking into Montana, and the snows were so unpredictable this time of year. He just hoped tonight wasn’t the night they came barreling through. “Come on,” he said, motioning to the tree. “It won’t be bad. I promise.”
She didn’t look as if she believed him, but settled next to the tree. He wanted nothing more than to sit beside her and wrap an arm around her to keep her warm, but being so bold might give her the wrong impression. If he didn’t fear the bandits seeing it, he’d build her a fire, but knew it would be stupid given the situation.
He still had the gun in his hand, he noticed, and tucked it into the inner pocket of his coat before choosing a smaller tree in front of where Daisy sat and eased himself to the ground, groaning as his sore ribs protested the movement. She was staring at him when he looked back up. “What?”
She nodded to him with her head. “Did you have that gun the whole time?”
“No.” He shook his head. “When they started pulling you away, one bandit headed toward the stagecoach drivers and shot them both. I jumped him and took his gun.” He spoke the words slowly, enunciating them clearly as he’d seen Violet and Rose do when they spoke to her, but wasn’t sure how much she’d understood. He left out the part where he’d shot the bastard he’d taken the gun from before turning to rescue her.
It didn’t take long for the last of the light to fade, but the moon was full and cast a silvery glow on the forest around them, making it easier to see. Daisy’s head turned to look into the trees, and he did the same. Small sounds of wildlife as they scurried along the ground were a constant buzz. The fear that the bandits had followed them was still there, and he knew that’s what Daisy was looking for.
He touched her foot with the toe of his boot to get her attention and to take her mind away from the bandits, he asked, “Are you excited about going to Boston?”
