He had thought Rafe Tyler had used Shea for revenge.He had thought that every moment, until Tyler had kicked away the handcuffs and allowed him to retrieve his guns.Until he understood that Rafe cared about nothing but his daughter’s safety.
Now he watched like a peeping Tom, unable to retreat from watching a moment of such exquisite tenderness that tears formed in his eyes.
He leaned against a tree.How many times in the last ten years had he pushed aside the image of Captain Tyler’s arrest, his court-martial, the morning he had been taken to prison?Even then, he had done nothing to stop McClary, knowing as he did that the sergeant would make every mile hell for his prisoner.He had been afraid of McClary.Afraid of prison, of the disgrace that would separate him forever from his Sara.The irony had been that his cowardice had done exactly that, and had designed a torture chamber of his own making.
But even then, he knew it wasn’t as bad as the one he’d made for Tyler.
Jack bent over in agony, dragging his eyes from Rafe Tyler and his daughter, the daughter who looked so much like Sara.He tore them away from the man from whom he had taken so much and yet who remained capable of such obvious love, even for the daughter of the man who so wronged him.
Nothing could be worse than this pain.Not prison.Not a noose.
He turned slowly and walked with dragging steps back to the cabin.
McClary picked up the blood trail.He probably wouldn’t have found it if he hadn’t had a general idea of where Rafe Tyler had been hiding these months.The Casey Springs posse, he thought, would head directly for Rushton and Randall’s ranch.He hadn’t counted much intelligence among the lynch mob, or for that matter, from the deputy sheriff, and the sheriff was out of town.
Who, he wondered, was bleeding?It could have been either one, although Tyler had been the most recently wounded.
They were no longer being careful as Tyler had been in the past.The trail, once found, was not difficult for McClary to follow.
He came to where they had obviously paused at a creek.The ground was trampled in several places.His eyes caught the glint of metal, and he found a pair of irons lying partly under a bush.
He reached down and hid them much more efficiently, then wiped away signs of disturbance just as he had covered up the traces of blood he’d found.He didn’t want anyone following him.He didn’t want a posse reaching Randall before he did.
McClary wondered briefly about the strange alliance and what had brought the two men together.Tyler hated Randall, and Randall had great fear of Tyler.
McClary shrugged.It didn’t matter.He would kill both men, and whoever else was with them.
Chapter 25
Rafe didn’t know how long he stood there, alongside the lake, holding her.He just knew how good it felt.
She snuggled there in his arms, as if he were all she wanted in the world.He tried to breathe through the knot in his throat, the constriction of his chest.
He hadn’t realized how completely he cared until this moment.He hadn’t let himself.
He couldn’t let himself now.But there it was.Sometime in the past few weeks she had snaked her way into his heart and taken it over.Wholly and forever.
Yet nothing had changed.If anything, circumstances had worsened.Not only was he an ex-convict now, he was also wanted for murder.The sigh that came from his mouth was ragged, and she looked up at him, those eyes of hers so full of light.
“How did you ever find this place?”he finally asked.Anything to break the spell that wrapped them in what he knew was a false cloak of safety.If she had found this valley, others could.
“I remembered those peaks,” she said, and he recalled those drawings he’d destroyed, afraid they would lead others to him.He had not considered her own ability to re-create.She moved slightly, and he couldn’t stop the ragged breath as she touched the wounded arm.Her gaze went to his shirt, red and still damp with blood.
“What happened?”
He shrugged, and her eyes narrowed.She backed a few inches away and rolled up the sleeve of the shirt, revealing a crimson bandage.
“What happened, Rafe?”she said insistently.
He sighed.“I’ll tell you later.”He felt himself swaying.He had been moving on pure nerves, on fear for her.But now his body was failing him.“I think I need to get to the cabin.”
She nodded, taking his good arm and putting it around her to give him some support.But he hesitated.“Shea … Jack Randall’s at the cabin.”He still couldn’t tolerate thinking of Randall as Shea’s father.
He felt her stiffen.“Why?How?”
“Posse … found me.I was taken to Casey Springs.He … Randall helped me escape so we could find you.”
Shea’s face paled.
