“Amelia.”
“Darling, it don’t matter what your name is.”
“Just admit you snatched my kill.” I shoved his chest. His hands shot out, encircled my wrists. I gasped. His skin was hot and calloused,his linen shirt coarse below my palms. I tilted forward, wondered what this gunfighter would do if I sank my nails deeper into his muscles.
He released my wrists, stepped back, ran a hand down his face. “You’re a wild one, huh?”
“What in all creation does that mean? I can’t accuse you of theft, but you can name me?”
He unsheathed a bowie hunting knife and methodically cleaned the turkey. The brush rustled, and I damn near jumped outta my skin. But it was just One Eye, his wolf dog, not some bandit intent on slaughter.
I stepped forward. “This isn’t over.”
“Stop yammering and help already,” he said. “I’ll give you half.”
“Yammering?”
“You do know, this is outlaw territory.” He sawed at the birds. “They will not hesitate. They will shoot.”
Course I knew this was outlaw land—I didn’t fancy being treated as a simpleton. A flush of heat raced down my fingers. “I’m not a child.”
He rubbed the heel of his palm against an eye. “What does that even mean?” He waved a hand at me. “Obviously you’re not a child.”
“I don’t like being coddled.”
“Not coddling you.”
“Felt that way.”
“Well”—his voice was harsh, a whip—“stop feeling.”
Apparently the gunfighter was hardheaded and wouldn’t admit the catch was mine. But I supposed I could take half. He probably needed food as well—it was actually magnanimous of me to share.
“You’re mighty—” I yanked my hunting knife from my sheath andscreechedwhen I sliced my palm.
“All nature, Amelia. Quiet.”
I pressed against the deep line of red spilling from my hand. I hadn’t cut myself since I was in pinafores.
The Lawman sprang up, his voice astonished. “You cut yourself?”
“Don’t you dare say nothing.” I clenched my teeth, inhaled. “You all-overish distracted me.”
“Distracted you, huh?” He edged closer.
Gloaming glinted low through the scrub brush, fuzzed about the lime-green lichen, as if the forest tipped. I was dizzy.
“Aw, damn.” He rubbed his jaw. “That’s bad.” He reached for me, and I jerked away. He rolled his eyes. “Let me see.”
“You a doctor, Lawman?”
He nodded as he studied my cut.
“You are?”
He kneaded his shoulder beneath his duster and seemed so uncomfortable I believed him. “No,” he said. “Not a doctor, but I have some skill.”
On my palm, blood pooled, the color shocking in the muted browns of the groundcover. I wobbled, and he swept an arm behind my back, lowered me to the forest floor.
