Page 15 of The Copper Heir
Looking at her disheveled hair and her wide, blue eyes as she lay beneath him, he couldn’t help but imagine how it might be if she was lying beneath him for an entirely different reason. They were in the middle of a shoot-out and he still wanted her. Apparently his depravity knew no bounds.
Wrenching his gaze away from her, he nodded to the bedroll and moved off of her. “Stay down and move back to the bedroll. That’ll keep you far enough away from the possible range of gunfire.”
“Is it Ship? Please don’t hurt him if it is.”
“I can’t get a good look, but he’ll poke his head out soon enough.” He didn’t wait for her to obey him before reaching for the binoculars and pulling them from their case. Moving asclose to the entrance of the cavern as he could without exposing himself, he held them up and waited. He didn’t need to wait long. The man was obviously impatient to complete a task that had already taken more time than he wanted, so he popped up above the ridge to take another shot. Hunter didn’t even flinch, knowing the bullet wouldn’t find him. The shooter had pushed his hat back on his forehead to aim his shot, revealing a face that Hunter was sure he’d never seen before. Greasy brown hair streaked with gray and a grizzled face that could have belonged to any one of the men who might want him dead.
“I don’t recognize him.” Shifting on his knees, he looked back at her over his shoulder and reached out a hand. “Come take a look. Do you know all of Campbell’s men?”
She nodded. “There are a few who shift in and out of his gang, like O’Brien, but most of them have been riding with him for years.”
He made sure to keep himself between her and the outside of the cavern when she joined him and passed the binoculars to her. “He’s there, just at that ridge.” His hand automatically went to rest at the small of her back and he had to force himself to not breathe her in, no matter that she still inexplicably smelled like flowers. They stayed like that for a few minutes waiting for their adversary to make another move. When he finally rose up, this time to get a better look without taking a shot, she lowered the lenses and passed them back.
“I’m not sure.”
This was getting out of hand. They’d had her for less than twenty-four hours and already she’d been shot at by two different men. When Cas and Zane arrived later they’d have to have a serious discussion about what to do with her. “Move back to the bedroll.”
He brought the binoculars back up just in time to see the muzzle of the gun glinting in the afternoon sun and duckedinstinctively just as the next shot fired, the blast echoing against the rock of the mountain. Dropping the binoculars, he pulled one of the guns from the holster he’d shed earlier and propped against the boulder. Then he moved forward as far as he could without exposing his shoulder to the shooter and took aim at the spot the man would appear when he tried to shoot again. Over the next several minutes Hunter got off a few shots, but none of the bullets found the narrow swath of the faded blue shirt his target would occasionally reveal and gouged craters in the rock the coward hid behind, instead. He forced a deep, slow breath, counting the beats of his heart as he waited for the man to show himself again. He was rewarded a short while later when the barrel of the revolver came over the edge of the rock followed quickly by a flash of blue. Hunter fired and the barrel disappeared behind the rock only to come back up a moment later. He’d missed.
A bead of sweat rolled down his neck as he took advantage of the break and opened the chamber on his Colt to reload. He’d been in shoot-outs before and knew that patience was the only way to win, but he’d never had to worry about an innocent’s safety before. It gnawed at him that he was the reason she was in danger.
Another shot fired, the dust from where the bullet grazed the rock spraying over his shoulder as he finished loading the gun. “You okay?” He spared a glance in her direction to see her nodding, her wide-eyed gaze fastened to the shooter’s hiding place. Smothering a curse, he took aim and waited for the son of a bitch to reappear.
Six shots later he sat back on his heels, cursing again as he reloaded. He had bullets left, but at this rate they’d run out before Cas and Zane got to them. Movement from behind him caught his eyes, but he didn’t bother to look at her and just yelled back, “Stay down!”
He pushed in two more bullets before a shot rang out, so close that it left his ears ringing, too close to have been from the man trying to kill them. As he pulled his Colt up to fire at whoever had shot, his gaze landed on the girl holding his spare gun.
Chapter Eight
Emmy was on her knees near the boulders with the gun pointed toward the shooter, its muzzle still smoking from the shot. Automatically, Hunter’s gaze followed the line of fire and saw bushes rustling and flashes of movement as the man made his way on foot down the mountain and to his horse. The heavy brush at the bottom gave the man natural cover so Hunter couldn’t get a clear shot, so he grabbed the binoculars and watched him make his way to his horse. By the time he reached it, he was out of revolver range, making Hunter wish he’d had his rifle. As the man awkwardly pulled himself up with one arm, Hunter could tell that he was seriously injured. A bright stain of red marred the blue on his right shoulder as he rode off, hunched over the reins.
Dropping the binoculars, he looked back at her. “Shit! You got him.”
“I hope I didn’t kill him.” Her face was pale and her hands had started to shake as she watched the rider retreat.
“No. No, you didn’t, it was only his shoulder,” he hurried to reassure her. “He won’t be aiming a gun anytime soon, but he’ll be okay.”
She looked at him then, finally taking her eyes from the retreating horse once she was assured that he spoke the truth.
“That was an expert shot,” he said.
“Of course it was. I’m an excellent shot.”
The arrogant yet somehow innocent grin she supplied with that remark was enough to make him stare. She was beautiful when she smiled like that, her eyes shining with confidence. He found himself smiling in return just because she was so damned enticing with that smile, but caught himself as he remembered their roles.
“But how? Last night you didn’t even come close when you shot at us.”
She shrugged, the apples of her cheeks turning a light shade of pink. “I’m better when the targets aren’t moving and there aren’t animals involved. Last night I didn’t want to hit the horses.”
He couldn’t help it; he laughed then, practically doubling over as the hilarity of her statement hit him. She’d rather not shoot their horses—animals he’d gathered she didn’t particularly care for—than save herself from being kidnapped. Her brow furrowed, but then she laughed, too. The tension of the moment needed an outlet. The light sound of her laugh was just husky enough to rake pleasantly across his senses while something warm tugged deep in his gut. It was beyond appealing.
The moment their eyes met, they both realized the exact same thing: she was his hostage and she was holding a loaded gun. Before she could move, he lunged and knocked her backward, one hand moving to cup the back of her head and cushion her fall while the other grabbed her wrist, holding it pinned to the ground above her head.
The laughter was gone and just inches separated his face from hers, his lips from hers. She didn’t struggle and she let go of the gun so that it dropped to lay on the ground. Of its own volition, his hand inched up from her wrist until they were palm to palm, surprising himself when his fingers laced with hers. She squeezed him back and he was dropping down to her as if she held some magic that was pulling him in and he didn’t even think about resisting. All he wanted was to finally claim her as his.
Her gasp filled the air between them just before his mouth touched hers. Despite his need, it was a gentle touch, slow and soft, giving her the chance to pull away the moment she didn’t want it. Except that she did want it. Soft lips parted beneath his and desire immediately tightened deep in his groin as his heart beat a fast rhythm against his rib cage.
Excitement pulsed through her veins like a power that couldn’t be contained. The fear that had only compounded with each bullet fired, followed by the exhilaration of firing the shot that had saved them, had combined to form this heady mix of energy she didn’t know how to control. She didn’t want to control it.
