Page 75 of Falling for the Cowgirl
Another shout came in reply. But Jericho couldn’t distinguish the words, and with the aspen and pine blocking his view, he wasn’t able to get a view of the newcomer. He hoped help was coming, but he took out his gun and readied it, just in case.
Seconds later, several riders came into view on the path below, and they were galloping hard and kicking up dust. Three muscular men who held themselves with confidence and determination.
Jericho would have recognized them anywhere. The McQuaid brothers: Wyatt, Flynn, and Brody.
“Hey!” Jericho called out, fighting back the strange need to weep with relief.
Brody was at the forefront and urged his mount faster over the gravelly rocks. Slightly bulkier than his brothers, Brody had the same dark hair and eyes as Wyatt and Ivy. Even if he resembled them in appearance, he was much quieter, almost brooding.
Brody must have returned from the Front Range over the past couple of days after Jericho started staying in town. As the burly man climbed the last bend of the road, his dark gaze swept over Ivy and halted on the knife in her chest. He charged the last of the distance and hardly gave his horse the chance to stop before he was sliding off and kneeling at Ivy’s side, his fingers on the pulse in her neck. “What happened?”
Jericho hesitated. How much should he reveal? “She got in the middle of my fight with a band of outlaws.”
Brody’s gaze flicked to Otis standing in the shadows of the darkening forest before returning to the wound. He carefullypeeled back the section of her bodice so he could get a better view of the puncture. At the sight of the flaming skin and blood, his brows furrowed into a scowl—the typical anger Brody had always worn.
Wyatt and Flynn reined in beside them, their horses snorting after so strenuous a ride. They’d clearly pushed hard. “Ivy’s horse came back to the ranch without her,” Wyatt said, his face etched with worry. “She told me she was going treasure hunting, and I reckoned she must’ve gotten into some kind of trouble.”
“Did you get caught in the fire?” Flynn directed his question to Jericho as he dismounted.
“Yes, the fire trapped us for a bit. But that’s not the problem now.”
“Then what is?” Flynn scanned Ivy and then blanched. “Thunderation, Jericho! How’d she get stabbed?”
Brody tipped up the brim of his hat and peered at Jericho as if he’d turned into the devil himself. “He claims she got in the middle of a fight with outlaws.”
Now that he’d captured Otis—Rodney James—what was the point in hiding the nature of his bounty hunting work from them any longer? He might as well confess the truth. “I’m an agent working for Pinkerton in Chicago with my dad. I came here to hunt down Rodney James, wanted for war crimes.” He cocked his head at Otis.
Wyatt glanced at the outlaw, who’d slouched down against the tree again. Otis hardly had the menace of a crook, especially now with his pained expression and labored breathing.
“There were four of them.” Jericho felt as though he had to offer the additional explanation. “The other three are tied up in a cave.”
“You mean to tell me you’ve been here all this while tracking down outlaws and putting Ivy in a heap of danger?” Flynn took a menacing step toward him, his fists taut as if he wanted to slam them into Jericho.
Jericho stiffened, his face still smarting from his last altercation with Flynn. “That’s why I was trying to keep my distance from her.”
“From everything I’ve seen, you ain’t been keeping your distance.” Flynn was practically shouting. “And being out with her again today ain’t either.”
“I followed her because I was worried about her being alone with Hance and Otis.” Jericho couldn’t keep his tone from rising too.
Flynn shook his head, his eyes flashing. “If you were so blamed worried, you should have steered a mile clear of her.”
He’d tried. But he wasn’t about to give Flynn any excuses because he could have tried harder, even if it’d killed him to do so.
Brody began to lift Ivy into his arms. Jericho reached to help him. Before he could touch Ivy, Flynn shoved him away with a force that made him stumble backward and almost topple to his rear end. “Don’t you dare get anywhere near her again.”
Jericho righted himself and reined in his frustration.
“Take it easy now, Flynn,” Wyatt said. “Fighting each other ain’t gonna do us a lick of good.”
“Agreed.” Brody started back to his horse. “Let’s stop wasting time and get her to the doc.”
Jericho wanted to be the one carrying Ivy and taking her for help. But if anyone could do it safely, Brody was the man. He had a gentle way about him that worked wonders with horses and all creatures.
Brody shifted Ivy gingerly, but even then she moaned. “Once I’m in the saddle, I need someone to hand her up to me.”
Wyatt jogged toward Brody. Jericho started to follow, only to have Flynn shove a palm into his chest and stop him. “I said stay away from her. Do y’hear me?”
Jericho balled his fists at his sides to keep from brushing past Flynn and going with Ivy.
