Whirlwind Reunion

“So you don’t know what they did to your back?” Annalise asked in a quiet distant voice.

Matt wished he could forget she was so close, but he couldn’t. Her clean, light scent had stolen into his lungs and settled there. “No, I don’t know what they did.”

Davis Lee walked behind the cot to see Matt’s back, and cursed. “What could’ve ripped you up so badly?”

“What does it look like?” Matt asked.

Russ shook his head, still propping his brother up. “Annalise, Ef and I tried to figure it out when I brought you in, but we couldn’t.”

“Is my back torn to shreds? That’s what it feels like.”

Davis Lee leaned closer. “These almost look like stab wounds, but they’re not very deep. If they used a knife, why didn’t they just stab you to death?”

“When we catch them, I’ll be sure and ask,” Matt said dryly, fighting the weakness and pain that was draining the energy from him. “Somebody tell me what it looks like back there.”

“There are long lacerations,” Annalise responded. “Uneven, like someone plowed furrows down your back.”

She explained about the shallowness and pattern of the wounds. They didn’t compare with the blade of any knife she’d ever seen.

“And you have no idea what they could’ve used, Matt?” Davis Lee moved around to the front of the bed.

“Everything’s a blank after I got hit on the head.”

Except for those shadowy images of Annalise. Her touch fluttered like a butterfly against his mangled flesh. He felt the occasional wash of her breath against his neck and back, and it put him on edge.

As Davis Lee, Russ and J.T. discussed going after the men who had attacked him, Matt realized he could be stuck here with her, completely at her mercy. Like hell.

“The men who jumped Matt could’ve gone in any direction afterwards,” J.T. said.

“If it was the Landis brothers, maybe to Abilene?” Russ suggested. “To try and free the others?”

Davis Lee shook his head. “The guard over there has been tripled. They won’t get within a hundred feet of the jail now.”

Annalise came around to feel Matt’s forehead, her hand cool and soft against his skin. “Good. No fever.”

Says you. She still spoke in that detached emotionless voice and it bugged the hell out of him because he knew how she could burn beneath that prim exterior. How she could make him burn.

He cut off the thought. That was the last thing he wanted to remember.

The fatigue etching her fine-boned features didn’t detract from her beauty or dull the peaches-and-cream skin that was so fine-grained it was almost translucent.

He’d known he would have to see her again, but why this soon? And why like this, when he was injured and hurting?

She again moved behind him, the warmth of her body flirting with his. Every muscle from his calves to his shoulders drew tight. Being this close to her put a knot in his chest. He had to get away from her.

“Are you dizzy?” she asked.

“A little.” Growing weaker, his frustration mounted. “Headache?”

“Yes, and my back hurts like hellfire.” So why could he even feel how close she was? Why was he even this aware of her? He sure as hell didn’t want to be.

“Russ, Jericho and I can fan out from Whirlwind, each of us in a different direction, and see if we can find any tracks leading from the spot where Matt was found,” Davis Lee was saying to J.T. and Russ. “I doubt I’ll have trouble getting another volunteer to ride with us. Jake or Bram Ross would gladly help.”

Matt was sure the Ross brothers would agree, but he wanted to go. He didn’t care that he was as weak as a newborn kitten. “I can do it.”

“It’s not a good idea,” Annalise said firmly.

Her touch was feather-light on his back, yet he felt it like a red-hot brand. Frustration and resentment had him snapping, “Leave me be!”

Conversation abruptly stopped and the three men in front of him stared warily at Annalise.

Matt thought about apologizing until she leaned in and whispered, “I can’t. I’m the doctor, you’re the patient. I need to check all your wounds.”

The brush of her lips against his ear sent a shaft of heat through him and his muscles twitched in reaction, sending a wave of pain over him. Hell!

He looked at his brother. “Bring me a shirt and my horse. And my boots.”

Russ grimaced. “Uh, well, they stole your boots.”

A red haze of anger misted his vision. If there had been one ounce of energy in his body, he would have punched the wall. As it was, he could barely sit up.

J.T. frowned. “Son, Annalise is right. You’re in no shape to ride out right now.”

Davis Lee and Russ nodded in agreement.

Matt didn’t want to admit it, but he was about to give out just sitting here. He would be worse than useless on a horse. It didn’t help that Annalise was torturing him under the guise of doctoring him.

Andrew spoke up. “I could check that spot by the creek bed where the McDougal gang used to rendezvous. They might not be the only outlaws to use it and someone might’ve been there recently.”

That outlaw gang had been wiped out a couple of years earlier. Thanks to Jericho, Jake, Davis Lee and Riley, the men who had murdered Cora Wilkes’s husband as well as Josie Holt’s parents and former fiancé were gone for good. Matt really wanted to make that happen for the Landis brothers and anyone else involved in the rustling.

Davis Lee squeezed the boy’s shoulder. “That’s a good idea, Andrew. Take my deputy with you. He’s at the jail.”

Andrew nodded, his young face earnest as he looked at the lone woman in their midst. “I won’t go until we finish for the day, Dr. Annalise.”

“You can go on, Andrew. It’s important.” There was a smile in her voice.

The answering smile on the boy’s face was blinding and pure adoration. He looked to be this close to falling at her feet.

Hell, Matt thought. Andrew should watch out or she’d kick him in the teeth while he was down there.

It was an effort, but he said, “The longer we talk, the further they get.”

Russ gave him a flat stare. “You’re not going. We’ve got it handled. You need to heal up ’cuz we both know this is going to start all over now that two of them have escaped.”

Matt knew Russ was right to insist he stay here and it blistered him up, but the only thing keeping him from passing out was sheer will and his pride. He refused to let Annalise see how right she was about his being shaky.

“How about moving me out of here?” he asked his brother in a low voice. “Maybe to the Fontaine?”