Sam's Creed

She spun on him. “Silencio!”

It was an order given in a tone that expected obedience. Obedience wasn’t Kell’s strong suit. He just lifted his lip higher, revealing sharp teeth. The woman’s chin went up, revealing a stubborn streak as big as the dog’s. To his surprise, Kell backed down.

“How’d you do that?”

She dismissed Kell with a wave of her hand. “A woman cannot take seriously a dog wearing girl’s clothing.” She smoothed her hair back. “What do you do here, Mr. Ranger?”

A kitten with the attitude of a duchess. “I’m looking for someone.” With a wave of his hand he indicated the carnage around them. “A better question would be how are you alive when everybody you were traveling with ended up dead?”

He felt like a heel the second the words left his mouth. The woman must be scared out of her wits. She was stuck in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by dead bodies, facing down a stranger twice her size and all she had to wield as defense was a peck of attitude.

And he was trying to undermine that.

“I had yet to join them.”

It was his turn to blink.

“That’s not your stuff tossed about?”

She shook her head. “They were going to sell it.”

“But you were joining up with them?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you join them in town?”

“My joining was a secret.”

“A secret? As in you were running off with one of these yahoos?”

She looked hopeful. “Would you believe that?”

He didn’t even have to think about it as he reholstered his revolver. “No.”

She sighed. “I did not think so.”

The silence stretched. “Sweetheart, you wouldn’t be thinking up a lie to spin me would you?”

“Isabella.”

“What?”

“My name, it is Isabella.”

It was a very pretty name and when her lips shaped around the syllables, it made a man think of other things that sexy little mouth could ease around. His cock, which had been twitching ever since she’d backed out from under the wagon, filled in a low pleasurable ache. She ran her tongue over the full curves in a nervous betrayal. She was more worried than she was letting on.

“Nice to meet you, Isabella. Now, what’s the real truth?”

“I was supposed to meet up with them.”

He looked around. They were a good four miles out of town. He crossed the few feet to where the pistol lay and picked it up. “Why am I still not finding that any more believable the second time around?”

“Perhaps you are a man of suspicion?”

He was that. A check of the chamber revealed two bullets. He glanced over. “You weren’t planning on putting up much of a fight.”

“I grabbed the pistola when I heard you come.”

He looked up the slight rise. It was possible she’d heard him coming. “Next time grab some bullets, too.”

Isabella eyed the gun in his hand with an ill-disguised hunger. “I will remember.”

He just bet she would. “You’re planning on there being a next time?”

“I need to get to San Antonio. There is much trouble between here and there.”

She had that right. Pretty much certain death for a woman alone. Tucking the gun into the back of his waistband, he moved onto the bodies. “You got family there?”

“No.”

The first man had nothing of value. He let him roll back to the dirt. “What’s the draw then?”

“I have heard it is pretty.”

“Are you expecting me to believe you hooked up with these four because you thought San Antonio was pretty?”

She shrugged. “It is the truth.”

Maybe part of it. “A gently reared woman would have to be pretty desperate to join a bunch like this.”

“What makes you think I am gently reared?”

Sam shook his head. As if he didn’t know when quality and innocence was looking at him. “Come clean. You weren’t planning on traveling alone with these men.”

“I was.”

“Why?”

“I had no choice.”

At least that made sense though the why needed exploring. “You do now.”

She blinked. “I am not traveling with you.”

He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “You were eager enough to go with them.”

“They were not dangerous.”