Caine's Reckoning

Caine held out his hand for the salve and canteen. Sam hesitated another second, his gaze meeting Caine’s in a clear challenge. They’d known each other since they were ten, survived hell together, saved each other’s asses more than once, been the only thing either could depend on for the last fifteen years, but in that moment Caine knew the truth. He’d fight Sam for Desi. And he’d take the battle however far he had to in order to guard his claim. Hell of a thing for a man to realize in the middle of nowhere.

Sam held his gaze for a couple more seconds. Though he wasn’t pushing it now, the message was clear. He had every intention of being competition. Damn!

Sam tossed Caine the salve before turning to Desi with a smile and a nod of his head.

“Sam MacGregor.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Don’t let those biddies get under your skin, ma’am. There’s no one here who gives their opinions any weight.”

Desi took a slow breath as the handsome man made his interest known, concentrating on making that one breath perfectly even in a desperate attempt to avoid bolting. She didn’t want him to want her. Frigid water pouring over her foot ruined her concentration. She took another breath and tried again as Caine cleaned the area with the faded red handkerchief he’d removed from his neck. Through it all, the blond man watched her, studying her reaction.

Big as the other two, he was the handsomest of the lot, but that cold air of lethal efficiency he wore like most people wore a smile was scary. A woman would have no say in his bed. Metal popped against metal as Caine opened the tin of salve. Much as she was trying to avoid looking at either man, she couldn’t stop herself from looking at Caine when he pulled her foot away from the horse’s side.

If the other two men scared her, Caine terrified her to her bones. Danger lurked around him in an invisible shimmer, so much a part of his presence, she didn’t even think he realized it. She knew he could kill as easily as he changed his socks, and she knew he wouldn’t worry overly much about it when he was done. Survival was a matter of course to him. He was a lot like the land that way—rugged, deadly and uncompromising. Those who understood that and respected it would survive. Those who didn’t, would die.

She watched as he threw another silent challenge at Sam and held her breath through the outcome. Oh, God, there wasn’t a thing to stop them from taking what they wanted except maybe the presence and disapproval of Mavis and her friends. As a shield it was an extremely flimsy one and once they got to town even that would disappear.

She realized Sam was still looking at her, waiting on an answer, a slight frown putting a crease between his startling, slate-blue eyes. She blinked slowly, struggling for some sort of neutral response that wouldn’t increase his interest. The only thing that came to mind was “Thank you.”

She dug her nails into the leather pommel as he continued to study her. If these three succeeded in getting her back to town, the situation would only get worse. She knew what James would do. He was too smart to cross men like these. He’d give them whatever they wanted with a smile and an eye to survival.

She locked her gaze over Caine’s left shoulder, focusing on the winter-killed grass at the edge of the frigid stream. No matter what, she couldn’t let them get her back to town.

Sam was still looking at her. She could feel his gaze like a touch. She didn’t know what he was looking for or what he expected, but she sincerely hoped he gave up looking for it soon, otherwise she was going to break and the whirlwind of emotion twisting inside would rip free. If that happened, she didn’t know how she’d ever get it back under control.

The salve stung as Caine worked it into her cuts, giving her something else to focus on. She winced, and Caine paused.

“I’m being as gentle as I can.” The apology in the flatly worded statement brought her gaze down. Caine’s attention was on her foot. Despite the fact that her bare leg was inches from his face and she could see the bulge of his manhood where his chaps hugged his hips, there was nothing lecherous in his touch. Only caretaking with a hint of…tenderness? The sheer absurdity of the notion brought her up short. That soft part of her was once again chasing rainbows. Men like this weren’t tender, and even if they were, it wasn’t the kind of emotion they wasted on women like her.

Sam turned to Caine. “Beyond the horses and a couple decent guns, there wasn’t much worth saving off that bunch.”

Caine didn’t look up from his treatment of her foot. “Not a shock there.”

“One of the horses is wind broke.”

Even Desi knew what that meant. Her brother had once, in ignorance, bought a horse with that condition, ridden so hard and cared for so poorly that he couldn’t exert himself without fighting for breath. Her father had had one of the guides put it out of its misery. There was no mercy for the weak in this territory.

“Damn. Which one?”

“The sorrel. It’s a shame, too. He’s got a nice gait on him and a real pleasant how-de-do.”

Caine patted her thigh almost absentmindedly and ducked under the paint’s neck before taking her other foot into that inexorable grip and dousing it with more of the icy water. “You like him.”

It wasn’t a question so much as a statement of fact. Sam shrugged. “Just hate to see good horseflesh abused.”

Caine ran his finger down the center of her right foot in an ethereal caress, sending strange tingles upward and outward. She couldn’t help her shiver. She didn’t know if the quirk of his lips was for her reaction or Sam’s.

“I don’t suppose it would hurt to bring him along. As long as we don’t run into trouble, he should be fine.”

Sam nodded. “That was my thought.” He jerked his head in the direction of the other women. “Suppose I’d better go help Tracker get that lot saddled up.”

He sounded like he’d rather be nibbled to death by ducks. Not the reaction Mavis and her friends were used to getting from men.

“Better you than me.”

Desi looked down as Caine probed the edges of the deep cut near her arch. “You’re not going to put the horse down?”

She couldn’t see his face for the brim of his hat, but his attention was clearly more on her foot than her words. “Not without need.”

She would have thought the fact the horse couldn’t pull his weight constituted need. Fleeting pressure on her ankle was her only warning before he worked the ointment into the wound. It hurt nearly as much as getting the injury in the first place. Her exclamation was involuntary. His response disconcerting.

“Easy, baby.” The stroke of his hand on her calf was both soothing and absurdly comforting. She yanked back, but she couldn’t break his hold. Caine’s palm curved around her calf. He massaged her leg while standing so close the heat from his body warmed her cold skin. The pain eased.

At her terse “Thank you,” he touched her tightly curled toes in a way she could only describe as tender. Except this was not a tender man. She relaxed her foot, watching him carefully. Her reward was another squeeze of her calf and the resettling of her leg against the horse’s side. He was defintely a confusing one, though.

Caine tugged the reins over the horse’s head and dropped them to the ground, his mouth creasing at the corners with the hint of amusement as he ordered, “Stay put.”

And also an irritating one, she decided. Even if she leaned forward the reins were out of her reach, which meant she had no choice but to stay where he’d put her. Caine headed toward the area where the rest of the group waited, mounted. Each step was infused with that combination of strength, grace and confidence that once would have filled her with interest. He stopped at the side of an all-black horse, with white hindquarters covered with black spots, and opened the saddlebags. The horse snaked its head around, teeth showing. With an ease that spoke of long practice, he smacked it across the nose while pulling something free of the bag. Not brutally, but more in the way of a warning. As he tied the bag shut, the horse gathered its haunches as if to kick. Another light slap, this time on its hindquarters and the horse settled down. With a comment to the women who were waiting in various degrees of comfort on their horses, and a pat to the black horse’s shoulder as if what had passed between them were some sort of game, Caine headed back, tucking something into his back pocket before taking whatever he’d grabbed from under his arm.

When he got close enough, he held up a brown wad of material lying on top of a pile of leather. “Thought you might like these.”

The first “these” were woolen socks, the second, high-topped moccasins.

“They’ll be too big.”

He shrugged and tucked the moccasins under his arm. “They’ll do the job until you get your own clothes.”

“I don’t have any.” The confession slipped out before she could catch it, snapping his gaze to hers. She quickly waved to the items in his hands. “Moccasins, I mean.”

“Uh-huh.” He cupped her foot in his hands, warming it between his palms a second before bending to blow. His breath was hot and moist, scalding in comparison to the chill she felt to her bone. Before she could come up with a suitable protest, he worked the sock over her foot. As soon as he came around to the other side, she tucked her foot back against the horse’s withers.

“I can do it myself.”

“Not without risking falling off that horse, and I’d say at this point you have enough bruises.”

As if that settled that, he hooked his fingers around her ankle and drew her foot forward. She suffered through another warming before he slid the sock on. He tipped his hat back when he was done. “Admit it, that feels better.”

Even though she didn’t like the proprietary way he handled her body, she couldn’t deny how good it felt to have her flesh covered. She hated to be cold. “Yes, it does.”

He slid the moccasin on, tying the fringed top above her knee, his touch impersonal again. “Good.”

He went back around the other side, moccasin at the ready. She experimented with bending her right leg. She couldn’t straighten it all the way. She tried to flex it again as he slipped the other moccasin on. “I can’t walk in these.”

He tied the second moccasin with the same impersonal efficiency as he had the first. “But you can ride, which is more important.”

“What if we need to run?”

“If it comes to a footrace, we’re both dead.”

He pulled worn leather gloves from his back pocket. With a curl of his fingers, he ordered her to hold out her hands. She did cautiously, not liking the emotion flirting with the perimeter of his stern features. He slipped the gloves on her hands and then, before she could pull back, looped a long piece of rawhide around both her wrists, flipping the string between before she could protest. When he put her bound hands on the saddle horn, there was no mistaking the emotion tugging at his mouth. Amusement.