The Outlaw And The Runaway

“Does that answer your question about why I’m hiding in my house?” Bitterness sharpened her tone. “Before, the town was suspicious of me. Now they believe I’m evil. According to their thinking, I drove my father into betraying them. Nobody lost anything in the robbery, the gold was fully insured, but they hate me all the same, as if they were facing financial ruin.”

“No,” Roy said. “That does not answer my question.”

Her lips pursed as she considered his comment. Then her chin lifted in the proud tilt he was beginning to recognize. “You think I’m a coward? That I should have the courage to ignore them and sashay down the street as if nothing was wrong?” She flapped a hand to indicate his guns. “It’s easy for someone like you to shake off the weight of public disgrace. I haven’t quite gotten used to being an outcast. It still hurts.”

It never stops hurting, Roy wanted to tell her. You just learn to accept it.

“What are you going to do?” he asked. “Your food will eventually run out.”

“I have a gun. A Winchester rifle. I can hunt game.”

“In the darkness? On foot? You’ll have to go a long way out of town to find game.”

“I...” She hung her head, darted a glance at him from beneath her brows. “My father said he has some money put aside and he’ll arrange to have it sent to me. I’ve been waiting for it to arrive. Without the money, I can’t leave.”

There it was. The final proof. Her father must have been talking about his cut from the take. And if Roy knew anything about Lom Curtis, a prior agreement bore no weight with the outlaw leader. If a man could not make a demand in person, he had little chance of collecting his cut. The only way Celia could get her father’s share was to ride up to the outlaw camp and ask for it.

“I doubt your father can send instructions from Yuma prison.” Roy glanced out through the window. A cloud had drifted across the moon, deepening the darkness. They needed to get going while they could rely on some moonlight. “I’ve come to take you with me,” he told the girl. “Pack what you can carry on a horse. You’ve got fifteen minutes. I want to be out of here before the clouds thicken.”

“You expect me to go with you?”

“You can’t stay here.”

“At least I’ve got a roof over my head. A place of safety.”

“What will you do when your food runs out?”

She didn’t reply right away. Roy let his gaze rest on her. In the shadows he could not see her scar. Her hair, loosely gathered at the nape of her neck, was pulling into ringlets. Her lips were moist and full, her gray eyes luminous, full of feminine allure. As he studied her, he could hear her quick intake of breath and knew she, too, had felt the attraction flare up between them, hot and swift, like a spark from a bonfire.