Boone's Bounty

Boone wanted to leap across the counter and kiss Eugene on both cheeks.

“I know the woman you’re talking about,” Norma said, coming out of the back room.

Boone’s stomach tightened. If only Norma had stayed asleep.

“She came through about noon,” Norma continued.

Now Boone had two people he wanted to hug. Not only was Norma covering for Shelby, she was misdirecting this guy.

“Yeah?” The man sat up straighter. “What did she look like?”

“Blond, pretty. The little boy was blond, too. They stopped in to get some food, but they took it to go because they wanted to get over the pass before the snow started.”

The guy’s fist hit the counter. “Damn it to hell.” Then he sighed. “At least I guessed right on which road she’d take.”

Norma gazed at him, her expression bland. “She must be important to you.”

“Oh, she’s important, all right,” he replied with a sneer. “She took my kid.”

“Goodness!” Norma sounded concerned, but her gaze had no warmth in it. “Have you notified the authorities?”

“Hell, the authorities couldn’t find their ass with their own two hands. This is one slick chick.”

Boone didn’t think so. Shelby wasn’t enough of a criminal to think of hiding her identity or Josh’s. Fear was driving her, not cunning. She was running as fast as she could go and improvising a plan along the way. But he didn’t think she was a match for this man.

Boone stood and stretched. Then he faked a yawn. “Well, folks, now that I’ve had my bedtime snack, I believe I’ll go to my room and turn in.”

Eugene covered his look of surprise quickly. “Might as well. They won’t be opening that road until daybreak, maybe later.”

The man looked at Boone. “You’ve been letting a bed go to waste? Hell, if you don’t want it, I’ll take it.”

“Sorry.” Boone clapped his Stetson on his head and pulled on his jacket. “I got here first.” He gestured toward the booth where he’d left the pillow and blanket. “But the Sloans put out a blanket and a pillow in case anybody stumbled in during the night. I’m sure you’re welcome to that.”

The man eyed the setup and turned back to his coffee cup. “We’ll see if I get that desperate,” he said sourly.

Boone waved at Eugene and Norma and headed out the café door. Once outside he turned up his collar and held onto his hat as he ducked his head and trudged forward against the bitter wind. Snow sifted down inside his jacket and his bare hand grew numb. Once he warned Shelby about the man in the café, he wondered what the heck he was going to do with himself and whether he had enough gas to run the truck’s heater all night.

SHELBY LAY in the double bed next to Josh listening to his steady breathing with a touch of envy. All he needed was a darkened room, a soft bed and his blue “blankie” clutched against his cheek.

How she’d love to escape into the world of childhood, if only for a little while, and feel safe again, safe enough to sleep. Her urge to head for Yellowstone had probably come from that same longing. She remembered staying in a little cabin with her mother and father and Patricia, all of the beds in one big room, like settlers on the prairie. They’d never been so cozy before or since.

There was nothing cozy about this room. The heater had a noisy fan, but it didn’t block out the whistling of the wind through a crevice between the door and the frame or the rattling of a loose windowpane. After checking the lock at least twenty times, Shelby had dozed off, only to be awakened when she’d heard someone pounding on a door not far away.

Adrenaline had poured through her, but she hadn’t wanted to wake Josh by leaping out of bed. By the time she’d eased over to the window, drawn back the curtain and peered out, the motel courtyard had been empty.

Now she worried about who had been pounding on a door in the middle of the night. She’d probably been foolish to take this well-traveled highway north toward Yellowstone. Early in Patricia’s marriage to Mason, soon after Josh was born, Shelby had gone over to their house for dinner. She distinctly remembered reminiscing with Patricia about that Yellowstone trip. They’d talked about the fun stops along the way and how much the family vacation had meant to them.

If Mason remembered, he would know exactly what road to take to find her. She was terrible at this cloak-and-dagger stuff, and she really should give up on Yellowstone. Except it wasn’t only Josh’s excitement that was guiding her there. The thought of seeing the place again with Josh had become the only bright spot in her otherwise frightening world. She loved the way Josh insisted on calling the geysers “geezers.” Maybe he’d mixed up the words when she’d mentioned one of the geysers was called Old Faithful.

The windowpane rattled again. Or was that a different sort of noise? She strained to hear over the whirr of the fan and the whistling of the wind. Then the noise came again. A rapid, soft tapping. On her door.

Her stomach lurched in fear and her heartbeat hammered in her ears as she crept quietly out of bed. The tapping grew slightly louder, as if someone wanted to get her attention without alerting anyone else.

Easing back the curtain a tiny slit, she peered out. Then she gasped in surprise as she recognized Boone, his big shoulders hunched against the cold. Had he come to tell her they’d cleared the road?

Her vulnerability made her hesitate before opening the door. Then she shook off any doubts. After all, she’d received nothing but kindness from this man. Now that she’d become one of the hunted, she’d have to learn to trust her instincts if she planned to survive. Her instincts told her Boone wouldn’t harm her or Josh.

Crossing to the door, she unlocked and opened it, belatedly remembering that she wore only a cotton nightgown. The cold took her breath away.

“I have to talk to you,” Boone said. His face was in shadow. “Can I—”

“Come in, for heaven’s sake,” she whispered, stepping back. “It’s freezing out.” Once he was through the door she closed it, but the room temperature seemed to have dropped thirty degrees in that short time.

“Shebby?” Josh mumbled sleepily from the bed.

She hurried over to the bed and leaned down to tuck his blue blanket against his cheek. “Go back to sleep, sweetheart. It’s only Boone.”

“’Kay.” And just like that, he snuggled back under the covers and dozed off.

Shelby was amazed. Boone and Josh had spent less than twenty minutes together all told, and Boone now had the little boy’s complete trust. She straightened and turned. The room was almost totally dark, but she could make out the cowboy standing right where she’d left him by the door.

A thrill of awareness shot through her. Being alone in the dark with this virile man was the most exciting thing that had happened to her in a long while. He’d probably come over to give her a weather report or the latest information on the road, but for a moment she could fantasize that he’d come because he had a burning need to see her again.

“Do you mind talking in the dark?” she murmured as she walked back toward him. “I don’t want to wake Josh.”

“That’s okay.”

The closer she came to him, the more she felt the cold that had settled on his clothes, and it made her shiver. But she wasn’t afraid. Maybe some of Josh’s instinctive trust in Boone had rubbed off on her, because for the first time since she’d left San Antonio, she felt a little less alone.

She wrapped her arms around her body to ward off the chill and came to stand next to him. She had to move close, so she could keep her voice low. The scent of his aftershave teased her. “What is it?” she asked. “Is the road—”

“No, it’s not the road,” he said quietly. “Look, I don’t mean to mess in your business, but there’s a man in the café who might be looking for you and the boy.”

She gasped and stepped back, her romantic notions shredded by one simple statement. Oh, God, no. Not right here. She’d lulled herself into believing the weather had protected her. Her stomach began to churn. But maybe Boone was wrong. “What…does he look like?”

“Short, stocky but solid, like he works out. He has a military buzz cut.”

Nausea rose in her throat. She turned away and took several long, deep breaths until her stomach settled down a little.

“Do you know him?” Boone asked.

“I know him.”

“Is he a threat to you?”

She gazed up into his shadowed face and decided to risk telling him the truth. “I suppose. I have his son.”

Boone nodded, as if her honesty set well with him. “I figured. Josh told me his daddy has a gun.”