'We need some light in here,' Lewis called.
Ezekiel struck a match. The sizzling powder sounded like an explosion in the sudden silence. He lit a lantern and left it swaying back and forth on its hook, and then turned and shut the barn doors behind him.
'I wouldn't want any company coming inside to bother us,' he drawled out. 'And I wouldn't want you to get past me again, Miss Genevieve. There aren't any windows here to climb out, are there?'
Herman had steadily crept forward into the stall next to them and suddenly popped up. He was eye to eye with Genevieve. She didn't have time to shout a warning, but one wasn't necessary. Adam saw him at the same instant she did. He proved to be much quicker than the other man too. He used the butt of his rifle and struck him hard on the side of his head. Herman looked stupefied, and then his eyes rolled back into his head and he dropped down hard to the floor.
The noise brought Lewis running. He stopped short as soon as he saw the rifle pointed at him.
Ezekiel took his time strolling down the aisle to stand beside his hired gunman. His expression hardened when he spotted Adam, but just as quickly as his scowl appeared, it was replaced by a smile.
'Who are you, mister?'
'No one you need to know,' Adam answered.
'I've got business with the woman you've got behind your back, but I don't have any quarrel with you. If you'll hand her over to me, you can leave, and no harm will come to you.'
'I'm not going anywhere, and you're not getting near her.'
'I'll make it worth your while.'
'No.'
There was pure hatred in Ezekiel's gaze as he stared at Adam. His voice lost its gentlemanly tone when he next spoke. 'You're harboring a criminal and a sinner. She pulled you into her web of deceit, didn't she?'
Genevieve edged her way to Adam's side. 'You're the criminal, not me,' she cried out.
He pointed a finger at her. 'Jezebel,' he shouted.
'Just who the hell are you?' Adam demanded. 'And what do you want with Genevieve?'
Ezekiel puffed up like a rooster. He held the lapel of his jacket with one hand and stood poised as though he were having his portrait done.
'I am the Reverend Ezekiel Jones,' he announced importantly. 'And she has something that belongs to me.'
'I don't have anything that belongs to you.'
'God will smite you for lying, girl.'
'How dare you call yourself a preacher. You're nothing but a petty thief.'
'My dear, there isn't anything remotely petty about me.'
He looked at Adam again, feigned an expression of remorse, and said, 'Like the sainted Paul, I too was a sinner before I was shown the light. I want my money back,' he added in a snarl.
'I don't have your money,' she cried out.
Lewis took a step forward. Adam fired into the ground in front of him. Dust flew up into his face, and he jumped back and very nearly knocked Ezekiel off his feet.
The reverend shoved him aside. 'She took over four thousand dollars from me.'
'No,' she insisted. 'I didn't take any of your money.'
'She's lying,' Ezekiel roared.
'Adam, you believe me, don't you?'
'You heard the lady. If she says she didn't take it, then she didn't. Now get out of here before I lose my patience and put a bullet in your pompous backside.'
Ezekiel stood his ground. 'Can't you see how she's blinded you to the truth? She's a jezebel, I tell you, and she'll take you to hell with her if you don't listen to me.'
'Why don't we bring in the law and let the sheriff decide who's telling the truth,' Adam suggested.
'No,' Ezekiel blurted out. 'There isn't any need to involve the law.'
'Is that so?' Adam said.
'My checkered past still haunts me,' Ezekiel confessed. He was trying hard to look contrite and failing miserably. 'Otherwise, I'd run to get the sheriff. As God is my witness, I would.'
'Get out of here,' Adam ordered.
Ezekiel turned away. 'This isn't over,' he hissed.
Lewis tried to go to his friend, who was still unconscious on the floor in the next stall, but Adam wouldn't let him.
'Leave him be and get out,' he ordered.
Ezekiel opened the barn door. 'I'll get you, girl,' he bellowed. 'I know where you're headed, and I'm telling you now, you're never going to get there. Judgment Day is at hand.'
And then he disappeared into the darkness. Lewis chased after him,
Genevieve fell back against the wall in exhaustion and relief.
Adam wouldn't let her relax. 'We have to get out of here before they figure out how easy it would be to ambush us. Hurry, Genevieve. Ah, hell, now what are you doing?'
She had thrown herself into his arms and burst into tears. 'Thank you for believing me.'
He allowed himself a moment to hold her. He squeezed her tight, bent down, and kissed her forehead. Then he pulled away.
'Let's go, sweetheart.'
She wiped the tears away from her face with the back of her hands and stood there smiling up at him with a dazed look in her eyes.
'Now what?' he asked gruffly.
'You called me sweetheart.'
'Yes, I did,' he said. 'Now move it.'
He tried to lift her up into the saddle. She backed away. 'My bedroll,' she explained.
She turned around and picked it up from the corner of the stall where she'd dropped it, but Adam was quicker. He grabbed one end and swung the bedroll up behind the saddle.
Then he froze and watched in disbelief as a hundred-dollar bill slowly floated down from the bedroll to the floor. It landed between his feet.
He stared at it for several seconds and then bent down to pick it up. He didn't say a word to her, and his expression showed only mild curiosity as he turned to look at the bedroll again. Before she realized what he was going to do, he untied the rope holding the bedroll secure and then flipped it open in front of him.
Hundreds of bills poured down like rain on his feet until he was standing in a pyramid of money. He was pretty certain he knew how much was there, but he decided to find out the exact amount anyway.
His gaze slowly moved to hers. 'Four thousand?' he asked quietly.
She shook her head. 'Close to five,' she said. 'Four thousand seven hundred and three dollars, to be exact.'
'Ezekiel's money, I assume.' His voice blazed with anger.
He was so furious with her he could barely speak, yet he couldn't help but notice she didn't look the least bit guilty or contrite. She didn't appear to be at all worried either.
'Care to explain, Genevieve?'
She folded her arms across her waist. 'I didn't steal Ezekiel's money.'
He glanced down at the pile and back up at her. The evidence was damning.
'Adam?'
'What?'
'You will believe me.'
Chapter Ten
From the moment he'd met her, she'd done nothing but lie-or so it seemed-and there was absolutely no
