She licked her dry lips.
Eyes like green crystal followed the tip of her tongue.
«Are they falling back?» she asked hopefully.
«No.»
Her mouth curved down. «I guess those Tennessee horses are tougher than you thought.»
«We’re not in the desert yet.»
Eve made a startled sound and looked at the surrounding land. They were riding down a long, troughlike valley that was bracketed for its entire length by two flat-topped ridges. So little vegetation grew on the ridges that their layered stone bodies showed clearly through the scattered brush and pinon. As a result, the ridges took on a dappled sandy color that owed more to stone than to plants.
«Are you sure we aren’t in the desert?» Eve asked. «It’s so dry.»
Reno looked at her in disbelief.
«Dry? What do you think that is?» he demanded, pointing.
She looked beyond his hand. Winding down the center of the valley was a ribbon of water that was more brown than blue, and so narrow a horse would have to work to get all four feet wet at the same time when crossing it.
«That,» Eve said, «is a poor excuse for a creek. More sand than water.»
With a wry grin, Reno took off his hat, wiped his forehead on his sleeve, and resettled his hat.
«By the time you see that much water again, you’ll think it’s God’s own river,» he promised.
Dubiously Eve looked at the thin, dirty ribbon of water coiling through the dry valley.
«Really?» she asked.
«If we find the shortcut, yes. Otherwise, we’ll see a river that owes more to hell than to God.»
«Rio Colorado?»
Reno nodded. «I’ve known a lot of men who like wild country, but I’ve never known a man to cross the Colorado where it runs through the bottom of the stone maze, and come back to tell the tale.»
A sideways glance at Reno convinced Eve that he wasn’t teasing her. But then, it was too hot and dusty for anyone to have any energy left for teasing.
Even Reno was feeling the heat. The sleeves of his faded blue chambray shirt were rolled up, and the collar was open for several buttons. Sweat glittered like tiny diamonds in the thicket of black hair revealed by the half- undone shirt. Three days on the trail had left a thick, black stubble of beard that made his smile savage rather than reassuring.
No one looking at Reno now would have been misled into thinking him anything but what he was — a hard man with a reputation for coming out on the winning end of gunfights.
Yet despite Reno’s threatening appearance and the currents of sensual tension that coiled invisibly between herself and him, Eve had never slept more securely than she had in the past few days.
For the first time since she could remember, she was not the one who had to sleep lightly, listening for every noise, ready to grab whatever weapon was at hand and defend those who were weaker than she was from whatever predator was prowling the night beyond the campfire or cheap hotel room.
Being able to depend on someone else was such a simple thing, yet the realization that she could depend on Reno kept rippling through Eve like currents through a river, changing old certainties.
Reno saw Eve take in a breath and let it out, then do it again as though breathing deeply were a luxury.
«Looks like the thought of going dry doesn’t bother you,» he said.
«What? Oh.» She smiled slightly. «It’s not that. I was just thinking how nice it is to sleep through the night without worrying.»
«About what?»
«About a bully or a lecher trapping one of the younger kids in bed at the orphanage, or about outlaws stumbling over the Lyons’ campsite.» Eve shrugged. «That sort of thing.»
Reno frowned. «Did much of that happen?»
«Bullies and lechers?»
He nodded curtly.
«They learned to leave me alone after a while. But the younger kids…» Eve’s voice faded. «I did what I could. It was never enough.»
«Was old man Lyon a lecher?»
«Not at all. He was kind and gentle, but…»
«Not much good in a fight,» Reno said, finishing Eve’s sentence.
«I didn’t expect him to be.»
Reno’s eyes narrowed in surprise. «Why? Was he a coward?»
It was Eve’s turn to be surprised.
«No. He was simply kind. He wasn’t as quick or hard or strong or mean as most men are. He was too… civilized.»
«He should have lived back East,» Reno muttered.
«He did. But when his hands started slowing down, and Donna was too old to distract men with her looks, they had to come to the West. People out here were more easily entertained.»
«Especially once they bought you off the orphan train and taught you to ‘distract’ the men and deal the cards,» Reno said roughly.
Eve’s mouth thinned, but there was no point in denying it.
«Yes,» she said. «They lived much better after they had me.»
Reno’s expression told Eve that he had little sympathy to spare for the Lyons’ difficulty in making a living.
She hesitated, then spoke again, trying to make him understand that the Lyons hadn’t been vicious or cruel to her.
«I didn’t like what they made me do,» Eve said slowly, «but it was better than the orphanage. The Lyons were kind.»
«There’s a word for men like Don Lyon, and it sure as hell isn’tkind.»
Reno lifted the reins and cantered on ahead before Eve could answer. He didn’t trust himself to listen to her defending her whoremaster.
He was kind and gentle.
Yet no matter how quickly Reno rode, he couldn’t leave behind the sound of Eve’s voice, for it echoed within the angry silence of his mind.
They lived much better after they had me.
I didn’t like what they made me do.
He was kind.
The thought of Eve being so lonely that she welcomed the smallest crumbs of human decency and called it kindness disturbed Reno in ways that he couldn’t name. He could only accept them as he accepted other things he didn’t understand, such as his desire to protect a saloon girl who had been carefully taught to lie, cheat, and «distract» men.
A girl who trusted him so much that she had slept better in the past few days than she had in years.
I was just thinking how nice it is to sleep through the night without worrying.
Reno knew the thought of giving the girl from the Gold Dust saloon that kind of peace shouldn’t touch him.
But it did.
THE mountains receded behind Reno and Eve like a cool blue tide, leaving nothing but the memory of heights where water danced in crystal beauty and trees crowded so closely together that a horse couldn’t walk between. There was plenty of room for horses in the dry washes and on the spare plateau tops where the two of them rode now. There was nothing but room for miles and miles.
«Look!» Eve said.
As she spoke, she reached across the small space between her horse and Reno’s, grabbed his right arm, and pointed.
