Wyatt had nodded numbly, thinking that the cowboy’s plan worked out perfectly for his own plan. They’d ridden for a way with the others and then cut off through the pines to ride up almost to the camp. It had been T.D.’s idea to let his horse go into camp as a decoy. The man wasn’t stupid. He knew Jinx was expecting the attack.
Wyatt had hung back but kept his eye on T.D.
Now he stood some yards away. The rifle was getting heavy. He didn’t know how much longer he could wait to take a shot. Worse, he thought he’d heard a helicopter in the distance.
When he’d lowered the rifle, then lifted it again, he’d been shocked to see that Jinx had almost gotten away from T.D. The rifle wavered in his hands. Surely he hadn’t missed his chance at a clean shot.
He fought now to get the crosshairs on her. T.D. had his arm around her neck and a pistol to her head. What the hell? Was he only threatening her? He couldn’t believe that this situation might solve itself. If T.D. killed Jinx, he wouldn’t have to and yet he could take credit when he saw Patty. T.D. would be going to prison...
Wyatt felt a surge of hope that everything might work out for him. But T.D. had to pull that trigger. He watched as Jinx tried to fight him off. Any moment the wranglers working for her would be coming. What was T.D. thinking, taking this risk? Shoot her!
Couldn’t the man feel time running out? It struck him that T.D. was crazy. He always had been, but lately he’d been getting worse. He was going to get them all thrown in jail—if not killed.
As he watched through the scope, Wyatt realized that T.D. wasn’t going to shoot her. If Jinx was going to die, it would be up to Wyatt to finish this and soon. He’d missed a good shot earlier when he’d lowered the rifle for even a moment and was now mentally kicking himself. This could already be over. He could have killed Jinx.
The rifle wavered in his arms, the crosshairs going from Jinx’s face to T.D.’s as the two kept moving around. Wyatt thought of how disappointed Patty would be if he didn’t do what had to be done. How disappointed he would be in himself because any hope he had of ever being with Patty would be gone.
Not that T.D. stood a chance now of ever getting Jinx back—and freeing Patty. Hadn’t Wyatt been hoping that his friend would return to Jinx and break it off with Patty for good? He could have seen himself comforting the brokenhearted Patty. He’d seen it as a chance to win the woman’s heart.
But now it was clear that Jinx was never going back to T.D.—not after this. T.D. had blown any chance he had by following her up here into the mountains. Not that it seemed he stood a chance anyway since now there was a wrangler in the mix. Jinx had moved on—and damned quickly, if he said so himself. Patty thought she had to get rid of Jinx to get T.D. back. Jinx was already long gone.
Through the rifle scope he tried to get a shot at Jinx. T.D. wasn’t going to pull the trigger. Instead, his friend seemed to be looking back up the mountain. For a moment Wyatt feared that he’d seen him and almost lowered the rifle. No, T.D. must have heard some of the others coming. Time had run out.
He put the crosshairs on Jinx’s red head and assured himself that no one would know who fired the fatal shot. T.D. would be blamed for all of it—not that he wouldn’t probably get away with it, just as he had all of their lives. He’d dragged them up on this mountain, gotten him and Travis in trouble, and T.D. would somehow shift the blame.
If T.D. shot Jinx he’d go to prison and Patty would be free. But even as he thought it, Wyatt knew the man didn’t have what it took to pull the trigger.
Wyatt settled the crosshairs on Jinx as the sun caught in her red hair. “This is for you, Patty.”
AS DAWN BROKE over the mountains, Angus followed the drag marks down the mountain at a run, his pistol drawn, his heart racing. He had to find Jinx.
He came to a sliding stop as he saw them—and they saw him. T.D. pulled her out of the darkness of a large pine, using Jinx like a human shield. She was gagged and from what he could see, her hands seemed to be bound behind her. Her coat was open, along with her shirt, her bare breasts covered by her long hair.
T.D. had a gun to her head and was grinning as he locked his free arm around her neck, pulling her back against him. “Drop your gun or I’ll kill her right now,” he ordered. “I wouldn’t try me on this.”
Angus could see the fear in Jinx’s face, but suspected that it was more for him than for herself. He felt his finger on the trigger, the barrel pointed at T.D.’s head. But it was a shot he knew he couldn’t take.
He thought about what to do as he considered his options. They were limited. He could rush the two of them and hope for the best. There was a desperation in T.D.’s expression. He looked nervous, like a trapped animal, and that made him even more dangerous. The man knew that he’d never get out of this, not this time. Brick had been shot. Royce was dead. T.D. would have heard the gunfire.
What Angus feared was that the man would panic and shoot Jinx if he didn’t drop his gun. He slowly lowered his pistol to the ground, knowing that there was nothing stopping T.D. from shooting him.
But Angus was ready. If T.D. even
