then ridden off with her, bringing her to this small cabin, where he had
dragged her inside and tied her to a chair. That had been last night, and she hadn’t seen him since.
She still couldn’t believe that Cord was really gone. She had spent the night trying to convince herself that everything that had happened had just been a bad dream. In the morning, she had told herself, she would wake up beside
Cord. She would feel his arms go around her, feel his well-muscled body
press up against hers as he made love to her, feel his mouth linger sweetly on hers before he left to go work out on the ranch.
But she didn’t wake up beside Cord that morning, and she never would again, thanks to that bastard, Dalton Jeffries. Her eyes welled with fresh tears.
She supposed that she had been foolish to think that Dalton would simply
give up on his plan to get Cord’s ranch. If anything, the fact that she and Cord had won it back from him in a poker game had probably only provoked him
into doing something more violent.
But surely, he couldn’t expect to get away with murdering Cord. The hands
had to have seen Dalton’s face, knew he was the one that had shot Cord and grabbed her. The sheriff must have men out looking for them, she thought.
But then she remembered what Cord had said about the sheriff being in
Dalton’s pocket, and any hope of him being arrested quickly evaporated.
If she wanted to make sure that Dalton Jeffries paid for what he had done, then she would have to see to it herself. But how?
Kayla looked around the cabin. It was small with only two rooms - the main room where she sat tied to a chair, and a tiny bedroom in the back. The dirt-smudged window let in little light, but she was able to make out a wood stove in one corner. Next to it, a metal fire poker stood resting against the wall. Her gaze locked on it, and an insane idea suddenly flooded her mind.
She could hide behind the door, poker in hand, she thought, and then when
Dalton Jeffries came in she could hit him with it. But she couldn’t do anything unless she got herself untied. Looking down at her wrists, she gave her bonds an experimental tug. The ropes had been tied tightly, she saw, and getting loose would take some work. But she would do it; she owed Cord that much.
Chewing on her lower lip, she threw a quick glance at the door, and was just about to set to work at trying to wiggle free when she heard Dalton Jeffries’
voice from outside the cabin.
Kayla’s mouth went dry and she gripped the arms of the chair, her heart
hammering in her chest as she stared at the door. Tied to the chair like she was, she could do no more than wait for him to come in.
In the bright sunshine that came streaming through the door when it opened, Dalton Jeffries’ frame was nothing but a silhouette in the doorway for a
moment before he stepped into the cabin and closed the door behind him. He looked even more arrogant and self-assured than he had when she’d seen
him before, if that were possible.
Coming to stand in front of where she sat, he folded his arms across his chest and grinned down at her. “I trust you weren’t too uncomfortable here. I meant to come back sooner, but there were things that needed my attention.”
She glared up at him contemptuously. “Oh, yes. I’m sure that attacking poor defenseless ranchers and their families takes a lot of hard work.”
His lip curled. “Don’t act so self-righteous,” he sneered. “If you hadn’t come into the saloon and cheated me out of what was rightfully mine, then none of this would have been necessary. Holderness would be alive now if you had
just left well enough alone.”
At his words, Kayla opened her mouth to retort, but tears suddenly clogged her throat and she could only swallow hard instead. In front of her, Dalton just chuckled.
“What...what are you going to do with me?” she finally asked.
He shrugged. “That all depends on you,” he told her. “If you play your card right, then I might keep you around. You wanted to marry somebody; why not me?”
She stared at him in disbelief. “You must be out of your mind. I would never marry you!” she spat.
He smirked. “Why not? Cord certainly isn’t around anywmore. And besides,
I’m sure I’m a better fit for you than Cord ever was.”
The thought of marrying Dalton turned her stomach. “Your former wife didn’t seem to think so,” she retorted, well aware that she was provoking him, and not caring if she did.
His face darkened. “What do know about Hannah?”
Kayla met his gaze unflinchingly. “I know that she preferred Cord to you, and that you beat her because of it,” she said. “I also know that she killed herself trying to get away from you.”
“That’s a lie!” he roared, lifting his hand to slap her hard across the face.
The blow snapped her head to the side, and she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out as stinging pain covered her entire cheek. Fighting back tears, she glared up at him.
“You’re not even half the man Cord was,” she sneered.
He stiffened, and she braced herself, thinking that he was going to hit her again. But instead, he reached out and, gripping a handful of her hair, cruelly jerked her head back. Pain so intense ripped through her scalp that she
couldn’t stifle her cry of protest.
“Whether you marry me or not makes no difference to me, you little bitch,” he growled. “But I’m going to take what I want from you
