Dalton Jeffries could be doing to Kayla even now came to mind unbidden,
and he knew without a doubt that he would kill Jeffries if the man so much as touched her.
Kayla bit her lip to stifle a cry of pain as the rope bit into her tender skin as she struggled to work her wrist out from under it. Just a little bit more, she thought as she slowly wriggled her right hand beneath the ropes, and she
would...have...it!
Yes!
Her fingers tingled as blood rushed back into her hand, and she couldn’t help the small giggle of glee that escaped her lips as she went to work on the other wrist. That one was much easier to untie now that she could use her other
hand, and she was free within seconds. Rubbing each of her wrists in turn, she got to her feet and looked around the small cabin. She had thought that the only way out of there would be the door, and she was relieved to find a shuttered window on the back wall of the bedroom. Ignoring the stiffness in her limbs, she walked around the chair and hurried over to it.
Prudence took over from that point, however, as she reminded herself that
Dalton and his men could be anywhere outside the cabin. With that in mind, she slowly opened the shutter and carefully peered outside.
To her relief, no one seemed to be around. But that didn’t mean that Dalton or his men weren’t somewhere nearby, which meant that she still had to use
caution.
Since the window was too high for her to climb out of easily, she first had to move an old crate in front of it so that she use it as a step. Gripping the window’s edge, she awkwardly climbed through the opening to land in a heap on the thick grass outside the cabin.
Unable to believe that she had actual y made it this far, she stood for a
moment, expecting Dalton Jeffries to come around the corner and pounce on
her. But he didn’t, and she suddenly realized that the longer she stood there, the better her chances were of being discovered.
Taking a deep breath, she slowly edged along the wall of the cabin and
peered around the corner. She could hear the low murmur of voices coming
from somewhere, but couldn’t see anyone. She could see the horses in the
makeshift corral, though, and she just hoped that the men wouldn’t be able to see her before she got to the animals.
Nervously chewing on her lower lip, she slowly made her way over to where
the horses stood. They snorted and stamped as she came near, and she
jerked her head toward the front of the cabin, fearing that Dalton and his men would come running, but they didn’t. She chose the horse that was closest to her and took hold of its reins, climbing into the saddle. Nudging the animal with her heels, she turned the horse around and galloped out of the corral and away from the cabin.
Her escape did not go unnoticed, however, and she heard shouting behind
her almost immediately as Dalton and his men realized what was happening.
Throwing a quick look over her shoulder, she saw that they had mounted the remaining horses and were now chasing her.
She refused to let herself panic. She had a pretty good head start on them, so all she had to do was keep ahead of them. With that in mind, Kayla leaned
over her horse’s neck and urged her mount faster. Without knowing where
she was, she real y had no idea where she was going, but she suspected that Dalton would have taken her to his ranch, so she kept the sun on her right and headed south, hoping that she would get to Cord’s ranch or someplace
she recognized before they caught up with her.
The sooner the better, she thought, glancing over her shoulder again. Her
pursuers had cut into her lead faster than she would have thought they could.
They were still a ways back, but gaining on her. She kicked her horse harder and rode as fast as she could. After a few minutes, she looked back again, and almost cried out as she realized that not only had she not increased her lead, but that they were even closer to her. If she didn’t reach safety quickly, then they would almost certainly catch up with her in a few more minutes.
Then suddenly, she saw something that she recognized! The gorge that she
had almost ridden down the day Cord had taken her on a picnic. That meant
she was already on Cord’s property, she realized with relief. But another
quick look over her shoulder told her that Dalton wasn’t about to give up the chase simply because she was on the ranch.
Which meant that she had to get to the ranch house and to Cord as quickly as possible. And that meant riding down the gorge.
With Cord’s warning echoing in her ears, Kayla gripped the reins tighter and rode straight for the gorge that had killed Dalton’s wife.
The quickest way to Jeffries’ ranch was across Cord’s own, and he was just racing across the valley between the two when he saw a horse and rider at
the top of the gorge. He frowned, not recognizing the rider at first, but then he saw long hair whipping in the wind and the rider’s petite form, and he knew it could only be Kayla.
For a moment, he couldn’t breathe. She was going to try to ride down the
gorge, he realized. The little idiot! he thought. What the hell was she thinking?
When he got his hands on her, he was going to put her over his knee and
paddle her bottom so hard that she wouldn’t be able to sit for days! After he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, of course.
Cord’s heart was in his throat as he watched Kayla maneuver her horse down the rocky
