Outlawed! Read online

  She smiled. “Why, McLeod, I do believe that was a compliment.”

  DELANEY NOTICED the temperature had dropped, making the warm summer evening near perfect. A slight breeze stirred the ponderosas. They shimmered, the color of green silk. She felt oddly at ease riding in the pickup with Cooper. The scent of pine and fresh water from Johnson Gulch Creek grew stronger as they drove, the windows down, a warm wind blowing in.

  She reached over to turn up the country-and-western song on the radio. McLeod tapped his boot in time to the tune. She found herself drumming on the steering wheel and feeling a strange sort of contentment, which surprised her.

  She took the same road they’d taken the night before to look for Digger. And Delaney noticed a change in Cooper the moment she pulled onto the Jeep trail.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, suddenly worried he might know something she didn’t and that was why he’d offered to come along.

  He looked over at her and grinned sheepishly. “Claustrophobia. I can’t stand being in tight places.”

  She laughed, relieved. “Then how can you sleep in that camper?”

  “I don’t.” He met her gaze and held it for a moment. “I sleep outside under the stars unless it’s pouring rain or freezing cold.”

  She raised an eyebrow. Under the stars. “You never cease to amaze me, McLeod,” she said as she pulled off into a clearing and drove up to the top of the ridge.

  Below them Johnson Gulch Creek wound through a small, rocky canyon. The last of the sun rimmed the mountains and turned the horizon to liquid fire. The warmth filled the cab of the pickup.

  “That’s Johnson Gulch Lake,” Delaney said, pointing across Cooper to a place in the creek where the water pooled among the boulders.

  “And Digger’s camp is on up the road not far, right?” he asked.

  She smiled to herself, remembering why she’d brought him along. True, she hadn’t wanted to come alone, but she also trusted McLeod’s instincts. He seemed to notice things other people didn’t. She liked that about him. She told herself she didn’t care that he was a drifter and would be gone before the first snowfall. Or that when she was with him sometimes she felt reckless, as if just being around him was dangerous.

  “You saw Digger today?” Cooper asked as they headed down a path between the rocks to the natural lake. “Is he all right?”

  “He’s better physically.” Delaney bit her lip, almost afraid to repeat Digger’s story for fear the truth was even worse. “His doctor’s worried about him. Digger still thinks his old prospector friend Gus Halbrook tried to kill him and that the space aliens he saw in the lake somehow brought Gus back from the dead.” She glanced over at Cooper, expecting him to laugh.

  “What do you think?” he asked as he walked down the shoreline to a pile of small rocks and sand and bent to inspect them.

  What did she think? “I want to believe that he fell down, hit his head and that in his confusion—” Cooper turned and the afternoon light ricocheted off the water to catch his face in sunlight. He hadn’t shaved for several days and she could see the blond stubble of his beard, rough as the land around them—and just as appealing.

  “Come here,” he said softly.

  His words stirred something she’d buried long ago—desire. She walked toward him, her limbs weak, pulse fast and erratic. When was the last time she’d felt like this around a man? She laughed to herself as she realized the truth. There’d never been another man who tempted her the way Cooper did, who made her want to let go and forget all the reasons he was wrong for her.

  She met his gaze. His eyes, as blue as the summer sky, filled her with sunshine, warming her in places no man had ever been able to touch.

  He looked away first, breaking the spell. The breeze stirred the loose hair at her temples and cooled her skin. She brushed the hair back from her face, chastising herself. Feeling anything for this cowboy was foolish, and she wasn’t a woman who could afford to be foolish. Especially now.

  As she joined him at the edge of the lake, he pointed to a series of indentations in the sand.

  She mocked her racing heart: all he wanted was to show you some tracks in the sand, fool woman. “It almost looks like…giant ducks.”

  Cooper laughed and pushed back his hat. The devil was back in all that blue just dancing up a storm as Cooper settled his gaze on her again.

  “Or swim fins.”

  “Fins?” She did a couple of fast two-steps with the devil, then dragged her gaze away to stare at the tracks. “Why would anyone swim here?” The lake wasn’t large or very deep; this was private property and so near the high mountains the water was ice-cold.

  “You got me.” He glanced over at her, a faint grin playing at his lips.

  He knew his effect on women, she told herself. He knew exactly what he was doing to her and was enjoying her discomfort. She moved away from him, swearing to herself. At herself.

  Cooper picked up a rock and chucked it out into the center of the pool. The waves circled, widening toward them. “Digger said he saw a spaceship floating on the surface, right?”

  Delaney watched the ripples come closer. “What are you getting at, McLeod?”

  “What if Digger is telling the truth? What if he saw something? Just not what he thought he saw. And it put his life in danger?”

  She nodded, remembering that Cooper had suggested this same theory at the hospital. And that very night, someone had tried to kill Digger. Or at least, Digger thought someone had. “After what’s been happening on the ranch, I’m not sure what to believe. But I can’t take a chance with Digger’s life. I asked Jared to put a deputy outside Digger’s hospital room.”

  Delaney walked out on the rocks to the deeper water and scooped up a handful. It felt cold. She splashed a little on her face, chasing away all the crazy thoughts she’d had earlier about Cooper.

  “But what could he have seen that would make someone want to kill him?” she asked. “There haven’t been any accidents up here except Digger getting hurt.”

  “I don’t know,” Cooper said from the shore.

  As she straightened, she spotted an object glistening in the lake a few yards out. “There’s something in the water.” She stepped closer, balancing on the bare boulders that trailed out into the water. A small piece of gray metal was wedged in the rocks. In the metal was a bright blue stone. She moved closer.

  “Here, let me,” Cooper said from the shore. She turned to find him pulling off his boots.

  “I can get it,” she said, stepping to another rock, this one just under the water. Her boot slipped as she leaned out. She tried to catch herself, but the rocks were slippery and she fell headlong into the pool. The icy water made her gasp with shock. She struggled to find her footing in the chest deep water.

  “If you had just waited, I would have gotten it for you,” Cooper said, standing over her, grinning. He’d rolled up his jeans, left his hat and boots on the beach and tiptoed out to balance barefoot on one of the larger rocks.

  She glared up at him, shivering from the icy cold, feeling like a drowned rat, wanting to wipe that smug look off his face.

  “Here, give me your hand,” he said, shaking his head at her.

  She handed him her hat, the felt wet and dripping. Pure stubbornness made her try to climb out over the slippery rocks by herself. After several futile attempts under his knowing grin, she gave up and reached for his hand.

  In that instant, she met Cooper’s gaze and glimpsed a wistfulness she recognized.

  He pulled her up onto the rocks—and straight into his arms. She forgot about the cold water, forgot everything but his touch.

  He groaned softly as he pulled her into him and kissed her.

  She tried to resist at first, pushing against his hard chest with her palms. Then she lost herself completely in his lips, in the sweet gentleness of his kiss, in the heated hunger he tried so hard to contain. When he raised his lips from hers, she found herself trembling as she looked up into his eyes.
>
  Then she felt something that made her heart pound even harder, that made her pulse thunder in her ears. A longing that she thought she recognized. For love. For the kind they wrote songs about. The kind she’d never let herself even dream existed.

  Then Cooper seemed to back off as if he’d made a mistake. He grinned and the devil danced again in his gaze. And she wished she hadn’t enjoyed kissing him, wished she’d never met him.

  “Sorry, boss,” he said with a shrug as he tried to move past her.

  She didn’t even resist the idea for a moment. Her palms were still pressed against his chest, where only moments earlier she had felt his heart beating beneath them. She took her hat with one hand and shoved him with the other. He teetered for a moment on the edge of the boulders, then toppled into the lake.

  She heard him gasp as he hit the icy water, heard him swear, saw him come up dripping wet. “All you had to say is that you didn’t like the kiss.”

  She stomped up the hill to the truck, pretending to look for something dry to put on, using the time to catch her breath, to get her balance again and run down that list of reasons she should keep her distance from Cooper McLeod. He knew damned well she liked his kiss!

  It wasn’t bad enough that the rodeo cowboy was her ranch hand and she his boss, but now he’d sparked something in her that she could feel starting a slow burn. Maybe Jared was right. She needed a man. But not this man, not this cowboy with the killer grin and enough charm to change the weather. Cooper McLeod was nothing but a drifter. She couldn’t let herself forget that. She wasn’t looking for a one-night stand.

  A few moments later Cooper came up to the pickup, wringing wet, still dripping water. “Here, I guess this is what you saw in the water.”

  She turned to find him holding an old handmade spur. He appeared as wet and cold as she felt. She fought a smile. “It looks like an antique,” she said, taking the spur from him.

  The silver had darkened from age and probably years in the water. She rubbed the star sapphire embedded in the shank with her finger. “I’ve seen one like it somewhere,” she said, gazing up at Cooper. “I wonder how long it’s been in the water?”

  “What is the stone?” Cooper asked.

  “A sapphire. They mine them at the Eldorado Bar just down the road. You passed it on your way to the ranch.”

  He nodded distractedly, as if he’d lost interest in the stone. She saw him glance up the creek to where it ran down out of the mountains. She followed his gaze, wondering what he was thinking, that maybe the spur had washed down from the high country?

  “We’d better get back,” she said, still chastising herself for allowing the kiss. For not just allowing it. For wanting it. “About what happened down by the lake. It better not happen again. Do we understand each other?”

  He looked up at her, innocence making his eyes a pale, pale blue in the dying light. “You mean the kiss or you pushing me into the water?”

  She felt her breath catch in her throat as his gaze brushed her lips, sparking the memory of the kiss, of being in his arms, of feeling him pressed against her. He knew. He knew how badly she’d wanted him to kiss her. And he knew the effect he had on her!

  “You know damned well what I mean,” she said as she jerked open the pickup door.

  “That’s too bad,” he said behind her.

  She turned about to make a remark she’d have probably regretted, when suddenly the pickup side window next to her exploded. In the instant it took her to realize that the sound echoing through the canyon was a rifle shot, Cooper McLeod grabbed her and shoved her into the cab of the pickup.

  “Stay here. Keep down,” he barked. And he was gone.

  Chapter Eight

  Delaney lay on the seat, listening. A pine bough creaked in the evening breeze. Overhead, a hawk let out a cry. Silence. Delaney reached up and pulled her rifle down from the rack above her head. Holding it against her chest, she listened for footfalls on the dried ground outside the truck, knowing they could be Cooper’s. Or the person who’d taken a shot at her. Slowly she slipped out of the pickup and crouched beside the truck.

  The sun had disappeared, leaving the mountaintop cloaked in cool evening shade. Delaney looked up at the shattered window. From the angle the bullet had struck the glass, she assumed the shot had come from the other side of the creek.

  But that didn’t mean that whoever had fired it wasn’t now headed this way. She glanced around, wondering where Cooper had gone. Darkness huddled under the pines. The trees swayed in the light breeze throwing shadows onto the forest floor.

  “Damn you, McLeod, where are you?” she whispered.

  Carefully she moved to a stand of pines beyond the pickup to get a better view of the creek and the opposite hillside. She knelt beneath the boughs, alert to any movement. The light had gone out of the day and the water. The lake pooled among the rocks, dark and foreboding. Delaney shivered. From her cold, wet clothing. From fear. She moved closer to the base of the tree, hoping to make herself less of a target. She couldn’t believe someone was trying to kill her. It didn’t make any sense. Ty was the only one who would benefit from her death. But that would also make him the number-one suspect. Was he that foolish, or that desperate, he’d try to kill her for the ranch?

  Delaney glanced down at the ground by her feet. Her heart thundered in her ears as she recognized the tracks. Boot and mule prints. Digger and Tess had stood in this very spot overlooking the lake.

  What had Digger seen? He’d said someone had tried to kill him after he’d spotted space aliens in the lake. And she’d come to investigate, only to have someone take a shot at her. She stared at the lake, which was now bathed in twilight. It looked no different than it ever had to her. No space ships. No aliens. But was she seeing something she didn’t realize was important?

  At the sound of a twig breaking behind her, Delaney spun around, bringing the rifle with her, her finger sliding onto the trigger with practiced speed. But instead of a dangerous killer, she found McLeod in her sights.

  “Whoa!” He held up both hands in surrender. An uneasiness flickered across his face as he realized just how close he’d come to getting himself shot. “Take it easy. It’s only me.”

  Delaney tried to settle her heart down as she slipped her finger from the trigger and fought to still her trembling limbs. “Where have you been?”

  “Chasing whoever shot at you,” he said, sounding a little indignant. “They’re gone.”

  She stepped out of the shelter of the trees and cocked her head at him as a thought struck her. “How do you know the person was shooting at me?”

  “What?”

  He shoved back his hat to stare at her. Even in the dying light she could see the blue of his eyes.

  “You were standing right next to me. Just as you were yesterday before the rock slide. Maybe it’s not me they’re after. Maybe it’s you.”

  COOPER STARED at Delaney as her words sank in. Why hadn’t he thought of that? No one had actually tried to kill her before he came to the ranch. All her trouble had been pretty much incidental and no one had been hurt. Then, within a couple of days, there had been two attempts on her life. Or had there?

  He rubbed his thigh, remembering the searing pain of the bullet when it tore through his flesh after the last job had gone bad. He’d just assumed he’d been shot by an angry rancher. Now he wasn’t so sure. The incident had never been investigated. Rattlesnake Range had seen to that, just as it had found a doctor who wouldn’t report the gunshot wound.

  He looked up at Delaney and didn’t like what he recognized in her eyes. Suspicion. Fear. Two things he couldn’t afford if he hoped to keep her confidence.

  “Why would anyone want to kill me?” he asked. “I don’t have anything. And I’ve always tried real hard not to make enemies.” He gave her his best innocent look, but all the time his heart was pounding and his brain racing. Why would anyone want to kill him? And who? He figured it would only be someone from an old job. Or this job.
Or…someone from Rattlesnake Range set on seeing he took early retirement. But why? “No one’s burned my barn,” he added.

  “That could be because you don’t have a barn, McLeod.”

  “Exactly.”

  Delaney shook her head at him. “But I’m sure there’s a woman out there somewhere who’d like to have you in her sights right now.”

  He laughed softly. “I do my level best to leave women happy.” He gave her a shrug and a grin. “So far I haven’t had any complaints.”

  Delaney swore under her breath and headed for the pickup, the rifle riding easily in the crook of her arm. “I don’t know about you, McLeod. But you’d better be telling me the truth.”

  The truth? He didn’t even know what that was anymore. But if she found out that he was in any way connected with Rattlesnake Range…And worse yet if she found out about the rest of his past.

  “Stay there,” she called over her shoulder. “I want to show you something.”

  She came back with a flashlight and shone the beam on the ground by the pines. “The tracks are fresh—in the past couple of days. And they have to be Digger’s and Tess’s.”

  Cooper leaned down and ran his fingers along the impressions in the dirt. “You’re right,” he said after a moment. “And look at these,” he said, following the tracks away from the tree. I’d say Tess was balking. See how she dug in?”

  “You mean as if she was scared?” She shook her head at him as he got to his feet. “McLeod, you amaze me,” she said. “I can’t help wondering why you’re so perceptive. If I didn’t know better I’d suspect you were either running from the law—or maybe were the law himself.”

  Cooper gave her a shrug. “I just notice things.” He grinned. “Like your hair. It’s the same color as obsidian in sunlight. And your eyes. They’re like late-summer thunderstorms, dark, dangerous, mesmerizing.”

  She laughed and shook her head as she headed for the pickup. “I take it back. I’m more amazed that someone hasn’t shot you.”

  He sighed, relieved to see that they were back on their usual footing. He’d deflected her curiosity about him. For the time being anyway.