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Jesse dug his fingers into her hair, holding her head in place. “He’ll never love you like I do, Alex. No one will. Let me show you. Just give me a chance to make you happy.”
He kissed her before she could say another word and hope sprang into every ounce of his soul when her arms slid around his neck and she kissed him back as if she meant it. Time stood still as she pushed him back to the ground, her kisses becoming more forceful, her hands sliding over his shoulders, his arms, then back up again.
She broke the kiss for air and looked down at him. “If I say yes, you can’t go back on your word and try to divorce me the minute I make you mad.”
He grinned. “As long as you agree to any form of punishment I feel necessary if you put that tiny fist to my head again.”
Her mouth opened as if to speak but the grass above his head rustled. Alex looked up, her eyes widening before she gasped and sat up.
He followed her into a sitting position and tried to look behind them but pain shattered across the back of his skull, light so bright flashing inside his head he felt blinded by it. Alex screaming his name was the last thing he heard before everything went black.
Twenty-Two
Alex reachedfor Jesse as he fell backward but was jerked to her feet before she could get a grip on the front of his shirt.
She could hear someone screaming as she was dragged away and it wasn’t until the light of the campfire came into view that she realize it was her making all the noise.
Whoever had hold of her jerked her to a stop so violently she bit her tongue. The coppery tang of blood filled her mouth as she noticed the cowboys her father hired all stood near the fire watching her with wide eyes.
“You’re gonna break her you keep slinging her around like that.”
The voice wasn’t familiar. Alex peered into the darkness, trying to see who had spoken but lost interest when she saw Isaac.
He was on the ground, slumped against one of the wheels on the chuck wagon, a thick trail of blood traveling from his hairline down the front of his face. Ben stood on one side of him and Owen kneeled on the other, worry and fear stretched across his bony features. It took long, precious minutes to get a hold of her senses.
Something was very wrong here. There were strange men gathered near the fire. Her gaze landed on every face, memorizing what she could in the dark when movement near the back of the wagon caught her attention. A man stepped around the corner, an apple to his mouth as he took a bite. When she locked eyes with him, the shock was dizzying.
He wiped juice from his mouth and stood there, eating his apple to the core as he stared at her. When he finished, he tossed what was left away and crossed the distance to where she stood. “You have no idea how much I wished to see you again.”
Alex glanced at those near the fire and recognition came as she looked at each face again. She swallowed the lump forming in her throat and willed her stomach contents to stay in place.
She would have preferred the Indians Jesse had teased her about to this bunch. The highwaymen who robbed the stagecoach were gathered around their campfire, eating their food, the blonde haired leader—Jack, they’d called him—as menacing now as he was all those weeks ago when he stuck a gun barrel against her nose.
How long had they been trailing them?
Long enough to be taking their food when they weren’t looking. Isaac wasn’t losing his mind. Their supplies were running low, just as he said they were.
Lewis walked into the firelight, the smug look on his face letting her know instantly these bandits finding them wasn’t dumb luck. Are these men the reason Lewis always came up missing? Had he been meeting with them all along? Was he part of their gang?
“What’s going on here?” she asked, looking from Jack to Lewis.
“Isn’t it obvious, sweet thing?” Lewis laughed, then spit a stream of tobacco juice to the ground near his feet. “This little outfit is now under new management.”
Her palms started to sweat when Lewis’ men laughed. “How long have you been planning this?”
“Since your pa put up those notices looking for men to come along on his cattle drive.”
They’d been planning this for months? She looked from one face to the other before landing on Jack. He still stood facing her, the look on his face unreadable.
She hated the fact she’d once thought him handsome. He was the devil in disguise and only Lord knew what he meant to do with them.
Looking to Isaac, she nodded her head in his direction. “Did you kill him?”
Jack sighed as if bored and turned to the fire. “He’ll live. Although, he won’t enjoy that headache when he wakes.” He turned back to face her, the glow from the fire lighting him in a ring of bright orange and white. “Neither will your new husband. That is if he wakes at all.”
Lewis laughed again. “I did hit him awfully hard.”
Alex tried to look back to where Jesse lay but the man holding her—Silas was his name if she remembered correctly—hadn’t loosened his grip yet. She glanced at him over her shoulder and jerked in his arms. “Let me go.”
