Texas-Sized Secrets by Elle James

Author:Elle James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2008-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Reed raced after Mona, placing his body and horse directly behind her, hoping the bullets flying toward them wouldn’t knock the woman from her horse. He prayed the storm would hold off until they could find a safe place to hide. His prayers went unanswered. Rain pelted him as his horse picked up speed, galloping across the open prairie toward the maze of canyon walls.

They skirted the pen of cattle, headed into the twisting, turning paths that led into the gorge.

His horse stumbled on the rocky ground, terrain four-wheelers could negotiate just as easily, if not better. A horse could break a leg or rear up and dump its rider on the ground, injuring both Mona and her baby or leaving them vulnerable to the thieves.

His pulse hammering against his temples, Reed raced at a breakneck speed following the brave woman ahead of him.

When she made a sharp turn into what looked like a dead-end ravine, he almost shouted out his frustration. They’d be trapped. And then what? Would the thieves kill them to keep their identity a secret? Or post an armed guard until they were finished loading the cattle?

Reed wasn’t taking any chances on the former. The latter option he could handle. A herd of cattle wasn’t worth Mona’s life, or the baby’s. They should have stayed back at the ranch and waited until the rustlers had taken the cattle, then called the state police to stop the truck. Surely the electricity would have come back on within minutes. If not, they could have gone into town and used the computers at the library the next day to track the cattle.

His hindsight wasn’t doing him any good at this point, when all his focus was needed to negotiate the darkened trail only lit with increasing intensity by the storm swirling overhead.

The trail narrowed into a rocky ravine fit only for agile animals, not four-wheelers. When he emerged at the top, Reed looked back. In the meager lightening flashes, he could see three foolish bikers careening up the pass after them. One of them flipped, the four-wheeler tumbling over the top of him and back down the steep draw, just missing the last one coming up.

“Come on!” Mona called out. She raced her horse across a flat plateau that led to another ravine snaking upward to the top of the canyon. At the base of the ravine, she dropped out of her saddle and slapped the horse’s behind, sending him up the trail riderless. Then she ran toward the bluffs, disappearing into the shadows.

Reed swung out of his saddle, grabbed the rifle from the scabbard and slapped his horse’s flanks. Startled by the slap, the gelding bucked forward and followed the mare up the ravine.

As Reed dived for the shadows, the two four-wheelers leaped over the edge and onto the plateau.

One rider paused, racing his engine, then he turned in a slow circle panning the flat area, searching for his quarry.

When the light turned in Reed’s direction, he hugged the ground, lying across his rifle, closing his eyes to avoid any glare off metal or pupils.

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