Tamsin's thoroughbred was still running hard at daybreak when Ash reined him in and switched to Shiloh's back. With an inner hunger that food wouldn't quell, he knew that it was too late to search for tracks. Either he'd guessed right and Cannon was headed for his uncle's or he'd lost them entirely.
Lost her forever.
The trail he'd followed since he'd left Sweetwater had become fainter and fainter, ending in the charred remains of a house, burned out like his own hopes.
For hours Ash had tried to think of a rational plan to get Tamsin away from Cannon without putting her life in jeopardy. So far, he had none. All he could think was that if he'd been with her when Jack came to break Boone out of the county jail, Jack would be dead and the young deputy alive. Most of all, Tamsin would be safe.
He'd made the wrong choice when he'd decided to follow Henry, and guilt plagued him with the throbbing agony of a broken tooth. He'd sworn to take care of Tamsin, and he'd let her down as much as he had Becky. If he didn't get Tamsin back alive… But that wasn't a possibility he could let himself consider.
It seemed that he'd been a loner most of his life, grasping at something shining and having it slip away… his daddy's hand… Aunt Jane's warm kitchen… the acres he'd cut out of raw Colorado land. He'd never wanted much, a sense of justice and a place to share with someone who cared whether or not he came home at night.
He'd let rigid duty and an old code keep him from seeing that Tamsin MacGreggor glittered brightest until she'd slipped through his fingers.
Circling ahead of Cannon's gang and arriving at Leon's first would give Ash an advantage. When he'd gone there before, he'd stuffed the chimney so that if they lit a fire, the house would fill with smoke.
That idea was no longer an option. Jack held Tamsin hostage. Ash couldn't let them reach the cabin. Cannon wouldn't hesitate to trade Tamsin's life for his own. Worse, he might kill her out of pure spite if he found out who was chasing him.
The odds were still in Jack's favor. Walker had seen four outlaws, but Ash wasn't sure that there hadn't been another. In three of his earlier robberies, Jack had put a shooter on a high spot. And Jack Cannon was a man who liked to perfect a scheme and stay with it.
By midmorning, both of Ash's horses were thirsty and showing the effects of a hard ride. He stopped long enough to let them drink the contents of the two canteens he'd brought with him, saving none for himself. When they finished, he remounted and rode until the sun was high overhead.
When he topped a high bluff, he edged the horses into the shade of a grove of pines and used his spyglass to search the valley.
Far below he saw four horses and riders following a game trail. One animal carried double. Ash's heart leapt in his chest. Tamsin was alive, and he had time to right the wrong he'd done her.
He scanned ahead of the leader, then right and left, hunting for a scout. He located the fifth man, his horse plainly played out, lagging several hundred yards behind the others.
Ash stroked Shiloh's sweaty neck and murmured to him softly. The roan's sides were damp, and he was breathing hard. Tamsin's stud was fresher, but the route Ash figured to take down this ridge hill was fit more for mountain goats than horses. When push came to shove, he had to put more trust in the stocky gelding's agility than in the racehorse's speed.
An hour later, still riding Shiloh, Ash got within range of the fifth gunman. "Stand," Ash ordered the weary horse as he slid his rifle from its sheath.
"Lord, forgive me," he whispered. He took careful aim, leading his target, and squeezed off a perfect shot. The crack was still echoing through the valley when the pistolero dropped.
Tamsin clung to the outlaw in an exhausted daze. She'd ridden all night and into the day without a drop of water or a morsel of food. Jack had slapped her hard enough to make her ears ring when she hadn't dismounted fast enough a few hours back.
When his horse had begun to tire from carrying two, he'd ordered her up behind Billy, a man cut from the same devil mold. Billy never spoke a single word to her, but his flat amber eyes watched her from a compassion-less face. Touching the desperado, putting her arms around his waist, made her skin crawl.
Each hour took her closer to nightfall, a time when she knew Jack would call a halt to his ride. And if Ash didn't come before then, Jack had promised her that he would have her in every way that a man could violate a woman.
And he had promised the others that they could use her in turn…
So Tamsin had watched and waited as her strength slipped away, knowing that if she made her move too soon, she would pay the ultimate price.
She had no doubt that Ash would come after her. She knew it in every drop of blood, in her bones, and in the far corners of her soul.
If only he didn't come too late.
The sound of the rifle shot wrenched Tamsin from her trance. She released her grip on the bandit's waist, slid off the horse's rump, and hit the ground running.
Billy cursed and yanked his horse away.
"Catch her!" Jack yelled.
Bullets whined past her head, but she didn't stop. Without looking back, she dived into a clump of thick brush and clawed her way through the tangle.
Jack shouted and Boone laughed. Horses snorted and spurs jingled as one of them leapt out of the saddle mount and tried to force his way into the bushes after her.
Briars tore at Tamsin's hair and clothes, but she pressed on, heedless of the pain. A pistol fired again, behind her.
Something stung her arm, and she cried out as the force knocked her down. Shocked, she realized that she'd been hit. Blood soaked her sleeve, but strangely, she felt numbness rather than pain.
She got up and staggered out the far side of the thicket. Shielded by scrub pines from her pursuers, she dashed down a narrow, rocky ravine.
"Get her, you fools!" Jack yelled.
Sparks of color spiraled in front of Tamsin's eyes. The ground beneath her feet seemed to be shifting, and sounds echoed in her head. She kept running, dodging from one clump of cover to another.
Ash heard the shots and turned Shiloh loose. Leaping into Dancer's saddle, he whipped the bay stallion into a flat-out run.
Tamsin had made it as far as a gully that cut into the wooded hillside. Ash reined the stud to a trot as he zigzagged through the stunted pines, dodging boulders and leaping rocks and fallen logs.
"Ash!" He could tell from Tamsin's scream that she was still running, but hopelessness rang in every shrill note.
"Where do you think you're goin', bitch?"
The hard thud of a man's fist hitting human flesh followed.
Tamsin gasped in pain, then began to sob.
A few yards away, another man uttered a scornful guffaw. "Save a little for me, Billy."
Ash heard cloth rip.
Tamsin's shriek of fear sliced through him.
The stallion burst through the cover of trees into the glaring sunlight. Ash saw Tamsin on the ground ahead, struggling with a man while another jeered and urged his partner on.
The startled forajido slapped leather, but Ash shot him full in the chest before his pistol had cleared the holster.
Tamsin's assailant let go of her and went for his own Colt. Ash jacked another shell into the rifle chamber, but didn't fire for fear of hitting Tamsin. Fiercely, she clung to her assailant's arm, spoiling his aim.
The first shot went wild, almost shattering Ash's rifle stock and sending chips of wood and metal flying. Ash felt the sting of a dozen hornets, but it took all his skill and concentration to stay in the saddle as the squealing stallion fought the bit and reared.
Ash launched himself out of the saddle. He hit the earth and rolled, coming up on his feet to see Tamsin clinging like a burr to the outlaw's back.
Dancer plunged past, and his left rear hoof caught Cannon's man in the knee. He staggered back just as Ash drove his fist into the man's midsection.
Tamsin fell as Ash's opponent whipped his pistol up. Powder and heat scorched Ash's cheek, but he came in hard with a strong right fist.
It caught the pistolero on the chin and dropped him like a poleaxed steer. Spooked by the pain and gunfire, the bay horse bolted away down the draw.
Tamsin sat white-faced and breathless, holding her bleeding upper arm. "It's not my fault. I didn't go with them-"
"Come on!" he said, grabbing the fallen bandit's pistol. "Before the reinforcements get here."
He slipped an arm around her and helped her up. She leaned against him, struggling to stay on her feet.
The gunman was regaining consciousness. Ash knew that he should kill him. He lifted the weapon, but was stopped by the frightened look in Tamsin's eyes.
"That's murder," she said.
With an oath, Ash lowered his aim, putting a bullet into the fallen killer's injured knee. "Does that suit you, woman?"
She turned her face away. "I'm all right. I can walk."
"Like hell." Gathering her in his arms, he plunged into the trees, ran a hundred yards, then stopped. Sitting her down, he pushed her to the ground and crouched over her, protecting her with his body. "Don't make a sound," he whispered.
Two horses trotted up the ravine and stopped. The rock walls echoed with curses.
"Jack! Carlos is dead!" Ash would have bet his daddy's spurs it was Boone's voice.
Ash had heard the story that Jack Cannon had tried to hang his brother Boone when the two were boys. Whatever the reason, Boone spoke in a harsh rasp.
A volley of shots peppered the trees.
"Save your ammunition!"
Ash wondered if that was Jack. It had been years since he'd heard the outlaw speak, and he couldn't be sure. He leaned close to Tamsin's ear. "There were five of them, weren't there?"
She nodded, trembling under him like a wounded bird. "Jack, his brother, and Carlos. You shot Carlos."
"I killed two of them. Who was the fifth man, the one whose horse went lame?"
"I don't know. I never heard them call him by name." She shuddered. "The other one-the one who tried to rape me. He's Billy."
"You should have let me finish him when we had the chance."
She drew in a ragged breath. "That would make you as bad as him."
"It might make me alive."
Her lower lip quivered. "Jack said he was going to do things to me…" She jammed a hand against her mouth to keep from crying. "I didn't think you'd come in time."
"You're all right. I have you." Tamsin's hair was tangled with twigs and leaves, but beneath the dust, she still smelled as sweet as he remembered.
Alone, he would have gone after the remaining three, but with Tamsin to worry about, it seemed wiser to run.
She twisted to look up at him. "I didn't want to go with them. They threatened to kill me."
He nodded. "I guessed as much."
"You did?"
"Shhh, darlin'." He allowed himself to touch her cheek for just an instant. "I'm going to get you out of here in one piece, but you've got to help me."
"There's tracks from a single horse," Boone called.
"Just one animal?"
"That's all I see, Jack."
"You asshole! If there's only one horse, then there's only one shooter. Find him!"
Black hatred thickened Ash's throat, and he forced back the killing rage. When it came to besting human vermin like the Cannons, anger was a man's worst enemy. Ash knew he needed to use his wits. The odds were three to two, and Tamsin was weak from loss of blood. Jack was a crack shot. Given half a chance, he would kill them both.
Ash grabbed Tamsin and ran uphill, not stopping until he was out of breath. Then he drew her down into a hollow behind a rock. "Keep your head low," he told her. "I'm going to get us a mount."
She clung to him. "Don't go," she said. "Dancer will find me."
Ash brushed her mouth with his. "You're hurt, darlin'. You need to lay still and let me worry about Cannon."
"But Dancer-"
"He's scared. We can't wait for him to lead them to us." He ripped off his scarf and bound it around her arm. "It looks bad, but I think the bullet missed the bone."
"No. Don't go. They'll kill you."
"Be brave a little longer, darlin'. We can't get out of here without a horse."
"Promise me you won't let them catch me?"
He tilted her chin and looked into her eyes as icy dread seeped through his gut. "Did they abuse you?"
She shook her head. "A slap or two, nothing more."
"It doesn't matter. You can tell me the truth."
"I am telling the truth, you idiot," she snapped at him. "You stopped them." Tears filled her eyes. "I'd rather be dead than have those monsters-"
"Alive is better, woman. Always choose life. But it won't come to that. I swear to you." He stood up. "Wait here, and don't make a sound."
"Don't leave me."
"I'll be within earshot. You just call out if you need me."
Pistol ready, Ash moved from tree to tree, scanning the forest for any sign of movement. The shooting had stopped, and he could no longer hear voices below.
He'd turned Shiloh loose after he'd killed the first of Jack's gang with the rifle. The gelding wouldn't roam far, but the trick was to get him before Cannon's boys did.
He needed to get Tamsin safely away to wash her arm before it swelled with infection. And he needed to finish off Jack and his two remaining accomplices. If he didn't, he knew Cannon would track them down.
Maybe Tamsin was right, he thought. He should have brought along a posse. Maybe, for once, he'd bitten off more than he could chew.