Free Catch Me by Lorelie Brown Page A

higher up in the mountains.
    Levering up with her cuffed hands on the saddle horn, Maggie stood in her stirrups. The rushing water continued as far as she could see to the south, and at least to the sharp bank to the north.
    “I need my reins,” she said to Collier’s back.
    He and his gelding were a few feet ahead of her, courtesy of her leads being tied to his saddle. He swept his hat off his head and ruffled a hand through his hair. “No, I think it’ll be fine.”
    “Collier, be serious.”
    He set his hat back on his head and tugged the brim down before twisting in his saddle to look at her. “I am. I crossed right around here on the way out. We’ll head up that bank and you’ll see it’s much slower.”
    She shook her head, but didn’t have any choice but to follow when he clucked to his horse and set off. A half mile up the riverbank, they stopped again. The water level looked a little better, but not by much. Though no white frothed, the water rolled swiftly. Trepidation roiled in her belly with almost the same churning speed.
    “Collier, I’m not asking for that much. I’ll still have the handcuffs on.”
    “It’ll be fine.” He untied her leads from his rifle loop and for half a second, Maggie thought he’d come to his senses.
    She should have known better.
    He wrapped the leads around a loose fist, with his own reins. “We’ll be across in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.”
    She was considerably more than half tempted to hop down and walk across. But belly-high water on a horse would be chest high on her. With the handcuffs on her wrists, it’d be even more foolish than the possible trouble she faced mounted on her horse.
    Sandie craned her head back and blinked one glassy brown eye at Maggie. She patted her neck and crooned quietly. “It’ll be okay, darling. Just follow the idiotic man the best you can.”
    “I heard that,” Collier said.
    A deep breath helped her soldier on. “I’ve no doubt of that.”
    At least he let the horses pick their way across the riverbed. Brown water licked at Maggie’s boot heels. Three fourths across, she’d just about decided they’d make it safely when Sandie put a hoof down wrong and stumbled. Maggie lost her seat and slipped to the left. She caught herself with an ankle around the back edge of the saddle.
    Sandie yanked against the reins Collier still held. When she found herself trapped, the poor horse panicked. Whinnying full force, she reared back. The leather reins flew, but Maggie didn’t have a chance in hell at catching them with her hands bound. All she did was slide further off the saddle. She hooked the handcuffs around the saddle horn and wedged her ankle under the back edge of the saddle. The water might not be deep enough to go over her head, but the force would be plenty to drag her down.
    Plus, there was that little problem of not knowing how to swim.
    “Goddamn it, Collier,” she screamed.
    He spit out a curse fouler than any she’d even dreamed of saying, and then there was a loud splash from somewhere to her side. She didn’t dare look. Her blood pounded with fear and her vision went gray. She shook her head to clear it. This was no time to faint.
    Sandie stumbled again, this time going up to her withers in the churning. The water closed over Maggie’s head and burned when she accidentally took a breath.
    Strong hands gripped her hips. He was shouting something, but the words were dandelion fluff on the wind, gone before she could make sense of them. She sputtered and coughed when Sandie found her footing and dragged Maggie up again.
    Collier pried her boot out from its death grip on the saddle and lifted her wrists off the horn. For one terrifying breath she fell free of anything, then he had hold of her once again. She wound her fingers in his soaked shirtfront. Her feet found no purchase—the riverbed was every bit as deep as it had looked from the bank.
    She wrapped one leg about Collier’s hip and dug her nails into his