Free Badge and a Saddle (Heroes in the Saddle Book 2) by Randi Alexander Page A

and
crossed her legs, pulled a blade of grass from the soft soil, and brought it to
her nose. Fresh and untouched, not like the chemically-enhanced grass in the
city. She looked around at the trees, the creek silently making its way
downhill, and old Merle, off in the distance, one leg cocked, looking like he
was asleep. Like a postcard, naptime for a cowboy and his horse.
    A smile came from
deep inside Mina. The ranch would make a wonderful weekend retreat, halfway
between Austin and Fort Worth, she’d meet Rex here Friday nights…
    No. It wouldn’t
happen. She tossed the blade of grass. Looking back at him, she wished things
had been different. She admired his slightly hooked nose, strong jaw, lips that
only lost their tightness when he slept, or when he kissed.
    The sound of a
shot rent the air.
    Mina gasped and
reached to wake Rex, but he sat up, tipping his head.
    Another shot,
followed by a third, from the direction of the ranch.
    He leapt to his
feet as her heart jumped to light-speed. “What is it?”
    “Get dressed.
Fast.” He already had his jeans on, and his boot in his hand. “Bennet is
warning us.” He whistled loudly, and Merle’s head lifted, and the horse
galloped toward them.
    “Should we call
the sheriff?” She scrambled to dress, leaving her socks and underwear on the
ground by the blanket and untouched picnic bag, next to his socks and
underwear.
    “No service here.”
Rex shoved the blanket in one side of the saddlebags, the food and their
leftover clothes in the other, and jumped onto Merle’s back. He helped her up
behind him. “Hold on tight.” Giving the horse a two-booted kick, he shouted,
“Hee-yaa!”
    The horse went
from zero to warp speed in seconds, and Mina could only hang on to Rex and
squeeze the horse with her legs. The hundred questions she had would be whipped
away from her mouth by the wind rushing by them.
    In minutes, he
pulled up to a copse of trees on a sharp ridge. “Mina. Stay here.”
    “But I might be
able—”
    “No. I won’t be
able to work if I’m worried about you.” He wrapped his arm around her and
pulled her from the horse.
    She landed on her
feet. “But what if—”
    “Listen.” His
black eyes held deadly seriousness. “You can see the ranch from the top of the
rise, but stay low, and for God’s sake, do not scream, no matter what you see
or hear.” His hand worked on the saddlebag laces.
    She nodded,
sufficiently embarrassed by her last, and recorded, response to a dangerous
situation.
    Rex handed her the
saddlebag. “Eat something, use the blanket to stay warm.” He touched the rifle.
“I want to give you this, but I think I might need it.” He looked conflicted.
    “I’ll be okay. I
know self-defense.”
    He huffed out a
breath, and almost cracked a smile. “Great. That makes me feel better for
abandoning you here.”
    She wanted to
reassure him that she trusted his decision to leave her here, but she was
starting to shake with fear, and had to clamp her teeth together to keep them
from chattering.
    Turning, he
pointed across the creek. “If I don’t come back for you in an hour, go across
the creek, in about a half-mile, there’s a fence that runs the whole property.”
He pointed left. “Go north until you see a gate with a dirt road cutting
through it. Follow the road on the other side of the fence and you’ll get to
Treven and Delta’s.”
    “An hour?” She rubbed
her palms on her arms. “What do you think will happen down there?” Mina’s worry
was for him, not herself.
    “I don’t know.” He
stared into her eyes. “I’m going to protect you, Mina. Just promise me you will
do exactly what I just told you. Promise you won’t do anything stupid that’ll
get me killed.”
    Anything stupid like run down the hill to the ranch and give herself up so the killers would
take her and leave Rex and Bennet alone? She’d seen what those men could do,
and she had no delusions they would hesitate to kill all three of them,