Free Wildfire in His Arms by Johanna Lindsey

myself?”
    â€œNo.”
    She was sure she was going to grind down her teeth from gnashing them while in his company. “Didn’t think so,” she growled. “So if it’s all the same to you, I’ll piss my pants. Better’n having you stand next to me for something like that.”
    â€œYou can use the shack. You won’t be coming back up this way, so it doesn’t matter.”
    She was surprised. He was a gentleman beneath that dangerous veneer? But she didn’t give him a chance to change his mind. Shaking the stiffness out of her arms almost brought tears to her eyes. She hurried into the shack while he saddled Noble for her. Her chestnut gelding wasn’t skittish. Noble only glanced back at Degan once before ignoring him.
    When she stepped back outside, she saw her vest and coat draped over the saddle of Degan’s horse. Relieved to have her clothes back, she went to put them on, but his horse tried to bite her when she got close to it. Her instinct was to punch its nose, but fancy man probably wouldn’t like that, even if she didn’t hit hard. So she moved to the animal’s head and murmured some soothing words and gave it a few tender rubs until she managed to reclaim her garments.
    She put on her vest and buttoned it, then shrugged into her coat. She didn’t usually wear the coat at her camp in the summer. She didn’t need such a warm garment. She only donned it when she was going to be around other people, and now she was about to be paraded through town. The more clothing that covered her breasts, the better. She still felt naked without her holstered Colt because she’d been wearing it for so long. Even an empty gun could stop someone in his tracks. But Degan wouldn’t be giving it back to her.
    Going over to her horse, she saw Degan standing next to the shed. She laughed. He’d had his own gun drawn and pointed at her the whole time. “I wasn’t going to run off with your horse.”
    â€œHe wouldn’t let you.”
    â€œCare to wager?” she asked with a grin.
    He ignored that and said, “If you have anything stashed around here, now’s the time to mention it.”
    â€œDon’t own anything worth hiding.”
    Out of habit, she grabbed the cold pan and griddle off the fire pit so she could stuff them back in her saddlebags, which were already on her horse. Then she realized she wouldn’t be doing any cooking where she was going. The enormity of what was going to happen in the next hour hit her hard. Jail and then a cage in which she’d be carted all the way to Texas to hang for a killing she didn’t do. She’d seen a prisoner transport wagon on the road down in Utah. The cage was tiny.
    She turned and looked at her captor, feeling more desperate than she ever had before. “Don’t do this. You don’t need the reward, you know you don’t. Let me go!”
    His gun was still pointed at her, obviously because she wasn’t tied and was standing next to her horse. “You might have avoided the bounty hunters so far, but you have a US marshal after you now. I found you easily and I’m not a tracker. Marshal Hayes is.”
    â€œBut I’m innocent!”
    â€œThen you should be glad you’ll have your day in court to prove it.”
    â€œThere won’t be a trial, not if Carl Bingham really did die.”
    â€œIf?”
    She snapped her mouth shut. Talking to him was like talking to a jackass, and how was she supposed to explain that a murdered man might not be dead? Degan wasn’t going to believe that any more than he would believe that she was innocent. She figured he just didn’t care one way or the other. She was just a fat reward to him and a means of settling a favor he owed his marshal friend.
    â€œAll right, I’ll come along peacefully if you could just do me one favor?”
    â€œI already did you a favor,” he reminded her.