My Desperado (27 page)

She stepped back a pace, looking pale and frightened in the darkness, but her fear only added to his fury, and he grabbed her arms.

"Wasn't it?" he asked again.

He felt her shiver beneath his hands, but in a moment her chin rose, and her gaze lifted to his.

"I won't be bothering you again with my presence or my fantasizing, Travis Ryland," she said quietly. "I'll stay with Latigo just as you wish. And if you want to get yourself killed—well, that's your choice." She backed away, pulling her arms from his grasp before turning. "I'll need someone to teach me to defend myself," she said to no one in particular. "Since Mr. Ryland is giving up the job."

Jimmy shuffled his feet nervously, but said nothing. All eyes watched her.

"I'm a hell of a quick draw," said Finch, taking a step forward.

Travis tried to glare the boy down, but the other's gaze was caught on Katherine's prim expression.

"Very good," she said stiffly. "Then I would dearly appreciate it if you would teach me to be the same."

"Sure." Finch grinned, pulling out one revolver and motioning her forward, but before she'd taken a step, Travis was between them.

"What the devil do you think she is?" he shouted. "Some kind of stray kid you can teach to be a man?"

"No." Finch shook his head, still grinning. "Nope. I sure don't think that, Rye."

“Then back off," ordered Travis, his voice so low it barely reached his own ears.

"Excuse me, Ryland," said Katherine as she gave him a wide berth to stand beside Finch. "But I believe you wished to be done with me. So I'm offering you that opportunity, but I fear I am not inclined to trust my life to Latigo, whom I've not even met. I find it's unwise for a woman to depend on a man." She took the revolver slowly from Finch's hand, pointing it very directly at Travis's chest. "So I plan to learn to take care of myself."

Travis remained absolutely still. With the light of the fire glowing behind her she looked very slim and straight. "You shouldn't aim at something you ain't prepared to shoot," he said dryly.

"And what makes you think I'm not prepared to shoot?"

"Because I know you clean down to your bones, lady. I know you better than you know yourself."

"You think so?" With slow precision she cocked the revolver. "If I'm not mistaken, I just tug on this little lever right here. Is that correct, Mr. Finch?" asked Kat, her index finger steady on the trigger.

"Listen, Kat. Ryland here didn't mean to make you mad. He was just tryin't' keep you out of trouble."

"And you knew him immediately, when we first arrived," she said. "You must have thought it quite amusing that I would proclaim him to be a minister of God." She laughed, but the sound was harsh and clipped. "Remind me to shoot you after I shoot him."

"This talk of shootin'..." Finch shook his head. "It's bad for digestion, and after one of Saws's meals, it could be fatal. Give my gun back, Miss Kat. We didn't mean t' hurt yer feelings. In fact, that's why we didn't tell y' right off that we knowed him. You seemed so set in convincing us that we didn't. And then when you figured out we knew all along that you was a woman, well, we couldn't hardly bear to disprove yer stories no more."

"How long have you known Travis, Finch?" she asked, not lowering the gun.

"Hell, I don't know. Ten years or near about."

“Ten years?" She did not quite manage to keep the surprise from her tone.

"We all worked fer Latigo together," said Sawdust in his lispy voice. "He's got him a tendency to collect stray boys. Teach them living skills. That sort of thing."

"And that's all I'm asking," said Katherine calmly. "To learn living skills. A girl's got a right."

"Sure she does," soothed Finch. "Now give my gun back, and we'll get started."

"When I'm dead and damned," said Travis in a low voice.

"Well." Katherine smiled grimly. "From what I hear, that shouldn't give me too long to wait. Mr. Finch, shall we begin?"

"No!" Travis said and, grabbing the Colt's barrel, yanked it to him.

Katherine, however, was not ready to relinquish her hold, and was snatched to his chest like an apple from a tree.

"You go learning to shoot, lady, and pretty soon every two-bit kid with a gun thinks he can prove something if he kills you." He shook his head slowly, his face very close to hers. "You ain't learning."

"Yes." Her gaze was as steady as the earth and as cool as the evening air. "I am. Mr. Finch has agreed to give me lessons. Did you fail to hear him?"

"Mr. Finch is an idiot," proclaimed Travis, knowing his teeth were clenched and that his breath came like the puffs of smoke from a steam engine on an uphill climb. "And he won't be touching you."

Her brows rose above her unusual silver-blue eyes, alerting Travis to the fact that he had spoken rather out of turn. He hadn't meant to say Finch wouldn't touch her, but that Finch wouldn't be teaching her to shoot.

"I realize now that you do not care if your life is shortened," remarked Katherine, "but I, for one, hope to live to a ripe old age. Maybe even have children. So I will endeavor to learn to defend myself, with your blessing or without. And if I blow my head off in the meantime..." She smiled up at him, looking irritatingly cool beneath his best glare. "My death will be on your conscience." Her lids fluttered for a moment, while her sticky smile remained adhered. "If you have one. Now, if you will let go of the gun, I will proceed to—"

"I'll teach you, goddamn it!"

"Really? The great Travis Ryland himself? The killer extraordinary. The Ghost."

"Shut the hell up!" he growled into her face. "And get to sleep, cuz you're going to have a long day tomorrow."

Turning, he glared at each man in turn. "What the devil are you staring at?"

Sawdust and Jimmy shook their heads in unison, Finch mumbled something under his breath, and Cody, damn his soul, laughed with his eyes in that way that drove Travis insane.

"Sleep in the wagon," he ordered Kat brusquely. "And stay out of trouble."

Chapter 26

"Who taught you to shoot?"

"It's none of your damn business."

Katherine watched Travis answer, his glare unaffected by the beauty of the morning. The storm had blown itself out sometime before dawn, leaving the sky a robin's-egg blue.

"Was it your father?" Kat asked. She'd spent most of the night in thought and tears, and had finally made a new resolution. Travis Ryland would no longer frighten her with his blustery ways and aggressive demeanor. The truth was there were more than enough real outlaws to worry about. It was time she established her innocence and went on her way. And though the route to achieving that goal would not be simple, she had come up with a plan.

Just now, however, Travis was still scowling at her, and snapped, "Didn't I just say it's none of your damn—"

"Yes." Katherine interrupted abruptly, and stepped forward so that she was only a few yards in front of him, with her fists on her hips and an experimental glare of her own. "You did say it’s none of my damn business, but I disagree. It just so happens, my life is in danger, and I would feel a bit more secure if I believed you had learned to shoot from someone with skill."

His scowl lessened and he looked a bit taken aback. "I've never before knowed anyone who could take half a day to say what shouldn't be said at all."

With that statement Katherine found it difficult to hold her own glare. "When I figure out what that means, I'm going to come up with a scathing remark," she assured him.

"It was an insult."

"I know it was an insult, Ryland. What else would you say to me?"

She watched his right eyebrow quirk into a little peak and wondered, with mild interest, if he was as angry as he looked.

"Let's get to work," he said brusquely.

"I asked you a question."

"Goddamn—"

"There's no point in swearing, Ryland. I've heard it all, and you know what, it's quite unimpressive. So you might as well just answer my questions and get it over with."

"You're the most ornery woman I've ever met in my life."

She smiled, feeling a wonderful exhilaration with the knowledge that she could not only hold her own, but could challenge him. "Lucky for you, we're almost to Latigo's and you'll never have to see me again. Now, did your father teach you to shoot?"

He paused for only a moment. "My father didn't teach me anything, lady. Except how to duck a fist."

Katherine's self-satisfaction vanished. "Oh." She said the word very softly. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah?" He watched her, the color of his eyes identical to the sky. "So was Rachel. And look what happened to her."

"What did happen?" she breathed.

"Leave it alone, lady." His tone was deep and his fists clenched. "It's done and over with. I'm not a kid no more."

"She was your sister, wasn't she?"

Travis drew a breath deep. "Pa said she resembled Ma. Dark hair and eyes as bright as the morning. Maybe that was why he loved her. She was pretty." He shook his head. "And smart. Just like..."

Their gazes caught and fused. The surrounding forest seemed to be still and waiting.

"Let's get this lesson started."

"I'm sorry, Travis," she said softly.

He swallowed, easing his fists open and turning his gaze away. "You already said that."

"I'm saying it again."

"Well don't." He turned his gaze back to her and lifted the revolver Finch had loaned him. "Come here."

She did so, taking a few stiff strides so that she stood directly before him, her gaze steady on the gun in his hand.

"See this?" he said, looking at the gun. "This is a six-shooter. A Colt Walker." With a single movement of his hand a bullet slid out of the cylinder where an Indian and soldier were etched in fine detail. Five other bullets dropped into his palm. "You take these and push them into their holes like this." He demonstrated twice, sliding them along the smooth notch and into their chambers before handing her the revolver. "Try it."

The gun felt cool and heavy in Kat's hand. Its deadly potential made her movements slow and stiff, but she finally filled the remaining chambers and looked at Ryland for the next step.

"After all the shots are fired, the shells will still be there. You'll dump them out and refill."

She nodded her understanding.

"Do it again."

The first five bullets slid in smoothly, but his stare made her nervous, and she dropped the last one. Squatting down, she searched through the spiky grasses, feeling foolish.

"That's your lesson."

"What?" She glanced up at him, squinting in the bright sunlight.

"When you can fill them chambers faster than you can count to ten, come and get me. I'll be under that tree."

She watched him walk away, and was amazed to learn how many curse words she could mentally rattle off before he eased himself down against the trunk of a white birch.

By noon Kat's fingers were raw, and she had remembered half a dozen more swear words to add to her growing list.

"I'm ready." She gazed down into Travis's face. He had sat unmoving for so long that for a time she had wondered if he had fallen asleep, but each time she'd glanced his way, he had been watching her.

"You sure?" He smiled, looking superior.

"Yes."

"All right." He pushed his hat back on his brow a fraction of an inch. "Let's see."

Katherine licked her lips. He would not intimidate her she reminded herself. But he'd spent a lifetime learning to do just that, and had become very good at it.

Nevertheless, she shoved the first bullet quickly into the chamber.

"Count."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Gotta do it as fast as you can count. Remember?"

Another curse word popped into her head. She smiled despite herself and counted as she dropped bullets into chambers. The sixth one slipped in on the word "ten."

Kat lifted her eyes to Ryland's. "Well?"

"You count mighty slow for a schoolmarm."

"Damn you." She said the words very clearly and with a good deal of satisfaction.

He lifted his brows as he watched her. "But your swearing's coming along real good."

“Thank you."

"You bet. Now..." He rose a bit stiffly to his feet, taking Finch's empty holster with him. "Wear this low on your right side." He reached about her, passing the leather belt to his left hand and drawing it up snugly against her hips. His fingertips brushed the metal buttons on her jeans, and she bit her lip and refused to look at him.

For just a moment his movements bumbled, but he managed the buckle and pulled away.

"Wear it too high and you'll have to cramp your arm to get at it."

His voice sounded strange, but Katherine dared not analyze his stilted tone.

"Like this?" she asked, knowing her face was hot and pushing the revolver deep into its leather pocket.

"Yeah. But tie it down."

"What?" She chanced a glimpse at his face. "Tie what down?" she asked, lowering her gaze quickly and fumbling with the buckle.

"I'll do it." He dropped to his knees and slipped one hand between her legs.

Katherine gasped, and Travis raised his eyes, examining her face. "First rule is to stay calm, lady."

She took a steadying breath and tried a false smile. "Have I said 'damn you' yet?"

"Yes. You used that one," he reminded her, his right hand resting on the inside of her knee and his face lifted to hers.

"I have more curses," she assured him, standing very still, lest his hand slip one way or the other and cause that shameful gasp to escape her again. "Better ones."

"Really?" Very slowly he slid his hand around the back of her leg in search of the narrow leather thong that hung from the holster's bottom. "Let's hear them."

He was a deceitful, no-account bounty hunter she reminded herself, but somewhere in her mind she remembered the gentleness of his touch, the surprising ferocity with which he had protected her on more than one occasion.

"Katherine?" he said, calling her back to the present. "You were going to try out some of them new curse words."

"Oh, yes. Well..." She licked her lips. "I'm saving them for the perfect moment."