Renegade Riders Read Online Free Page A

than any other man. Though the shirt he’d given her was clean enough, it smelled the same. How that scent swam over her! She fingered the soft blue flannel absently, several wishes going unspoken.
    All at once blood coursed through her veins, surged hot to her temples, and prickled along her scalp. Have mercy! She nearly lost her footing as she recalled the truth: the man had seen her naked to the waist. Oddly,he hadn’t taken advantage of her. Many men would not have been so respectful, so kind. He was evidently cut from the cloth of a gentleman—something to which she was unaccustomed. The fool had even offered to take her wherever she wanted to go. If he only knew where that was! And it was impossible, especially after what she was about to do.
    At her approach, Diablo greeted her with a soft nickering. Mae’s blood jumped, but she quickly soothed the stallion to silence with gentle strokes and soft words. Bending over, she unbuckled his hobbles, whispering to him all the while and responding with reassuring hands as he nudged her with that velvety black nose. Taking the bridle, she eased the bit into his mouth and then fastened it around his ears and forehead.
    Casting one last look back, she stared, fixed upon her captor sleeping soundly beside the fire. Sadly, she didn’t even know his name. But perhaps it was best that way. For a moment, she’d hesitated, sorry for what she was about to do, but there really wasn’t any other choice. One thing he’d said rang true: someone would be coming after her. Indeed, she could already almost feel his hot breath on her neck. No, the stranger was right. She’d run out of time and forfeited her choices.
    Her head was reeling. She was by no means up to the task at hand, but there was nothing left but to suck in a deep breath and carry through. She couldn’t mount Diablo bareback in her weakened state, and wouldn’t even if she could. Not here. The risk of being caught out was too great. Dang wranglers never slept soundly; she’d learned that the hard way long ago. His sitting upand caring for her for a full day gave her a small edge. Poor man was exhausted.
    Swallowing dry, she gripped the horse’s reins in her right hand and slowly walked him out into the canyon. There was a break in the wall some yards off, where rocks had sheared away from the ridge above, allowing her to climb to a height where she could more easily mount the stallion. Pain seared her shoulder with every movement, and to keep from crying out she bit into her lip until she tasted blood. When at last the dizziness subsided, she took a deep breath of sweet spring air and turned her eyes one last time toward the campfire where her captor slept. Tasting regret, she gently nudged the horse with her knees and disappeared into the starlit night.
    Trace awoke, chilled in the darkness before dawn. The fire had gone out, and his first conscious thought was of rekindling it for Mae’s comfort. He yawned, stretched, and rolled over…only to stop dead, his eyes fixed on Mae’s bedroll. Her empty bedroll. As his heart stuttered, he tried to tell himself that maybe she’d slipped off to heed the call of nature.
    A quick glance to the far side of the encampment confirmed other fears. Diablo’s hobbles lay abandoned on the ground. Trace scrambled to his feet and rushed toward them, wincing at the sharp stones beneath his stockinged feet. Snatching them up in an iron fist, he scanned the black distance in all directions for some sign of Mae. Nothing.
    “Hellfire, horse feathers, and damnation!” he roaredas he hurled Diablo’s hobbles to the ground. Not content with that, he let loose a string of expletives, which in turn evoked a hee-haw from the burro staked nearby. Marching over, he vented his spleen on the fool varmint. “Shut up, you lop-eared jackass! Why couldn’t you make that god-awful racket when she was making off with Diablo?”
    It was beyond bearing. He was a renegade rider, and he’d had his