Quick tears came to her eyes. “It’s not over, Ty. You know how I feel about you.”
He put his hands on her shoulders. They were hidden from the others by the horses. “Chris, I told you it wouldn’t work. I told you that from the beginning. Right now you think you…that you’re in love with me, but you’re not. You love the adventure and the excitement, but you also love the luxury of your father’s house. You wait, you’ll see. Two weeks in your father’s house, after you give a few parties, after you’ve had a few baths and bought a couple of new dresses, you won’t even remember me. If I walked into the parlor, you’d worry that my clothes were going to get the furniture dirty. And you won’t even believe that you once thought you were in love with somebody like me.”
She looked at him for a long minute. “I hope you make yourself believe that. I hope you can sleep at night. I hope you…” Her anger left her. “I hope that someday you realize that you love me just as much as I love you.” She jerked away from him. “I have to make coffee. When you’re man enough to tell yourself the truth, let me know, I’ll be waiting.”
She ran away from him, stumbling over Samuel Dysan, but she didn’t look at him either. She kept her head down and helped the camp cook prepare breakfast for the many cowboys who were preparing to ride.
When they mounted, ready to ride, she saw that all around her the men had their guns ready. She was encircled by her father, Sam, Tynan and three of her father’s hired men. Asher and Pilar were likewise guarded. “Do you think Dysan’s out there?” she asked Samuel beside her.
“I think he’s out there,” he answered grimly. “We have something he thinks belongs to him.”
Her father called for them to ride before she could ask another question.
They rode south for two hours before they encountered Beynard Dysan’s men. He approached them with all the confidence in the world, as if he knew the outcome of what was about to happen.
Del called a halt to the group behind him, and Tynan put his horse directly in front of Chris. He, Del and Sam were in the front of the army facing Dysan’s hundred or so men.
“You were looking for me?” Samuel said and there was such coldness, such hatred in his voice, that Chris shivered.
“Not you,” Dysan answered. “You know what I want. I want what’s rightfully mine.”
“No,” was all Samuel said.
“Then I’ll take it,” Beynard answered. “And I’ll take all of you with me.”
Samuel reined his horse forward, snatching the reins from Del’s hand when Del tried to stop him. Sam rode up to Beynard. Behind her, Chris could hear rifles being cocked, barrels of six-guns being rolled to check that all the chambers were loaded.
While Sam and Beynard talked, Ty moved his horse back to stand by Chris. “If I give you the order, I want you to ride like hell toward those trees,” he said under his breath. “You understand me? No heroics.”
Chris looked up to see her father turned around in his saddle and he was nodding to her that she was to do what Tynan said.
“Pilar?” Ty said over his shoulder. “Be ready to ride.”
Chris, a lump of fear in her throat, watched as Tynan moved back into place beside her father. The two men she loved most in the world in front of her, the first ones to be killed if Dysan’s men began firing. She was sure her heart was going to break her ribs as she strained to see Samuel talking to Dysan.
It seemed an eternity before Sam turned back toward Del.
“This fight is between the two of us,” Samuel said. “Winner takes all.”
Del nodded at Sam while Tynan looked on with eyes that were dark.
Chris reined her horse forward. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing for you to concern yourself with,” Del said, his eyes on Samuel’s back.
“The two of them are going to settle it,” Tynan said. “Whoever wins gets the spoils of war.”
“But Samuel is an old man,” Chris said. “He can’t possibly have the reflexes of the younger man. And, besides, he has a right to leave his estate to whoever he wants.”
Del gave her one of his looks that told her he wanted her to shut up. “I am the executor of his estate. If Sam loses, I’ll see that the right person gets his money.”
“But then Dysan will be after you and—”
“Chris,” Tynan said softly. “Come over here and be quiet.”
She ignored her father’s look as she obeyed Tynan and moved her horse next to his. Her hands gripped the pommel until they were white as she watched Samuel and Beynard ride down the trail and into the trees. It seemed forever until they heard the first shot.
Chris gasped and held her breath and waited. And waited.