est and gave a little smile. “Yes, my father could defeat him. But he’s there and we’re here.”
“You have to go get him, Prescott,” Tynan said. “You have to leave the women and me here and travel as fast as you can and bring Mathison back.”
“And leave you to the mercies of that?” Asher asked, motioning toward the old man. “Do you have any idea how many people are looking for you?”
Tynan looked toward the dark sky for a moment. “About half a dozen Chanrys, a hundred or so of Dysan’s men and…”
“And Rory Sayers would probably like a piece of your skin,” Chris added.
“And what was the name of that man on the far side of the rain forest?”
“Ah, yes,” Chris smiled. “Hugh Lanier. I don’t imagine he’s over his anger at what I wrote.” She smiled at Tynan, remembering the way he’d helped her that day.
Tynan leaned back against a post. “So half the world is looking for us, two of us are damaged, and we have a traitor—if he were given the chance to be—in our midst. It doesn’t make for a secure, healthful future.”
“I’ll take him with me,” Asher said softly. “I’ll take the old man with me and leave the three of you here alone and I’ll bring back Mathison with every man he can spare.”
“He’ll slit your throat the first time you turn your back on him or the first time you sleep.”
“I’ll not turn my back on him and if I sleep, I’ll tie him up. It’s our only chance and you know it. You can’t take care of him here and all I have to do is get him fifty miles south of here and then Mathison can have him. It’s our only chance. One man might make it out of here, but not two women and a wounded man.”
Chris could see the way Tynan was considering Asher’s words. She could see how much he hated them, how much he hated being put in such a position. And she also realized that he must be hurt more than he was allowing them to know if he were so much as considering what Asher proposed.
“Ty, it’s the only way,” Chris whispered. “We can’t move Pilar and we can’t leave her here. Dysan is out there and someone has to go for help.” She arched one eyebrow at him. “Are you afraid you won’t get your pardon if someone else brings my father to me?”
Tynan looked at her for a long time before he spoke. “Prescott, you’ll leave early in the morning. I’ll stay awake tonight and watch the old man and you sleep. I want you rested in the morning. Now, the both of you go to bed.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Once Tynan sat down, he didn’t seem able to get up again. Chris rebandaged the wound in his leg, finding that the bullet wasn’t in it as she’d feared. While she worked on him, he lay still, leaning back against the post, his eyes closed, seemingly unaware of Chris’s hands on his thigh. She tried to touch him as little as possible, tried to not show how the sight of his torn flesh upset her.
“I don’t think Prescott can handle the old man. Prescott’s not mean enough. He’s too trusting.”
“Ty, how long did you spend with that man? Did you really have to live with him?”
“Off and on until I was six, but kids learn fast. It didn’t take me long to learn that I had to take care of myself.”
“As independent as you are, why didn’t you run away when he…when he sold you? Couldn’t you have gone back to Red’s?”
Tynan opened his eyes and looked at her. “I was drunk, and he kept me that way for two days before the”—Ty grimaced—“sale.”
“But you were only six years old.”
“I’ve never met a little kid yet that didn’t like beer. You ought to get some sleep now. You’ll need rest for tomorrow.”
Standing, she took the bucket of bloody water and moved away from him, watching him as he leaned against the pole. He looked as if he were asleep but she could see the dark light of his eyes between his lashes. He planned to stay awake all night to protect them from the old man—but he didn’t tie the man or incapacitate him, and she wondered why.
She moved away from Ty to go back to the spring to get fresh water.
“Chris.”
She was startled to hear Asher’s voice so near.
“May I speak to you?”
“You should be asleep. You have a hard ride ahead of you tomorrow and Ty says—”
“Ty says! That’s all I hear, that Tynan says this and Tynan says that.”