Only 03 - Only You

that came from a loss so deep it numbed her ability to feel pain, Eve pulled on her only remaining clothing—the red dress with jet buttons and a bullet hole in the hidden pocket where she carried her derringer.
    Mechanically she went about her preparations. The most difficult part was figuring out how to carry the gold. Finally she brought her mount over to the mouth of the mine, tied on her empty saddlebags, and loaded them. Reno’s saddlebags, she tied around the saddle horn. Then she loaded them, too. Gold bars clanked and shifted within the heavy leather pouches.
    Only Caleb noticed Eve’s transformation from grubby miner to tawny-haired saloon girl. He watched with brooding amber eyes that shifted between the half-conscious Reno and Eve’s quick, efficient preparations.
    Abruptly Caleb stood up and went over to her.
    “You’re getting ready to pull out,” he said.
    She nodded.
    “Where are you going?” he asked.
    She shrugged. “Canyon City, I guess. It’s the nearest saloon.”
    “You’ll need someone to ride shotgun. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”
    “I’ll pay you.”
    “Like flaming hell you will. I was planning to get back to Willow as soon as I could anyway. Pig Iron is a fine guard, but he’s a mite short on social graces.”
    Caleb stalked off, whistling shrilly. A black gelding stopped grazing in the meadow and trotted over to him. He saddled and bridled the horse with swift motions before he came back to camp to pick up his saddlebags. Their unexpected weight nearly yanked him off balance.
    He spun toward Eve just as she mounted the lineback dun in a flurry of scarlet silk and rode across the meadow toward the people gathered around Reno.
    Rafe and Wolfe looked up at her, saw the dressand the tightly drawn beauty of the girl with shining hair and golden eyes, and were too shocked to speak.
    Jessi saw, too. Her eyes widened, but she said only, “Reno is much better. Steady pulse, good deep breaths. He’ll be coming around soon. I don’t think he’s badly injured at all. He’s strong as an ox.”
    Eve’s smile was the saddest Jessi had ever seen.
    “Yes,” Eve said softly. “He’s very strong.”
    Caleb rode up, reined in beside Eve, and waited, saying nothing.
    Jessi came to her feet and stood next to the girl who looked as though she had been pushed beyond her last reserves. Jessi knew what it was like to be pushed that hard by life.
    “Caleb told me,” Jessi said in a low voice. “Reno didn’t know what he was saying. When he wakes up, he’ll call himself ten thousand kinds of fool.”
    The compassion in Jessi’s blue eyes made Eve want to laugh and cry at the same time.
    “You’re very kind,” Eve said huskily. “And very wrong. Reno knew exactly what he was saying. He’s said it often enough before.”
    Jessi bit her lip and shook her head unhappily.
    Eve continued speaking in an unnaturally calm voice.
    “My half of the gold came to eight bars. I left two for you and Wolfe and two for Rafe. Caleb already has his.”
    Wolfe and Rafe started to speak at the same time.
    Eve ignored them. With breathtaking speed, she bent over and yanked Caleb’s belt knife from its sheath. The lethally sharp blade flashed, slicing through the tie that held Reno’s saddlebags to the saddle horn. They landed with a weighty thump a few feet from Reno’s legs.
    “That gold belongs to Reno,” Eve said. “He can count on it.”
    The lineback dun spun on its hocks and leaped forward as once again Eve left Reno behind in a drumroll of hoofbeats and a wild swirl of scarlet skirts.

23
    R ENO sat quietly in the shade of a fir tree, watching the meadow through narrowed eyes. For the first time in five days he wasn’t dizzy in the least. The ringing in his ears was gone, as was the nausea that had plagued him. Though his mouth was drawn in a flat line of pain, his headache had subsided until it was little more than a nuisance.
    It wasn’t the headache that was hurting Reno. It was thinking about a girl who had loved her own comfort more than she had cared whether he lived or died.
    Reno hadn’t seen Eve since he came out of the mine. When he had asked where Caleb was, Rafe told him that Caleb had taken Eve back to Canyon City. Reno hadn’t mentioned her name again. Neither had anyone else.
    The sound of Wolfe laughing came back through the clean air, followed by the silvery music of Jessi’s laughter as her husband lifted her off the groundand spun her around and around.