Only 03 - Only You

savagely, swelling and hardening him in a torrid rush. But in the end she had refused him the very thing she had held out as a lure.
    At least he had the bitter satisfaction of knowing that he wasn’t the only one who had slept restlesslylast night, raked by claws of unfulfilled desire.
    “Wait here,” he said. “I’m going to see if there are any tracks heading into the notch. If anything happens to me, turn and run for Cal’s ranch.”
    It wasn’t the first time Reno had left Eve in order to reconnoiter, but it was the first time he had so flatly warned of danger. She watched anxiously while he quartered back and forth on either side of the most obvious routes into the notch.
    Finally Reno signaled Eve forward. While she brought the packhorses up, he drew his six-gun, spun the cylinder once to check the load, and holstered the gun again. Then he reached back and pulled another six-gun and two spare cylinders from a saddlebag. With them came an odd harness, rather like a Mexican bandolier rigged to hold more than just ammunition.
    The second pistol was already fully loaded. So were the two extra cylinders. The spare gun went into a holster on the bandolier. The extra, loaded cylinders went into special loops.
    Eve watched the preparations with unhappy eyes as he checked the ammunition loops one by one.
    “Is there something you aren’t telling me?” she asked.
    Reno’s mouth turned up at one corner. “Hardly. I’ve always told you exactly what was on my mind.”
    “You didn’t use a second pistol before,” Eve said.
    “Cal’s journal mentions a passage up ahead so narrow you can’t swing a cat.”
    “Can a horse get through?”
    “Yes, but my repeating rifle is no good in a box like that,” Reno said calmly.
    “I see.”
    Nervously Eve took off her hat, tucked up wisps of hair, and looked everywhere but at Reno’s ice green eyes. She didn’t want him to know how fearful she felt.
    And how alone.
    “What about my shotgun?” she asked after a moment.
    “Use it, but make damn sure you hit what you aim at. A ricochet cuts you up worse than a regular bullet.”
    Eve nodded.
    “Are your reins still tied together?” Reno asked.
    She nodded again.
    “Take Shaggy One off the lead and put the packhorses between us,” he said.
    Eve’s head turned swiftly toward him. “Why?”
    Reno saw the shadows in her golden eyes and felt like pulling her into his arms to reassure her.
    But reassurance would be a lie. The way ahead was dangerous, and Reno’s instincts were riding him like iron spurs. Reassuring Eve wouldn’t be a kindness. She would need all her wariness. So would he.
    “There are a lot of tracks,” Reno said. “The ground is too sandy to be sure if it’s mustangs or shod horses. If Slater’s up ahead, he’ll be shooting at me. If you’re too close, you could catch a bullet. So put the packhorses between us.”
    “I’ll take my chances on a bullet.”
    Reno’s left eyebrow rose in a black arc. “Suit yourself. Either way, take off the lead rope.”
    “If I were going to suit myself,” Eve said distinctly as she began working over the lead rope, “I’d stay away from the notch.”
    “It’s the only route to the Spanish mine marked in your journal, unless you want to go all the wayback through the Rockies and take the route up from Santa Fe.”
    “Perdition,” Eve muttered. “It would be spring before we got back here.”
    “This route also leads to the only sure water.”
    Eve sighed. She had never realized how much water it took to keep horses going, and how precious water could be.
    “Maybe Slater gave up,” she said.
    She leaned over in the saddle and tied the lead rope around Shaggy One’s neck.
    “He might have given up on punishing a cheating saloon girl, but I don’t think he’ll give up on gold. Or,” Reno added sarcastically, “on the man who helped to shoot his twin brother’s gang to pieces.”
    “You?”
    Reno nodded. “Me, Cal, and Wolfe.”
    “Caleb Black? My God—what if Slater goes after Caleb instead of us?”
    “Old Jericho is smarter than that. Cal has some hard men riding for him, especially those three freed slaves. Two of them were Buffalo Soldiers. The third one is called Pig Iron. He’s half Seminole and pure poison mean.”
    Eve frowned.
    “Except with Willow,” Reno added, seeing the uneasy expression on Eve’s face. “She tended them after they ate bad meat. They think the sun rises and sets in her. So do their