Only 05 - Autumn Lover

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    The thought of being at the mercy of the likes of AbCulpepper made Elyssa’s stomach twist. Without stopping to think, she jerked her arm and stepped back out of his reach.
    The motion was so swift it caught Ab by surprise. He grabbed for Elyssa, but a word from Gaylord stopped him cold.
    Ab glanced over his shoulder. He said something vicious. Then his hand fell to his side once more.
    Elyssa turned to Bill even as she retreated toward Leopard.
    “Come back with me,” she coaxed. “Penny is worried about you. We need you.”
    Bill shook his head curtly.
    “Leave and don’t come back,” he said. “ Go .”
    Elyssa didn’t argue. She scrambled on Leopard, reined him around, and kicked him into a canter.
    Just as she was congratulating herself on having brazened out her escape, Elyssa noticed what the Culpeppers obviously had already seen.
    A bit ahead and to her right, there was a rifle poking out from the cover of boulders and brush.
    As Elyssa galloped by, the barrel didn’t waver from tracking each breath Ab took. Clearly whoever was on the other end of the weapon wasn’t a friend of the Culpeppers.
    Hunter , Elyssa thought. He heard me going down the stairs after all .
    Part of her was very grateful.
    Another part of her wanted nothing more than to get beyond the reach of the scorching lecture she was certain to get from Hunter. She leaned low over Leopard’s neck, urging him into a faster gait.
    Despite Elyssa’s desire to flee, she kept the big stallion well below the pace she wanted. She might have been reckless, as Bill had accused, but she was far from suicidal.
    The same couldn’t have been said of Hunter at the moment. He caught up with Elyssa before she crossed onto Ladder S land.
    The bleak fury in Hunter’s eyes made Elyssa want to hide.
    The fact that he didn’t say a word until they were within sight of the ranch building only made it worse.
    Abruptly he urged Bugle Boy across Leopard’s trail, forcing the spotted stud to stop.
    “Pull up,” Hunter said coldly to her.
    With visible reluctance, Elyssa reined in.
    “I thought if I talked to Bill—” she began.
    “Talk? Is that what girls like you call it?” Hunter interrupted sarcastically. “Well, that puts my mind considerably at ease.”
    “—he would realize how desperate it was on the Ladder S,” Elyssa continued in a rush, “and then he would help or at least not hurt. I didn’t know that—”
    “You didn’t know one damned thing but that you had an itch and he was the man to scratch it,” Hunter interrupted.
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Hell,” Hunter said in disgust. “I’m talking about a young girl and a neighbor man who’s old enough to know better.”
    “It’s not Bill’s fault he can’t take on the Culpeppers single-handed,” she retorted. “My God, you won’t even take them on with seven hands!”
    Elyssa’s defense of Bill infuriated Hunter. It reminded him too much of Belinda’s tirades whenever things didn’t go her way. He could still hear his dead wife blaming her husband, blaming the war, blaming Texas, blaming the kids, blaming everything on earth but herself for whatever made her unhappy.
    “You’re just like Belinda,” Hunter snarled. “You don’t give a damn about the people who depend on you.You don’t give a damn about your responsibilities. All you care about is a female itch that has to be scratched and to hell with what’s right.”
    Elyssa blinked, startled by the unexpected turn in the conversation.
    “So you go running off to the neighbor,” Hunter continued, “risking everything, including your own foolish life. But will you listen to common sense?”
    “I—”
    “Hell, no,” Hunter said savagely. “You’ll go sneaking off to meet the neighbor halfway, and while you’re rolling around in the grass, your kids are being defiled by Culpeppers and then sold into slavery with the Comancheros.”
    When Elyssa realized what Hunter was saying, a wave of sickness went through her.
    “Hunter—” she said hoarsely.
    He didn’t even hear. He was living in the hell of the past, a hell that haunted him every waking day of his life.
    “The Culpeppers got around to Belinda, finally,” Hunter said. “Before they were finished, I imagine she was glad enough to die. Ted and little Em probably would have been glad to die, too. They weren’t as lucky as their mother. It took days. When I think of how those Culpeppers dragged little Em—”
    “ Hunter. Stop