arms around her waist. She wanted his body in the bed next to her, holding her, keeping her warm, making her feel good again.
Just the thought brought a flush from her head to her toes. She wanted Tyler naked next to her. Would he know she thought things like that? The idea didn't bear considering. Her imagination had gone completely out of hand to think such things.
In the next room, Tyler heard the sound of Evie rising from the bed, her shoes falling to the floor, her bare feet pattering across the old wood as she took off her gown. He kept his explanations to Daniel and Carmen brief. He didn't think he could concentrate for long on what he was saying while he listened to Evie undressing.
Tyler watched the two youngsters go off to their respective rooms and breathed a sigh of relief. Daniel found the one they called Manuel hiding around the corner and dragged him off by the back of his shirt. Tyler hid a weary grin, threw his hat on the table, and waited for Ben to speak.
"I'm goin' to mosey 'round the hotel awhile. Mind if I borrow your room?"
"Someone might as well get my money's worth out of it." Tyler handed him the key.
Ben looked him up and down carefully, then shook his head. "You a mess, boy. That woman got you by the back hairs. You better get on out or start accepting it."
Tyler scowled and removed his tie. "I'll be back at the ranch on Monday. Just you mind your own business."
Ben gave a sour chuckle and walked out shaking his head. Tyler growled and contemplated going after him, but he had promised Evie he would stay. Sitting down on the pallet and pulling off his boots, he wondered what in hell he'd got himself into this time.
He was almost positive that Evie's abductor wasn't one of the escaped thieves. They wouldn't have hung around or bothered dragging a woman to a hotel room.
Someone was after Evie.
* * *
Back at the hotel, Hale listened sympathetically as Phil ranted about the room's destruction and the fact that since it hadn't been rented to anyone, he had no one to pay the damages. Suggesting that Phil start changing his locks, the lawyer departed on that piece of free advice.
Returning his hat to his head as he reached the street, Hale turned his feet toward the dreary rooms he called home. He showed no surprise as Tom slipped out of the livery to join him.
"Some hero you make," the larger man sneered as he fell in step. "You were right there and still couldn't get to her in time."
"Some criminal you make," Hale replied mockingly. "Your man let her go. Where do you find the stupid bastards?"
"You get what you pay for," Tom replied with unconcern. "That was a damned stupid idea anyway. Women don't look twice at heroes. They like their men strong and mean to keep them in line. Take her out in the woods and put it to her, and she'll be so grateful you won't even have to ask. When you get her back to town, she'll be thoroughly compromised and begging you to marry her."
Hale gave this crudity a look of disgust. "You want to see me shot, don't you? With the likes of that gunfighter hanging around, I'd have a bullet through my middle before I opened my mouth."
Tom pulled thoughtfully at his long cigar. "Sheriff don't cotton to gunfighters. And the bastard's riled a few of my friends. He shot the brother of one of them. Why don't I see what I can do about eliminating your competition?"
Ignoring his roughneck client, Hale took the steps to his room two at a time.
Below him, the red glow of a cigar lingered for a few minutes more, before disappearing in the direction of the saloon.
* * *
The next morning, Evie wasn't quite prepared to accept Tyler's conclusions when he gave them, but her own conscience worked against her. As she readied the children for church, she tried to think what she could have said to whom to give herself away, but the lawyer seemed the only logical suspect, and second consideration didn't even make that thought logical. It hadn't been the namby-pamby Mr. Hale who had dragged her up those stairs. And he thought she was just a friend of Evangeline Howell's.
Logan was a little more logical suspect. He'd already been caught once sneaking around the house. Perhaps he hadn't