Making certain none of the robbers had come around to their side, Daniel flung open the stage door and pushed Evie out. "There's a dry riverbed down there. Run for it. They won't shoot a woman, and Pecos won't have to worry about you when the shooting starts."
Too frightened to argue, Evie grabbed her skirts and began to run. She and Daniel had discussed what they would do if they were set upon by thieves, but neither of them had ever really believed such things would happen. Daniel had read her the newspaper accounts of rape and robbery, and tried to impress upon her that she was in more danger than he, but it had never seemed so real before. She knew he couldn't run. She knew he could be hurt if she stayed here and he had to defend her honor. But it still didn't seem right to be running.
She almost stopped and turned around, but she heard the pounding hoofbeats of Tyler's horse coming up the road just as the dry riverbed loomed ahead. She hurriedly slid down into it. What Daniel said made sense. Heroes were always much more likely to go after the thieves if the heroines weren't around needing protection.
Tyler saw her sliding down the embankment and cursed, but it was too late to stop her. If she preferred to take her chances with rattlesnakes instead of with him, that was just fine.
He had never thought to raise a weapon again, but instinct was stronger than any vow a man could make. He shifted his rifle to take aim at the bastard holding his gun on the driver.
Benjamin rode up on the far side of the coach. The gunman Tyler picked out went down, and he aimed for the next. There were half a dozen of the outlaws, but they hadn't been expecting resistance. Two of them turned tail and ran as Benjamin got off three neat shots with his repeating rifle. Tyler took careful aim at one of the two riding in the same direction as Evie had fled.
That was when one of the idiots in the coach decided to come to his own defense. Even as a third gunman toppled from his horse and the last one galloped off after his comrades, a thin swirl of smoke and a sharp bark issued from within the stage, and Benjamin fell.
Tyler was in hot pursuit of the bastards chasing Evie when the scream reached him. He turned in time to see Benjamin hit the dirt.
His heart screamed its rage and fear as the stagecoach abruptly jolted into motion, but it was too late for anything: too late to stop them, too late for Benjamin, and too late for himself and Evie if he didn't act soon.
Chapter 7
Evie screamed as a horse flew over her head, landing in the dust of the dry riverbed. Before she could recover her senses, Tyler was jerking her from her feet and throwing her over his knees like a sack of flour. She scrabbled for handholds as the horse took off down the gully without so much as a by-your-leave from its rider.
She had never been inclined to hysteria, but it took a great deal of effort to keep from mindlessly screaming as her fingers dug into Tyler's leg and her position slipped with the jarring gait of the horse. Tyler caught her bodice waist and pulled her more forcefully across his lap, but now her head hung over his knee and she had a terrifying view of the landscape flying by beneath her.
She closed her eyes as shots rang over their heads. The steady stream of curses Tyler had been emitting when he first grabbed her now ceased. He turned his entire attention to forcing his tired horse to outpacing the thieves. Evie clung to his nankeen trousers and attempted prayer. It was a trifle difficult when her corset was bouncing off Tyler's knee.
The shots eventually grew farther away. As the horse stumbled and heaved, Tyler let up the pace, slowing to a walk while listening for any sign of pursuit. Finally, satisfied that their pursuers had given up the chase, Tyler halted and lowered Evie to the ground.
With an air of surrender, she settled into the dust and bent her head to her knees, gasping for air as she tried to quiet her shaken insides.
Tyler climbed down and watched her, but he was already cutting off the pain by closing off his emotions