spoke about the gang choosing to rush them or smoke them out. The thought invited either a dance with death or a mercilessly slow torture. How long could they hold them off in a rock coffin?
The outlaws rode alongside the Green River until they disappeared. Not once did Jenkins’s gaze cast a shadow on the cave. Caution stopped her from believing she was safe. After all, Morgan had his plans.
Silently, Casey waited, still expecting the band to leap out from nowhere. She noted the afternoon sun begin its slow descent and send dazzling jewels across the water. It glistened brilliantly as though the world lay in peace.
“They’re back,” Morgan said.
The gang rode upstream on the cave’s side. Her blood ran cold. Jenkins most likely enjoyed this cunning game of wit.
Think. I have a man on the outside who wants me dead, and one in the inside who I can’t trust.
The hollow faces filed by. She could almost smell the leather and the unwashed bodies mixed with cheap whiskey. Some of them she’d known since the beginning. Others only a short while. She’d dug out bullets from a few and helped bury their partners, but all were ready to take their orders from Jenkins. I shouldn’t have been so proud—should have slept with a few of them or promised to run off with ’em.
They rode slowly along the river’s edge several yards in front of the cave. Each one looked as if he’d given up hope of finding her. Mumbling and cursing rose above the splashing of water and the calls of nature. Once she thought Tim stared straight into the overhanging rock. Jenkins, however, kept his sight fixed on the river, appearing to concentrate on its ripple and flow.
Casey willed her heart to slow. She suddenly realized the closeness of the man beside her. His breath, warm against her face, and his presence unnerved her. If he wanted to kill Jenkins, now was the chance. Uncomfortable, she stepped back. Somehow she found herself lost in the vortex of his eyes. Logic told her to break free of his visual hold, but instead she sunk her heart into forbidden turquoise pools.
“They’re not leaving,” she whispered. “It’s all a game.”
“Casey,” Morgan said, “don’t you wonder why you and I have ended up like this together?”
She turned from him. “I don’t have time to think on it. I’m more concerned about coming out of this alive.” She shook with the tension flaring between them.
“Mark my word. There’s a reason.” He lowered his rifle yet maintained his watch. “And I don’t know why either.”
“Thought you wanted Jenkins. I’m the bait, remember?”
“That’s exactly what I told you.” He stared back at the men and groaned. “They’re camping in front of us.”
Alarm threatened to strangle her. Already she could sense Jenkins’s murderous hands around her neck. Whether he planned to wait for nightfall or force them out at his whim made little difference. She’d turn her gun on herself before facing his fury.
“What do you think?” She swallowed her staggering emotions. “Pick them off one by one? Let them know we’re ready and have it out now before we collapse from lack of sleep or water?” She brushed back a loose strand of hair from her face. “I want to face them now. I’m tired, too tired to think or reason. You have a chance to shoot Jenkins and still get out of here alive. I’ll hold them off.”
“I’m here for whatever happens. I’m not leaving you to that animal.”
Who was this man? “A mule has more sense than you do. Stick with me, and you’ll end up dead. Save the heroics. What happened to your plan?”
“We’ll think of something,” Morgan said. “We’ve come too far to risk getting killed because they think they have us.”
“And they don’t?”
“Not yet.” He studied the terrain. “Where’s your spunk, girl? I thought you had more fight in you than this.” He took a passing glance at their horses. “You know, I’d gamble on them thinking we’d wait till dark to sneak out of here.”
She paced across the dirt floor of the cave and watched a lizard scamper up the wall. “You’re talking hours away. Jenkins could get very impatient by then.”
“True. What do you say we let them get their horses unsaddled and make a run for it?”
What did they have to lose? “So you’re going to get him when we ride out?”
He nodded.
“I’ve got friends in Vernal. We could hide out a few days.”
“I still know a few