hand. “’Cause I don’t want to hear you talk about it. Never could tolerate the Northern accent. How about we just agree to talk as little as possible?”
She didn’t need a weapon, she decided. She’d kill him with her bare hands. She’d just grab his throat and bite him, then she’d watch the blood pump out of his long, hard body and say sweetly, in her most proper Northern accent, that she was wrong about not having the killer instinct. It appeared she did.
Before she could pounce, he plopped his hat on her head and dropped his gloves in her hand. “Put these on, Anna. There’s brush the rest of the way down that’ll cut you if you grab for a handhold, and the sun’s going to turn hot enough to put that blush permanently on those cheeks.”
He’d never know how close he came to dying, she thought. She’d let him live awhile longer. Not because he’d said something nice to her. A nice word would probably choke the man. But he had shown a degree of thoughtfulness. The dirty hat and the worn gloves couldn’t make her look worse.
She sniffed again, deciding that on top of everything else, she’d caught a cold. The only silver lining to it lay in the hope that she’d passed it along to the Ranger while he’d kissed her.
“You getting sick?” he asked, already ten feet ahead of her.
“No.” She picked up her bag and followed.
“Well, then hurry up. We want to be off this hill by the time they ride by here.”
She almost laughed. Her brother was probably having his second cup of coffee and telling everyone about how his sister couldn’t manage to do anything right, including get to him.
Two hours later, when they were almost to the trail that served as the stage road, she collapsed. Her legs simply folded. Three days with nothing to eat and little to drink. More hours than she could count without sleep. Like a clock running down, she stopped.
As she lay in the dirt, she heard the Ranger backtracking to her. She half expected him to yell at her to get up, but he simply leaned down, picked up his hat and her bag, then lifted her into his arms.
Without a word, he began walking, carrying her like she was a child and not a woman almost his height.
Annalane closed her eyes. She’d have to kill him later. Right now all she wanted to do was sleep.
Chapter 4
McCord walked half a mile before he found an old cottonwood tree with branches almost touching the ground. He pulled Anna into the cool shade where roots bowed from the earth, making a natural cradle for her.
Anna’s eyes fluttered open. She watched him, a mixture of fear and panic in her exhausted gaze, but she didn’t say a word.
“You all right?” he asked, feeling her face to see if she had a fever. “We about froze last night in the rain, and now it’s hot. I swear, Texas is the only place I know of where you can experience all four seasons within twenty-four hours.”
She didn’t act like she could hear him. McCord pulled his leather coat off her shoulders and spread it out on the ground, saying, “You’ll be safe in no time, Anna. I promise.” He tugged her arm, leaning her down atop his coat, with her head on her bag for her pillow. She didn’t fight him, but the stiffness in her movements told him she didn’t believe him.
“That’s better.” He patted her hip, liking the roundness of it on her slender frame. “Rest.” There was no telling how long it had been since she’d eaten. He’d seen her shoving food around on the tin plates when they stopped yesterday, but he hadn’t seen her lift a bite to her mouth.
He laid the back of his hand against her cheek. She was warm, but not burning with fever. When he began unbuttoning her traveling jacket, she moaned and shook her head.
“Easy now,” he said, thinking that was probably more something he should say to a horse rather than a woman. “I’m just going to make you comfortable, then I’ll watch the road for your brother.”
Her fitted jacket was tight across her ribs and he wondered how she’d stood it all night when they’d been climbing in the rocks. When he finished undoing the last button, she let out a sigh and closed her eyes. He couldn’t resist sliding his finger beneath the wool and feeling