red! He was going after her, he decided. When he caught up with the dark-eyed, dark-haired terror, he was going to strangle her with his bare hands.
No, you won’t, the sensible voice in his head said. If you do, you’ll be no better than the cutthroats you arrest.
“Fine then, so I won’t strangle her,” he said as he scraped himself off the ground. “I’ll settle for tormenting her to no end.” He resituated the saddle on her horse—and wondered if she’d purposely stolen the horse to throw the vigilantes off track, too.
Fletch took an extra moment to check the cinch to make sure it hadn’t been cut so it would rip loose when he galloped off. He wouldn’t have put it past her, but the tack seemed to be in good working order. Relieved, he was still outraged that Savanna had made him look like an incompetent imbecile so many times in the course of one day. She’d challenged his credibility as a man, as an Apache warrior and as a Texas Ranger. If the men in his battalion got wind of this mortifying incident, they’d never let him hear the end of it.
He rode off into the darkness, mentally listing all sorts of suitable tortures that might appease his humiliation. Then he set aside his need for revenge and concentrated on figuring out where she might have gone.
“I swear, Savanna Cantrell, Holy Terror of the Arbuckles, you will be damn sorry you tangled with me!” he said to the image looming large in his mind.
Savanna sighed contentedly as she paddled across the natural pool that rippled beneath the panoramic, fifty-foot waterfall tucked in the mountains. Although there were several falls sprinkled throughout the Arbuckles, Whispering Falls always brought her a sense of peace. She definitely needed that after almost two harrowing weeks on the run. Not to mention her encounter with Fletcher Hawk two days earlier.
Something about that man made her ornery and defensive. Yet, bad as she hated to admit it, she was attracted to him against her own fierce will. What woman in her right mind would be intrigued by a man who wanted to arrest her?
A wry grin pursed her lips, remembering her confrontation with the ruggedly handsome Ranger. Getting the drop on him, and then watching him being jerked upside down to hang by his heels had provided mischievous satisfaction. But when she’d peeled off his shirt then run her hands up and down his muscled legs to check for concealed weapons, it had been much too erotic. In her twenty-five years of existence, she’d never been assailed by such wickedly pleasurable sensations. It was disturbing to fantasize about a man who was only interested in bounty money.
When the vision of bronzed flesh and power-packed muscles exploded in her mind, Savanna submerged. She was not sparing that opportunistic Ranger another thought, she vowed determinedly. She had pressing matters to resolve. She didn’t need to become sidetracked by daydreaming about a man whose sleek, muscular body filled her with wayward thoughts and dangerous sensations.
Resurfacing, Savanna wasn’t sure what sort of deal Fletch had struck with Bill Solomon, but she’d bet her right arm that it wouldn’t play out to her benefit. Why and when had her father called in Bill Solomon? Had Draper bought off Solomon so he would double-cross her father? Could these charges against her be spiteful as well as politically damaging to her father? What was really going on here? she wondered.
Wary of what was transpiring around her, Savanna decided the best thing to do was to take the long way through the mountains. There, she could infiltrate Draper’s ranch and maintain surveillance on him and his hired guns.
She even wondered if one of those mercenaries had disposed of Roark after she’d stormed off that fateful night. Several ruffians had been playing bodyguard to Roark. One of them might have turned on the obnoxious bastard. All Savanna needed was a clever disguise so she could snoop around the ranch. She might be able to pick up a few tidbits of information that pinpointed the real killer and she could find out where Willow…
Her thoughts scattered when she sighted the horse she’d left for Fletch. It stood on the ledge beside the upper tier of the waterfall. Alarm shot through her like a discharging bullet. Blast it! How had Fletch found her so quickly? She’d doubled back and left false trails everywhere.
Whirling, Savanna sidestroked toward the bushes where she’d left a set of clean clothes. She nearly suffered apoplexy when Fletcher Hawk materialized from the shadows. Her clothes were draped over his broad shoulder and a smug smile that said, “Gotcha,” was plastered on his sensuous lips.
Chapter Three
“Looking for these, Paleface?” he teased, his gaze roaming unhindered over her exposed flesh.
Savanna shielded herself as best she could while she treaded water. She’d love to slap that smirk off his lips, but she’d enjoy outsmarting him almost as much. Morningstar and her father, the ex-army scout extraordinaire, had cautioned her never to leave all her belongings in one place. Sort of like never stashing all your eggs in one basket. She had learned to plan an alternate escape route for emergencies such as this.
“If you expect me to come out of the water, then I will need my clothes,” she called deceptively.
“Come and get ’em,” he challenged, his sky-blue eyes gleaming with devilish delight.
While he stood waiting, Savanna dived beneath the surface, reversed direction and headed for the opposite bank as fast as she could. She’d stashed an extra set of clothes and her rifle in the bushes. When she resurfaced, she was dismayed to discover that Fletch had vanished into thin air. Decidedly uneasy, she hurriedly swam toward the underbrush.
And, damn it, suddenly there he was, appearing like a phantom from the shadows of the trees, blocking her path so she couldn’t emerge from the water.
“I’ve got to hand it to you, lady. You have a whole bag of clever tricks at your disposal. Someone trained you so expertly that you do think and react like an Indian. Was it the woman who showed up to see you two days ago?”
“I don’t owe you an explanation,” she muttered, her gaze darting anxiously from side to side, her mind working furiously in attempt to outsmart him.
She sank beneath the surface and headed for the falls, in the hope of climbing up the narrow ledge behind the misty curtain of water. Modesty be damned, she decided as she inhaled a galvanizing breath and prepared to make a run for it.
She dashed from behind the falls to retrieve the Appaloosa she had “borrowed” from Fletch.
To her chagrin, the horse wasn’t where she’d left it. But Fletch was. Damnation, he’d second-guessed her again.
Embarrassed, her face blazing with color, she ducked into the underbrush. When he headed directly toward her, she dashed, buck-naked, toward the waterfall. But Fletch pounced on her before she could dive into the pool.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” he rumbled as he hooked his arm around her waist then dropped a quilt over her head.
Savanna yelped and fought futilely for freedom as he rolled her up like a mummy. Her breath came out in jarring spurts when he jogged off, carrying her jackknifed over his shoulder. Only God knew what he planned to do with her, she thought, panicked. She wormed and squirmed and kicked, hoping he’d drop her so she could dash to safety.
She grunted painfully when he flung her over a horse then tied her wrists to one stirrup and her ankles to the other.
“If you’re planning to molest me, you can expect to have a fight on your hands,”
