Carol Finch - Lady Renegade

While she stared up at him, her golden eyes smoldering with anger and resentment, he turned away. He gestured to the three marshals who waited introduction.

“Lorelei Russell, these are my compatriots. Phen Wilson, Noel Perkins and Mitch Hines. They ride for Parker, same as I do.” He gestured toward the jail wagon. “Two of the men in the cage are with Pecos Clem. The other three are Chester Felding, Leland Bates and Ambrose Thomas. They are wanted in Missouri for bank robbery and assault.”

Lori surveyed the scruffy men in the metal cage, then inwardly cringed at the prospect of being stuffed in the mobile jail with them. Felding, who had a square face, bulky shoulders and a missing front tooth, leered at her as if she were standing naked. Thomas, a frizzy red-haired, overweight prisoner with arms and legs like tree stumps, licked his lips as if she were his next meal.

Bates reminded her of a rat with his pointy nose, dark, beady eyes and scarecrow-thin features. His leer made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

Clem’s two cohorts were no better. The scraggly scoundrels ogled her unblinkingly, making her squirm uncomfortably.

Repulsed, she shifted her attention to the three deputy marshals who scrutinized her closely. Better the devil I know, she thought, glancing sideways at Gideon. Then again, she might find compassion in one of the other lawmen.

She hadn’t found it in Gideon Tough-As-Nails-Fox.

Lori tossed around a polite smile to Phen Wilson, the lanky, blond-haired marshal with pale blue eyes, high cheekbones and a cleft in his chin. He looked to be thirty-five or thereabouts.

Noel Perkins was about the same age as Phen Wilson. He had straight brown hair and hazel eyes. He was thick-chested, stocky and not as tall as Gideon, who towered over everyone.

Mitch Hines had a friendly smile and Lori hoped she could count on him for the simplest of necessities during her captivity. She nodded a greeting to Mitch, whose gray eyes swept over her in careful assessment a second time. His sandy blond head was a little too big for his narrow shoulders, but she predicted he was quick of foot and as agile as a cat.

She wouldn’t want to get into a footrace with him during an escape attempt—if and when she could manage one.

The impulse to flee suddenly assailed her and she shifted restlessly from one scuffed boot to the other.

“Don’t even think about it,” Gideon murmured, as if he’d read her mind, damn him. “The odds are not in your favor. There isn’t an incompetent lawman in the bunch.”

“The odds are against me no matter where I go,” she grumbled. “You refuse to listen to my side of the story and you won’t accompany me home to investigate.”

When he infuriated her by tugging on the rope leash still attached to her metal bracelets, she glared holes in his broad back. Lori had never felt so outraged and powerless and she never wanted to feel this way again. It was humiliating and exasperating and she blamed all her woes on Gideon Fox.

He was so blasted mistrusting and cynical…and it incensed her to no end this bullheaded marshal physically appealed to her. She thought she had better taste in men!

“What are you going to do with her?” Phen Wilson asked. “We can’t cage her with those men and you damn well know it.”

Gideon glanced this way and that. “We’ll stake her out under a shade tree,” he suggested.

Perkins glanced over at Lori and frowned. “That sounds a little harsh. She’s a woman.”

“A woman wanted for murder,” Gideon reminded him. “She didn’t show her last lover much sympathy.”

Lori stamped her foot in frustration. “He was not my lover,” she protested. “He was my friend and I didn’t kill him. For all I know my friend was hiding out in the territory, like your prisoners, and a bounty hunter identified him, shot him and claimed the reward for Tony after I left. I might have been cleared of this disastrous mistake—” she doubted it, but there was an outside chance “—but Marshal Fox refuses to take me back to find out for certain!”

As the other three marshals stared pensively at her she kept talking, hoping to sway them into being lenient and volunteering to check out her story. “Please consider that I’m upset about Tony’s death. It’s bad enough that he proposed and I turned him down right before someone ambushed him and very nearly shot me in the process. There are questions that need to be answered!”

“Why’d you turn him down?” Mitch Hines asked curiously.

She stared into his pale gray eyes and said, “Because I didn’t love him and he wanted me to elope to anywhere, as long as it was out of the territory. Which made me wonder if he felt the need to run from the law. Tony was likable and he was kind to me but he was very secretive about his past.”

Just when she thought she might be making headway with the other marshals a shout erupted in the distance. Lori glanced over her shoulder to see a man in his midtwenties—with raven hair and a bronzed complexion that resembled Gideon’s—galloping toward them, riding an Appaloosa gelding.

Gideon tugged on her leash as he headed toward the new arrival, forcing her to scurry to catch up with his long, urgent strides.

“What’s wrong, Glenn?” Gideon demanded as he reached out to grab the Appaloosa’s reins.

“Galen was shot in the arm last night when two horse thieves swooped down to steal our horses,” Glenn reported gruffly. “You have to come, Gid. Sarah and I have tried to keep Galen down so he can heal, but he’s determined to find our prize horses….”

His voice trailed off when he glanced past Gideon to appraise Lori with his dark eyes. “Ma’am,” he greeted politely. “A pleasure to meet you.”

Gideon rolled his eyes and said, “Lorelei Russell, this is my youngest brother, Glenn.”

“Hello, Glenn.” She flashed him a smile as she stepped up beside Gideon. “I’d shake your hand but your big brother has mistakenly tied me up.”

“She’s wanted for murder.”

Glenn’s dark eyes popped and his jaw sagged against his chest. “She’s your prisoner?” he chirped incredulously.

“I’m not guilty but your mule-headed brother refuses to listen to reason,” Lori inserted.

Gideon glanced at her in annoyance then looked over his shoulder at the men in the cage. “How many of you are innocent?” he called out to the prisoners.

All the outlaws gave a shout while Gideon stared pointedly at Lori. “You can see why your proclamations fall on deaf ears. Everyone around here is misunderstood, just like you, hellion.”

“Well, she doesn’t look guilty to me,” Glenn said as he gave her the once-over again, paying particular attention to Lori’s alluring curves and swells.

“Looks can be deceiving and don’t you forget it, Glenn.”

Hell and damn, thought Gideon. His twenty-six-year-old brother wasn’t immune to Lori’s charms, either. Just what he needed, a love-starved little brother taking Lori’s side.

“Are you coming?” Glenn asked anxiously. “Sarah is upset.”

“Who’s Sarah?” Lori inquired.

“Galen’s wife. She’s afraid he’ll take off while I’m fetching Gideon and she can’t chase after him because she’s five months pregnant.”

Gideon pivoted toward his horse. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he called to the other marshals.

“What about the woman?” Phen Wilson questioned as he glanced from the cage of men to Gideon.

Gideon blew out a frustrated breath. As much as he wanted to get this sassy spitfire out from underfoot—because he’d proved he couldn’t trust himself with the forbidden temptation she presented—he didn’t feel comfortable leaving her in camp, either. It wasn’t that he didn’t expect the other marshals to treat her humanely. It was just that she was…