Page 8 of Hard Bounty

She moved quickly but carefully as she crept low and picked her way through the heavy growth. The trees were so dense and their canopy of branches and leaves so thick that it was almost as dark as night even though it was still the afternoon.

Twigs and dried leaves crunched beneath her feet. It was a delicate balance, moving slow enough as to not make too much noise but quick enough as to put some distance between her and John Hardin.

Though she couldn’t explain why, the thought of leaving the man sort of weighed on her. It wasn’t as if they were friends. Far from it, in fact. She was his prisoner. If he had his way, she’d be going to jail!

Even under those circumstances, though, the idea of never seeing him again made her kind of sad.

But not sad enough to stay.

She also hated lying to him, too. But again, she didn’t hate it enough to not do it.

So she continued creeping through the woods, with no particular destination in mind. She’d figure that out later. In fact, right now, she’d be happy just to find some small cave that the Deputy Marshal couldn’t fit in. Or maybe she could shimmy up a tree and hide out for a while. The thought of traipsing through those hills alone and hiding out among the animals didn’t bother her. Most women would be horrified at the idea. Ladies didn’t tend to like that sort of thing very much.

She wasn’t most women, though.

And she wasn’t even sure she qualified as a lady. Not these days, at least. Too much had happened. Perhaps one day things would settle down and she’d have a normal sort of life.

That wasn’t a possibility, though, unless she could break free from John and get as far away as possible.

Continuing on, she tried to mentally gauge how much time had passed. It was hard to tell out there, but she hadn’t been gone any longer than twenty minutes, she assumed. That wasn’t a lot of time, but enough to where her captor was surely searching for her by now.

Could he read sign? Would he easily hunt her? She knew a bit about how to cover her tracks. But that took time. And time was something she didn’t have a lot of right now.

So, Mary pressed on.

“I’ll go so far they’ll never find me,” she whispered, hoping the conversation with herself would help distract her mind from the hardships of sneaking through the woods. “Maybe I’ll go out to California and see the ocean!” She nearly giggled, but held that in, worried she was already making too much noise.

“I’ll—”

The whisper was cut off and a startled yell escaped her throat.

So much for being quiet! That didn’t matter now, though. Because she’d distracted herself to the point of not seeing the ravine that was directly in front of her.

And now she was tumbling down its side, head over heels, bouncing along the hard ground on her way to the bottom.

Chapter Six

Mary’s eyes fluttered open to see a ridiculously handsome and strong man standing over her.

She opened her mouth intending to speak, but only a pained groan emitted from her lips.

“You just lay still,” he commanded. “I’m going to look you over.”

Look her over? Why? What was going on?

Who was this guy and why was he staring at her? Had she died? Was he an angel?

Mmm. If heaven was an eternity with that man, she considered herself blessed to have made it!

But there probably wasn’t any pain in heaven and she was hurting all over. So, the Great Beyond most likely wasn’t where she was now.

So, what exactly had happened?

Mary tried to recall the events that led to this moment, but just thinking hurt her head.

She closed her eyes and groaned again. A moment later, it all came back to her.

There had been a ravine that she’d tumbled down while…trying to escape the Deputy Marshal who had arrested her.

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