Page 32 of Hell and Gone
Everett backed away, exhaling. “Where is your stable?”
“We’re going there now.” Lawrence shoved past Everett. Fury flowed off him, wounded pride. He wouldn’t meet Everett’s gaze. “Saddle up. We gotta move fast.”
Everett stepped into the saddle as Lawrence took off, breaking into a canter through the trees. He nudged his horse forward, squinting as he tried to follow Lawrence’s shrinking form in the midnight forest, until Lawrence disappeared.
Instead, he followed the slender-shoed horse prints Lawrence left behind.
* * *
Lawrence’s stablewas nestled in the foothills, the Crazies rising overhead and snuffing out the stars and the moon, leaving an impenetrable black void all around. He had a few acres fenced in and a simple horse barn. The horses, five of them, roamed free in their corral. Several came to meet Lawrence as he and Everett arrived.
“Sorry girls,” Lawrence murmured to the two they’d rode, leading them to the barn. “I don’t have time to spoil you tonight.”
Still, he fed them both treats from his pocket, brushed them quickly after he stripped their saddles, and barked at Everett to fork more hay out for the horses. The other horses watched Everett, snorting at him while sweat dripped down his back. Even in the midnight chill, his face was drenched.
It felt like an hour, but was only minutes before Lawrence came out of the barn, leading Trigger by a simple lead. Trigger was unsaddled, only two thick blankets over his back. “I could only ride down with him. I couldn’t bring Lantanaandmove fast. And if we wanna get away and hide, we need to move on horse. Can’t be drivin’ nowhere.”
“Where did you ditch your truck?”
“Left it at Birch Creek, sixteen miles out of town. Rode back in with Trigger. Then came to get you.”
Gunshots in his hotel room. Flashes of light through the window. Lawrence pleading with him to follow. “Thank you.”
Slender footed horses and small shoes. Constrictor knots around tree trunks.
“C’mon. Get on up.” Lawrence held out his hand. “We’ve got to ride bareback together back to the ranch.”
He flushed so hard and fast he thought he would combust. He turned his head down, staring at the ground as he pretended to fix his boot. Lawrence grunted and shoved his hand in his face. “C’mon!”
It was awkward, clambering around Lawrence. Especially suddenly keyed up and withthatthought in his head.
Torn between his wandering eyes playing over Lawrence’s body for two days, the uncoiling of a heat within him he’d long thought dead and buried, and the taste of betrayal burning in the back of his throat, Everett broke. He sagged against Lawrence’s back.
“We can’t go back to your ranch. Not if you want to hide.” Damn him. Was he aiding and abetting now? In what? What was he a part of in these damn mountains?
“What do you mean?” Lawrence went stiff in front of him. He turned to Everett over his shoulder, wide eyes dark like a deep water untouched by the sun.
“Braddock thinks you’re part of everything. He thinks you have a hand in what’s going on. Maybe you killed Dell and Aaron. Maybe you killed Carson. Maybe you’re running drugs through the mountains. He thinks that’s why you have those big bank deposits.”
Lawrence cursed, spitting fire as he hunched forward, his fists in front of his face like he wanted to rip the universe apart. His shoulders quaked. “Those are my horses,” he growled.
“You kept that secret, though. And people made up their own minds about where your deposits came from.” If he was going this far, he might as well go all the way. “Braddock is getting a warrant to search your ranch, and for your arrest. He thinks he can convince the judge there’s probable cause. Especially with your history.”
Again, that over the shoulder glare. Lawrence’s eyes were lost in the shadow, and only his lips moved in the dim light cast off the mountain. “I warned you already: I’m a good-for-nothin’ cowboy and I got the jail time to prove it.”
“I know.”
They stared at each other. Everett felt Lawrence breathe, could almost hear his heartbeat.
“Are you stayin with me’? Or you wanna get gone?” Lawrence’s voice was a tumbling stone rolling downhill.
“I’m staying.”
“Slide closer, then. Put your arms around my waist,” Lawrence said softly. “You gotta hold on, ‘cause we’re gonna push it.”
Excruciating, torturous bliss. He clung to Lawrence, to his powerful body, his thick muscles flexing beneath his flannel button-down and his corduroy jacket. He tucked his face against Lawrence’s shoulder blade, keeping low and away from the brim of his cowboy hat. His blood sang, burning,craving.
It had been so,solong since he’d touched a man. Since he’d been touched by a man. It had been just as long since he’d felt this desire, even. Hadn’t that part of himself died? Hadn’t everything inside of him bled out? If he felt nothing, then where did this burning come from?
