The Texas Ranger's Daughter. Jenna Kernan

father had offered some bounty and he was trying to collect the ransom himself. She hoped he hadn’t taken her with something else in mind.

      Laurie wondered if knowing that her father was John Bender, the Indian fighter and renowned Texas Ranger, would help her or hurt her. Boon was an outlaw. He might not want to save the daughter of a man sworn to hunt him down and kill him.

      Laurie decided to keep silent until she knew more about this man and his intentions. Until then she’d look for a chance to escape.

      “Hold on,” Boon called and then kicked them to a gallop.

      Laurie gritted her teeth and lifted the reins. If they managed to escape, would her father even want her back?

       Chapter Five

      They’d ridden through the night past the silvery tufts of sage grass and squatty juniper that somehow survived growing in nothing but dry gravel. Boon followed the channel that had cut this canyon, up a wide dry wash that could fill in a moment with runoff from a storm upstream. When they veered off the main channel, he hoped he’d chosen wisely and that this finger would bring them back to the surface without having to abandon their horses. Boon had stopped only to brush away their tracks back as far as the last draw. Hammer knew this territory, but the steady wind eroded their tracks and only the fading quarter moon marked their passing, allowing them greater speed.

      He glanced back at Laurie, motionless, her chin on her chest and her posture defeated. She’d stopped her sniffling, but her tears still tore into him worse than cat-claw thorns.

      If there was any doubt in anyone’s mind about his suitability as a Texas Ranger, Boon’s actions had settled the matter. What he’d read as Laurie’s consent turned out to be only her inexperience. What he’d thought was a gift, a way to distract and comfort, ended up being neither. Paulette had told him this was what all women wanted. But then why did it make Laurie cry? She’d seemed to enjoy it at the time and it sickened him to think that he had taken advantage of her, when he’d only meant to give her pleasure.

      Paulette, a new arrival to the Blue Belle, had taught him that this was how you gave a woman her release and that there was no danger of unwanted children this way. Then why was Laurie so grieved?

      The truth settled heavy in his chest.

      He’d taken advantage of a woman in his care, something he knew a Ranger would never do. He was no better than the animals on their trail, just another brutal outlaw who used women for sport. He thought of his mother and his shoulders sank another inch.

      He glanced toward the sky again, certain this time that the stars had begun to vanish. Dawn was coming and with it the desert heat. Something rustled in the brush. Likely a porcupine or armadillo, he thought, continuing on. The cry from behind him brought him about in his saddle. Laurie gripped the saddle horn with both hands and was hauling herself back into the saddle seat.

      He turned his mount.

      “I fell asleep,” she admitted.

      Boon nodded, reaching for her.

      “What are you doing?”

      He pulled her from the saddle and settled her in front of him.

      “I’m awake now. No need to trouble yourself.”

      “If you fall, you might bust something. You rest a bit.”

      She wiggled her hips to settle before him and he gritted his teeth against the physical reaction of his body to hers. He’d not touch her again, he vowed. Laurie stilled, suddenly motionless as a rabbit before a fox.

      “Where are you taking me?” she asked.

      His first thought was Mexico, but he knew he couldn’t just ride off with her. That would be wrong. Then why did his mind fix on the notion like a feather caught in tar?

      He wrapped one arm about her waist and nudged the horse to a fast walk.

      “I’m bringing you home, Laurie.”

      “You are?” Her voice echoed with astonishment. Could she not even conceive of someone like him doing the decent thing?

      “That’s right.”

      “To my father?”

      He didn’t know her father or his connection to the captain.

      “I suppose. I’m here on orders from the Texas Rangers under Captain John Bender. You heard of him?” He puffed up a little when he said it, proud to be associated with Bender, even if the association was only temporary. He wondered again if he could make it permanent. Maybe the captain would see, when he brought Laurie home safe, that he’d be a welcome addition to Bender’s division.

      Laurie turned and stared up at him, her expression confused.

      She clarified. “Captain John Bender, famous lawman, legendary Indian fighter, that John Bender?”

      “The same.”

      Boon lifted his chin a notch, hoping she was impressed.

      “He sent you?”

      Uncertainty flickered down low in his belly, but he nodded.

      “I just said so.” Had she heard of him or not?

      “That John Bender is my father.”

      Boon swayed, and had it not been for the saddle cantle behind him he’d have likely dropped over backward. He felt as if she’d punched him in the stomach, would have preferred it in fact. She still stared at him, half-turned in the saddle, one brow lifted in speculation.

      “You didn’t know,” she said.

      He shook his head in answer as the truth descended upon him like a cloud of locusts from a blue sky. She wasn’t Bender’s woman. This was his child and Boon had done things to Laurie to which a father would surely take offense. He’d made the captain’s daughter cry.

      Boon’s little dream of joining the Rangers burst like a soap bubble in the sun, lost forever.

      He’d never join that division of elite fighters, earn the respect of the captain or be anything other than what he was. Reality blinded him. Coats was right. Once a snake, always a snake.

      If he was smart he’d drop her at the stage station and head in the opposite direction as fast as he could ride. If he were lucky he might make Mexico before the Rangers ran him to ground. Boon pulled to a halt and dismounted, dropping the reins and walking away from the horses. His stride was quick at first then slowed until he stood with both hands laced behind his neck, his elbows stretched wide as he looked to the heavens.

      The captain’s words came back to him. I don’t care. I want her back.

      His partner had told Bender it was a mistake. Now Boon understood what it was—it was him. He was the mistake. The captain hadn’t sent him because he was the best man for the job or even his first choice. Boon was his only choice and he hadn’t expected that the outlaw would treat his daughter honorably or he would have told him who Laurie was. Instead, the captain had kept it secret. Boon replayed the conversation he’d overheard in his mind. It all made sense now. Bender wanted his daughter back so badly he had been willing to do anything, even allow a known outlaw to defile his little girl. The captain loved Laurie enough to let it happen just to get her back alive.

      The realization hit him right in the gut. Bender didn’t trust him. He’d sent Boon because he’d had no other choice.

      Boon folded at the middle as his empty stomach pitched.

      Bands of pink and orange light reached across the eastern sky. Morning had found them, still in the box canyon.

      Laurie watched her rescuer with cautious eyes. Boon looked like a prisoner giving himself up and now he looked as if he were going to be sick.

      His horse did not know what to make of this abandonment and so the chestnut gelding glanced toward Laurie,