The Bounty Hunter and the Heiress. Carol Finch

shake as he assisted his wife into the coach.

      Wife? The word rang through his mind like a clanging gong. She was not his wife and she never would be, he reminded himself realistically. Let her have her fun while it lasted. By nightfall, he’d be long gone and she could track Gordon by whatever means available—as long as it didn’t include him.

      Raven continued to chant that mantra, even when she held his hand and smiled up at him so sweetly during the next leg of the journey. Eva? Sweet? He chastised himself for getting soft when she poured on the feminine charm. He didn’t want to warm up to her. But when he stared at her enchanting face and gazed into those twinkling brown eyes he knew she was getting to him. He’d better put a stop to it quickly if he knew what was good for him.

      “Damn, I knew she’d come after me.” Gordon Carter spewed a string of foul expletives as he watched Evangeline and her brawny bodyguard pile into the stagecoach.

      He’d botched the perfect opportunity to remove that female thorn in his side…permanently. But his aim had been slightly off the mark. Now, instead of disappearing for a few months to live on the money he’d swiped from Lydia, he had to deal with Eva breathing down his neck.

      Gordon had expected as much from that willful woman, which is why he went to roost in the rocky terrain near the line of stage stations that flanked the mountains. He hadn’t considered that she would hire that half-breed bounty hunter called Raven to help track him down. Gordon knew he had to strike suddenly and quickly because getting hold of Eva and making it look as if she had an untimely accident had just become more difficult than he originally planned.

      Scowling, he tugged on the reins and led his confiscated horse along the mountain trail. Too bad he hadn’t been able to resolve his problem with one well-aimed shot, he mused sourly. Next time, however, he’d take his time and make the bullets count. On that cheering thought, he mounted the chestnut gelding and trotted off.

      “In all the excitement of the ambush I forgot to ask if you gathered any information about the man who stole your sister’s carriage,” Raven whispered in Eva’s ear five miles down the road. “And no, the attendants haven’t seen the horse named Hodge that you described to me.”

      “That’s because Gordon rode off on Hodge last night, after selling the buggy to the stationmaster and buying a saddle,” she murmured against his bearded jaw. “I bought back the buggy, of course.”

      “If you leave it sitting where it is for too long the owner might sell it twice,” he warned.

      “That’s why I left a message to be delivered home so my friend can pick it up.” She squirmed to find a more comfortable position in the cramped space. There wasn’t one.

      Raven smirked. “What if the agent isn’t honest enough to forward the message? Let me tell you something, sugar. You won’t get far in this world if you’re too trusting. Cheaters, backstabbers and liars are as thick as mosquitoes.”

      Eva stared pensively at him. Cynical and wary though she had become—after dealing with a long line of gold diggers who tried to smooth-talk her out of her inheritance—she couldn’t hold a candle to this bounty hunter. No doubt, chasing bloodthirsty renegades distorted his perception of everyone.

      Taking into account Raven’s mixed heritage, she suspected he had encountered racism, bigotry, brutality and who knew what else. The scars on his back indicated that he’d endured difficult times and he’d lost his faith in humanity. Raven had become isolated because of his Native background and insulated by his indifference to other people’s opinion of him.

      As much as she wanted to probe into Raven’s past to understand what made him the hard-edged, mistrusting man he was, this wasn’t the time or place. In the coach, whispering in his ear was the extent of the privacy between them. And so, she scrunched down the way Raven had and closed her eyes to catch up on the sleep she’d lost while making last-minute arrangements for this trip.