Page 58 of The Promise of Jenny Jones

Jenny released a stream of silent cussing that would have curdled a preacher’s eyes.

Now she saw the forms slipping through the trees and brush, maybe six men, and she spotted a man who looked enough like Luis Barrancas that Graciela had to be right.

It was Luis. Her first shocked thought was: It can’t be.

Followed by: Yes, it can. The bastard had followed them and found them in California.

She fanned a barrage of shots toward the trees and underbrush, her mind racing.

Ty’s place was too far from the Sanders ranch house to hope that anyone there would hear the shots.

She could expect no assistance from that quarter.

But without help, the outcome was predictable. She was outnumbered, outgunned.

“Kid, listen to me. We’ve got one chance.

” And it was probably a slim one. She squeezed off a shot, felt Graciela’s wide, frightened eyes fixed on her face.

“When I stand up and run toward that low rock wall, you run as fast as you can in the other direction, to the hitching post. Follow me so far?”

Graciela nodded. “You want me to ride back to the ranch.”

“No, honey, that will take too long. Ride like hell for your grandpa Barrancas’s place.

You tell him these are his fricking relatives and his fricking problem, only say it nice, no cussing.

” A bullet tore through the brim of her hat, knocking it off her head before she ducked down, face-to-face with Graciela.

“What if Grandpa won’t come?” Graciela asked anxiously.

She touched the kid’s cheek. “If he’s decided to accept you, he’ll come.

If he’s still being a jackass, he won’t.

It’s that simple.” But Graciela would be safe.

Ellen had told Jenny enough about Don Antonio Barrancas that Jenny believed him to be a man of pride and honor.

Ellen had hinted that the hostilities between the families had originated with Cal Sanders, not Don Antonio.

There was not a doubt in Jenny’s mind that the cousins had to be here without Don Antonio’s knowledge.

“Use some of that charm you’re always telling me you have, or my butt is dead.

Now give me a kiss for luck, and let’s do it. ”

Graciela kissed her hard on the lips, then they looked at each other for a long minute.

“All right, on the count of three. One… two… go!”

Fanning her gun and running in a crouched zigzag, she dashed across the yard, bullets shaving weeds all around her, but somehow she made it to the stone fence with all her parts intact.

She leaped over the stones, then dropped flat to the ground.

Behind her, she heard Graciela’s pony crashing through the underbrush and prayed there were no Barrancas cousins on that side of the house.

If she had guessed right, that the cousins were here without Don Antonio’s knowledge, she didn’t think they would risk exposing themselves to being sighted from his hacienda.

But who could tell what the crazy bastards might be thinking?

Rolling on her back, she reloaded, then flipped onto her stomach and got off a couple of shots, narrowing the odds against her by one Mexican, who fell out of the brush, twitched, then lay still. But she didn’t celebrate.

This shoot-out was not going to end well. Not this time. Somehow it seemed fitting that her luck would run out here, as close to Ty as the ranch could offer.

A hail of bullets whizzed over the wall and she waited, wondering if the cousins were creeping up on her, hoping for a lull so she could lift her head and fire a few more shots.

She was on borrowed time anyway, she told herself, easing up for a peek over the wall. A head darted out from the corner of the house, ducked back. They had reached the house.

She should have died a couple of months ago in front of a firing squad.

The time since then had been a gift and she silently thanked God for it.

She had used her extra time well. She had known Ty and she had known Graciela; she had known love.

She had kept her promise to Marguarita. Her house was in order, she had no future and no regrets, and she supposed she was as ready as a person ever was to meet her maker.

Firing steadily, she peered over the wall to see how close they were now.

Then a fiery impact struck her shoulder and she flew backward with a gasp.

Damn. Touching her fingertips to her left shoulder, she felt the wetness, blinked at the blood on her hand.

Grinding her teeth together, she hoped the bastards weren’t cheering yet, because it was going to take more than one bullet to kill Jenny Jones.

Crawling on elbows and stomach, she moved up to the wall again then eased onto her back to reload.

The firing was intense enough that she didn’t hear the horse riding down on her, didn’t see the man until he leaped down next to her as his horse jumped the stone wall. Rolling, he knocked the gun from her hand and was on top of her in one smooth motion.

“Why is it that every damned time I run into you, you’re in the middle of a fight? What’s wrong with you, woman?”

“Ty!” Her eyes flew open and she went limp, halting her effort to knee him in the groin. Struck dumb, she just stared at him. She couldn’t believe it, but there he was, grinning down at her, his blazing blue-green eyes as beautiful and dangerous and full of Old Nick as she remembered. “Ty!”

Her arms flew around his neck and she dragged him down out of a rain of bullets, kissing him hard over and over and over. Then she stared at him again, made a fist, and punched him with her uninjured hand hard enough to lay him out in the dirt beside her.

“You no-good inconsiderate stinking piece of cow flop! You selfish unthinking bastard!” A bullet parted her hair before he gave his head a shake and jerked her down into his arms. “Haven’t you ever heard of a fricking telegraph?

Do you have any damned idea what you put us through? We thought you were fricking dead!”

“ I told you I’d be home in a month. Do you think you’re the only one who keeps a promise?

And besides, I wanted to surprise you.” Gently, he touched the bloodstain widening across her shoulder.

“I swear, darlin’. Are we ever going to know each other when one of us isn’t shot or cut? ” His grin widened.

“We are outnumbered here, you idiot. There’s two of us and four or five of them.

What are you blathering about? We are going to die.

” She covered his face with kisses. “Oh God, I’m so glad to see you!

” Tears of joy blinded her. “Now haul your sorry butt up here and shoot some cousins, so at least we don’t die in disgrace. ”

“Honey, you just stay right where you are, here in my arms because I had plenty of time to think and I’ve got some things to say to you. Help is right behind me, and you won’t believe who’s leading the posse.”

The words were hardly out of his mouth when a dozen riders galloped through the trees and brush. Ty pulled Jenny out of the path of Don Antonio’s horse seconds before the black stallion flew over the stone wall, followed by a stream of riders and horses.

“He came,” Jenny whispered, closing her eyes and slumping on Ty’s chest. “He came for Graciela.”

“You need to talk louder,” Ty said, pulling her on top of him. But the gunfight was moving away from them now. Only an occasional stray bullet smacked into the stone wall.

Using a fat bottom stone on the wall as a pillow, he settled his head against it and gazed into her eyes. “I love you, Jenny Jones. Now hear me out and don’t interrupt. I know you and me aren’t the marrying kind, but we have to get over that and get married anyway.”

She blinked down at him in amazement. “You’re proposing marriage in the middle of a fricking gunfight? With me bleeding all over you? Ty Sanders, you left your brain back there in the Mexican desert.”

But he loved her. Oh God, he loved her. He’d said the words.

He loved her. And suddenly that was the only important thing in the world.

If the gunfight was still going on, she didn’t hear it.

She heard only his voice, saw only his gorgeous tanned face.

The only thing she felt was his hard body, tight and hot beneath hers.

That, and the fierce pounding of her heart singing in her ears and mind. He loved her.

“Get down here and put your head on my shoulder. I’d be real pissed if you got yourself killed at this point in my proposal, and especially after all I went through to get here before the month was up.”

She pressed her head on his chest, smiling foolishly, listening to the rock-steady beat of his heart. It belonged to her. His heart was her heart now. “Well, get on with it, then. Why do you think we have to get married?”

“Because I want to bed you down again and marriage answers the problem of you maybe getting pregnant. Because I need a woman in my bed and in my house. Because I love you, and you love me. And, finally, because Ma said if I didn’t marry you, I didn’t have the sense God gave an ant.

” He laughed. “She sent me up here after you and told me not to come back unless you said yes.” Gently, he lifted her enough to gaze into her glistening eyes.

“Say yes, Jenny. Promise you’ll marry me.

Promise you’ll still be here, driving me crazy and loving me when we’re little and old and surrounded by grandchildren.

Promise that you’ll let me love you until I take my last breath. Promise.”

“Oh Ty. I promise. With all my heart, I promise!”

Oblivious to everything but each other, they lay together behind the stone wall, touching, kissing, both talking at once until a shadow fell across them. Blinking, surprised to notice the absence of gunfire, they came to their feet, exchanging embarrassed and self-conscious glances.

Don Antonio removed his hat and swept it across his body in a bow. “Welcome home, Senor Sanders.”