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  A man came running to her side. “Is she okay?”

  “No, can you take those two horses to the corral for me?” Meg asked, needing the horses taken care of and fed, but knowing she’d never leave Ruby’s side.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  What if they didn’t have a sawbones? What if all they had was a healer? Right now, Meg just wanted someone to give Ruby some relief.

  “Is there a doctor in this town?”

  “Yes,” the man responded, gazing worriedly at Ruby.

  “Tell them at the corral I’ll be down later to pay for their care,” she told the older man, who she hoped was honest. “Thank you.”

  He pulled the horses down a side alley.

  She had to get Ruby out of the middle of the street. There were times when she wished Annabelle was with them to help out. This was one of those times.

  Meg halfway picked up Ruby. “Can you walk?”

  Ruby took a step and screamed. “My ankle. I can’t put any weight on my ankle.”

  Concern pounded like a hammer hitting an anvil in Meg’s heart. If only they had stopped to rest earlier, none of this would have happened. If only she hadn’t been pushing them to their limits to find Zach and Simon.

  She half-carried Ruby, hobbling down the dusty street to the rooming house. When they stumbled in the door, a woman came running around the counter. “Oh, my God! What happened?”

  “Her foot got caught in the stirrup, and the horse spooked. He dragged her down the street. Do you have a room?”

  “I’ve got a room, and I’ll send someone to fetch the doctor. He lives about a mile out of town. Let’s get her settled into bed.” The middle-aged woman wrapped her arms around Ruby, helping Meg carry her sister into the room. “Her back is going to be sore.”

  Her back was going to be black and blue from the looks of the scraps and burns. Even for an old tired horse, her mustang had held up well on the trip. Maybe too well.

  Ruby moaned. “Hurts so bad.”

  The woman pulled back the quilt on the bed, and together, they tried to lay Ruby down gently without hurting her back any more than necessary.

  Meg stared in shock at her sister, her face pale as she moaned in the bed. Meg had to help make Ruby more comfortable and take care of her, the best she could.

  “Do you need some help with what’s left of her dress?” the kind woman asked.

  “I think I can get it from here. If you’d just send for the doctor, I’d be grateful,” Meg responded. She took out her knife and cut the dress away from Ruby’s body. It was ruined, and there was no sense in making her remove the tattered garment.

  The woman watched Ruby, her face grimacing at the sight of her wounds. “I’ll send for him right now.”

  “Thanks,” Meg said. “Oh, and could you bring me a basin of water?”

  “There’s one in the stand over there, but I’ll bring you more water, as I think you’re going to need it,” she replied.

  As the woman shut the door, Meg pulled the shredded garment from Ruby’s body.

  She moaned.

  “I’m sorry, Ruby. We should have stopped earlier.” Meg could only blame herself for pushing Ruby and the animals, when they were exhausted.

  “Not your fault. My boot got caught. It was a silly mistake,” Ruby whispered, her eyes closed. “My foot. Check my foot,” she wailed. “It’s swelling. I can feel it.”

  Meg gingerly tugged on Ruby’s boot, making her scream. And when the shoe was removed, Meg could see how the ankle had swollen. Already the flesh was starting to turn dark with bruising. Meg should have watched out for Ruby better.

  She walked to the basin and poured some water on a towel and came back to the bed. Gently, she wiped Ruby’s face and forehead, trying to make her feel better.

  “Don’t leave me, Meg. Stay with me.”

  Meg swallowed to keep the tears from slipping down her cheeks. She had to remain strong for Ruby. This was her fault. There was no way she could go off.

  “You know I’m not going to leave you. I’m going to stay right here at your side,” she said, realizing how she had let her desire to catch Zach consume her and cloud her better judgment. Ruby had even tried to warn her she was becoming obsessed.

  “Thank you, I was afraid you’d go after the sheriff. Please, Meg, let it go for now,” Ruby asked.

  “I will, Ruby, I will,” she promised, guilt gnawing at her chest for how she’d neglected to keep her sister safe. She’d pushed them past their limits. All because she’d wanted to get that bounty money.

  Maybe it was time to let Zach have Simon. She’d be back pursuing him just as soon as she had Ruby settled and made certain she was okay. But for now, her sister was all that mattered.

  “The doctor is on his way, and I’m going to stay right here,” she said, reassuring her sister, while brushing the blonde curls away from her face. Even at eighteen, she was too young to be hunting bad men. What had they been thinking when they’d made the decision to catch criminals? They were women, not men, and this was a dangerous profession.

  “Wonder if this ever happened to Papa?” Ruby asked, her eyes watering.

  “Shh. Try to rest,” Meg said softly, wiping Ruby’s face with a damp cloth. “Is your back still stinging?”

  Not since Ruby was a young girl and had torn the skin off both of her knees had Meg seen scrapes and raw places that looked so ugly. Swirls of raw skin, dust, and bruising covered her back.

  Ruby gave a half-smile. “Yeah, everything hurts. There’s not a place on my body that’s not throbbing with pain right now.”

  Meg swallowed hard; she couldn’t lose Ruby. She just couldn’t. It was bad enough Ruby had gotten hurt, but if she were to die… What if there were internal injuries like Papa? What if she had broken something that couldn’t be repaired? Meg closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. She would not cry.

  A knock sounded on the door, and an older man carrying a medical bag walked in. “Hello, I’m Doc Watson. I hear you’ve had some trouble.”

  Meg stood and came around the bed. She shook his hand. “I’m Meg McKenzie, and this is my sister, Ruby.”

  Quickly she explained what had happened and described the external injuries she could see.

  He gave her a reassuring warm smile, like everything would be all right. “Why don’t you stand right over there against the wall and I’ll check out our patient.”

  He walked over to the bed, and Ruby stared at him, her blue eyes dark with pain, her lips gray standing out against her sallow skin.

  “I’m Ruby,” she said hoarsely.

  “I’m Doc Watson. Looks like you’ve had a little accident,” he said. “May I sit on the bed beside you?”

  “Yes.” She didn’t move.

  “Can you tell me where you hurt?” he asked.

  “All over. Everything hurts.”

  He smiled. “How about your head? How does it feel?”

  “I have the worst headache. It’s pounding, and I feel nauseous.”

  He leaned over and looked at her eyes. “Yes, your pupils are dilated. Probably have a concussion. Let’s see what else is wrong.”

  A concussion? What was that?

  For the next fifteen minutes, he took his elderly hands and checked out Ruby’s ribs, her back, her legs, and her swollen ankle. Gently, he felt her ankle, while Ruby moaned, and Meg had to bite her lip to keep from asking him to stop. Finally, he finished.

  “Young lady, you tore up that ankle pretty bad. I don’t think it’s broken, but those ligaments are definitely injured. I’m going to wrap it up, but you need to stay off of it for several weeks.”

  Meg hung her head, thankful the bone was not broken and there didn’t appear to be any internal injuries. But rest was not something Ruby did well. What would Meg do with her now? How could she continue to bounty hunt if Ruby was unable to go on? And Meg couldn’t go off and leave Ruby in a boarding house. She just couldn’t.

  “You also have a concussion and possibly a broken rib
. It’s a wonder that horse didn’t break your back. I’m leaving you some laudanum to help with the pain. Just take a couple of drops whenever you hurt. You’re going to need bed rest for at least a week and then stay off that ankle for three more weeks. Basically, you’re looking at a month of not doing too much,” he said, snapping his case closed.

  A month! Guilt ate at Meg’s insides. She would lose her prey if she waited a month. They would lose the bounty. Yet, how could she even be considering that when Ruby lay so badly injured?

  Meg had been lounging against the wall and suddenly stood taller. “We’re about six hours from home. When do you think she can ride again?”

  “I’d plan on staying here for at least five days, and I’d really prefer you stayed seven,” he said, looking between the two girls.

  Ruby groaned. “Give me some of that laudanum now. I just want to sleep.”

  He raised her up and gave her a few drops then laid her back down. “I’m also leaving some salve for her back. I’ll come by every day and check on her just to make sure she’s doing okay. Don’t hesitate to send for me if she gets any worse.”

  Fear spiked through Meg at the memory of her father’s injuries and how they’d eventually taken him from this earth. No, that couldn’t happen to Ruby. It just couldn’t.

  “Thanks, Doc.” Meg walked him to the door.

  Once the doctor was gone, Ruby started to cry. “I’m sorry, Meg. I know how badly you wanted to catch Simon.”

  “Shh…” Meg said, sitting down beside her. “You’re more important than any bounty. Just get better so we can get home to Annabelle.”

  *

  A week later, Annabelle watched from a window as Meg and Ruby rode into the yard of the farm. She rushed out to greet them. She’d been so worried since she’d received the telegram from Meg, telling her Ruby had been injured. “Oh, my God, how are you, Ruby?”

  Meg jumped down from her horse and helped to get Ruby off of hers, keeping her from putting any weight on her ankle.

  “It’s getting better,” Ruby replied. “Won’t be long until I’m back chasing bad guys.”

  “What happened?” Annabelle demanded, helping Ruby hobble inside the house where they sat her in the nearest chair.

  Annabelle listened to Ruby explain how she’d gotten her foot tangled in the stirrup and the horse had spooked. She watched Meg move around the house, unloading their saddlebags, her face tense, her mood dark. There was more to this story than either one of them was telling.

  “What about the bounty?” Annabelle asked.

  “He was stolen by the sheriff,” Ruby spouted off. “Ask Meg what she did to Sheriff Zach? Let her explain why we were tied up by the sheriff, not once, but twice.”

  “What?” Annabelle asked, glancing between her sisters.

  Meg stopped putting their things away and sent Ruby a grim look. Then Meg began telling the story of how Zach had extracted his revenge for her leaving him tied up and naked in town. Her tough, older sister had hog tied the sheriff…? What was she thinking?

  “You left him tied up? You saw the sheriff naked?” Annabelle asked, trying to keep the chuckle she could feel building within her from escaping.

  “Yes,” Meg said with a smile. “Not bad on the eyes.”

  Annabelle laughed out loud. Boy, would she have loved to have heard the discussion between Meg and Zach while he was tied up. But what would have caused Meg to act so impulsively? For surely she hadn’t planned this scheme had she?

  Annabelle shook her head. “What made you decide to leave the sheriff naked in the middle of town?” What if the sheriff had retaliated and taken Meg to jail? And why had she kept this a secret for a whole year? Had the sheriff’s rejection of marrying her pained her more than she’d let on? Meg was one for keeping things close to her chest, especially if her emotions were crushed. Then she told no one of her hurt and buried her feelings deeper than a well in Montana.

  “Meg, do you want to go to jail? Why didn’t you tell us?”

  “No, but I don’t deserve to be disrespected. And I was kind of ashamed of what I’d done, so I thought it was better you didn’t know.”

  “No, you don’t deserve to be disrespected, but he’s the sheriff,” Annabelle said, knowing Meg felt an overwhelming sense of responsibility for her and Ruby.

  “And he got his revenge by taking our bounty and tying us up.” Ruby sat, shaking her head, an expression of disgust on her face. “He should at least pay us for the bounty. We caught the longrider.”

  “I’m going to town tomorrow to make certain he turned Simon in. I couldn’t decide if he was really after Simon or just getting revenge,” Meg replied quietly, removing her hat and hanging it on a hook by the door.

  Annabelle had never seen Meg so obsessed. So determined to get her man. They were doing fine. They didn’t need the cash, so was the sheriff the reason she was so unfaltering to catch this Simon? Or was there another reason?

  “At least we kept on most of our clothes,” Ruby said, propping her foot on another chair.

  “What? What do you mean you kept on most of your clothes?”Annabelle stared at her sisters, shock rippling through her. “He made you remove your clothes?”

  Meg shrugged. “The second time he caught us he made us strip down to our pantaloons.”

  “That pervert. How dare he do that to my sisters.” Her chest tightened as anger bloomed throughout her. No one hurt one of the McKenzies without retribution. Annabelle was ready to storm into town and show Zach just how dangerous the three of them together could be. Meg may have left him naked, but Annabelle could think of worse things that could happen to a man. Especially if something bad had happened to one of her sisters because of his nonsense.

  “He was trying to get even with me, but I think it got to him, when I removed my shirt and pants,” Meg said with a laugh. “I watched his face, and he didn’t have the look of a man who was certain about his actions.”

  Ruby winked at Annabelle. “Oh yeah, he definitely had his brown eyes trained on Meg.”

  “We lost him after that, and then Ruby got hurt. Tomorrow, I’m going into town. I want to see if there are any other bounties we can bring in.”

  “Leave it alone, Meg. You’re not going out by yourself,” Ruby warned.

  “I agree,” Annabelle responded. “One of you hurt is bad enough. I can’t take care of both of you. And I can’t go with you right now because one of us has to take care of Ruby. Plus, there’s spring calving. You’re going to have to wait,” she warned her sister, but somehow she felt like Meg wasn’t really listening. Determination oozed from her older sister and she seemed obstinate to finish their commitment.

  “We’re so close to having the bank completely paid off,” Meg said quietly.

  “It can wait,” Annabelle demanded, staring at her older sister, her hands on her hips, her feet spread apart. Sometimes Meg forgot how dangerous this profession of capturing criminals could be. It was almost like she thrived on putting away men who’d committed a crime. Sometimes, she thought she was invincible. But they all knew that wasn’t true.

  It wasn’t often the two younger sisters ganged up on Meg, but this time she had to see reason. They needed to sit tight and wait until Ruby healed enough so she could go hunting again.

  “I’m just going to check things out. Once Ruby is well, we’ll finish what we started.”

  Annabelle stared at Meg. “We’re not as hungry as we were. We’ve built up our supplies, the bank account. Leave it be, Meg.”

  “Let it go,” Ruby said. “You’re not thinking clearly.”

  Annabelle watched as anger, disappointment, and even determination seemed to flit across Meg’s expressive face. Oh yeah, something about this latest bounty was eating at her and she’d be like a dog with a bone until this was resolved.

  “Let’s wait and see what tomorrow brings,” Meg replied as she walked out the door to put the horses up.

  Ruby shook her head and glanced at Annabelle. “She’s not
going to let this go. She’s fixated on getting Simon because of Zach.”

  *

  Early the next morning, Zach sat behind the sheriff’s desk, closing out the monthly accounting records, making sure everything balanced before he left on the road again. The door opened, and he glanced up, his heart jumping into his throat.

  Meg strolled through the door, looking like a ray of sunshine. Only, he had to remember, those rays sometimes burnt a man to a crisp.

  Her auburn hair curled down her back in waves, and her emerald eyes flashed with amusement as she stared at him. Why did he always feel like she could see right through him? That she knew what he was thinking.

  Why did she make him want to grab her, pull her into the nearest cell, and show her how a man in control dealt with a woman like her?

  “Meg.”

  “Zach.”

  His eyes looked her over from head to toe, the memory of her standing so proudly out on the road in her chemise and pantaloons slammed into his mind, so real and vivid he could smell the spring flowers and hear the birds chirping. The sight of her standing in his office had his body tightening up in ways he’d long forgotten. “I see the journey in your pantaloons didn’t seem to harm you.”

  She smiled at him, one of those I’m-going-to-eat-you-for-lunch grins, as she took a seat across from him and put her boot up on his desk. “How many lives do you have, cowboy? The rattlesnake didn’t get you, and somehow you managed to hide yourself and Simon very well.”

  “Sometimes it’s better to stop and rest before you travel on. That’s what I did.”

  It had taken everything he knew to keep Meg from finding him and Simon. And even then, he’d gone for miles, glancing behind him, sure, she would discover them again.

  “Looks like your beauty sleep didn’t work too well,” she quipped. “You’re still carrying a grudge on your shoulder like a sack of potatoes.”

  He laughed and then checked his shoulders. “Me, carry a grudge? Yes, I am, but it’s not sitting on my shoulders. It’s lower.”