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No longer could she restrain her excitement, and she started laughing softly. “Look there. Isn’t that Zach and Simon? He was even cocky enough to build a fire, thinking he’d gotten away.”
    Ruby dropped to the ground from her horse. “Oh, my God, you’re a genius. How did you find them?”
    “Think like a man. A man who is trying to outwit us.” She gazed toward the small, almost died out, campfire. “Now I think it might be time to play a trick on Sheriff Gillespie.”
    “What kind of trick?”
    “Do you still have that rattler’s tail?”
    “It’s in my saddlebags. Why?” Ruby asked, her brows drawn together suspiciously.
    “Because I think Texas’s deadliest snake is going to pay the sheriff a visit.”
    They climbed back up on their horses and rode as quietly as possible until they were about one hundred yards from Zach’s campsite.
    Silently creeping into some bushes that surrounded the two men, they watched the camp. Both men breathed evenly, sounding like they were asleep.
    Meg couldn’t contain her smile as she slipped Zach’s gun out of his holster. Unbelievable, he slept right through the taking of his shootin’ iron. A part of her gazed at his full lips slightly parted in slumber and longed to kiss him once again. But that was impossible. Yet, the idea left her lungs squeezing and her gasping quietly for breath.
    She slid a loose slipknot around Zach’s right arm and right boot. Then she gave a thumbs-up signal to Ruby.
    Let the party begin.
    Ruby covered Simon’s mouth and placed a gun at his temple.
    He awoke with a start. At the sound of her gun clicking, she jerked him up by his shirt. Slowly, he rose from his saddle bed. Once on his feet, she quickly moved him toward his waiting horse.
    When they reached the edge of the clearing, Zach rolled over, and Meg tightened the slip knots. His eyes came open. As soon as he saw Meg, he reached for his gun.
    She smiled and dangled it out of his reach. “Sorry, cowboy, I have your gun.”
    “Damn it, Meg,” Zach said sleepily. “Don’t you believe in rest?”
    “Zach, you’re airin’ your lungs in front of a lady! That’s not nice, and no, I don’t rest when I’m catching a bounty.”
    He glanced over at the empty bedroll where Simon had been laying. “Where’s Simon?”
    “Safely tucked away.” She smiled as she watched the realization that he was tied up and his prey was gone slowly reach his brown eyes. His eyes were shooting bullets at her smile.
    “I knew better than to stop,” he said angrily.
    Ruby rattled the rattlesnake tail and his eyes widened. “Freeze, Meg, there’s a snake somewhere close by.”
    How sweet that he was concerned about her getting snake bit. But not sweet enough for her to tell him the truth.
    “Yeah, about that snake. He’s inside your blanket.” She rolled the small stick she’d pushed into the blanket. In the dark, she watched the blanket shift, and Zach seemed to shrink. “So I’d suggest you don’t move. He’s between me and you. I think I’m okay, but I wouldn’t recommend you make any sudden shifts.”
    “Damn it, Meg.”
    “There you go cursing again. That’s not nice,” she cajoled as she slowly backed away from Zach. “We’ll take good care of Simon and make certain he gets turned in.”
    “Meg, you can’t go off and leave me tied up, no gun, with a rattlesnake in my bedroll. That’s not right,” Zach cried, staring at her, his brown eyes wide.
    After the last year of her heart healing from the damage he’d inflicted, it was hard for her to suddenly feel all soft and full of pity for him. And she knew for certain that the only snake close by, was in Zach’s pants.
    “You know, Zach, the last year has made me a strong woman. Whatever womanly softness I possessed has pretty much been dried up by the trail and the hunt for bad men. I’ve kind of lost faith in the human race, and well, I can do a lot of things I’d never been able to do before. And leaving you