Reckless Territory Read Online Free PDF Page A

nothing except the smoke of the fire and the exotic odors of the trees and various grasses.
    Robert swore under his breath. “I catch it too. How far off?”
    “We need to move. The Cimmaron is pretty close. Two hours’ ride, maybe. I hoped to cross it in the daylight, but we don’t have one hell of a lot of choice, do we? Let’s go.”
    She stared at Jace, who bent and took her plate out of her hands. “The Cimmaron?”
    “It’s a decent-sized river,” he said somberly. “Good thing we’re this close.”
    “Why?” She got gingerly to her feet, wobbling just a little. The hours in the saddle weren’t the easiest on her posterior and aching thighs.
    “Prairie fire, miss. I’ll eat my boots if it doesn’t smell like one, and I reckon they ain’t tasty. Come on.”
    His grasp on her hand was steely, and a few minutes later she found herself lifted back on her quickly saddled horse, her three companions swinging themselves gracefully onto their mounts, their faces set.
    “Stay with her,” Cole ordered, and, as usual, he rode ahead, setting a brisk pace. Robert and Jace hemmed her in, one on either side, and she caught the sense of urgency in the way they kept glancing back.
    What the devil?
    She dared a backward glance but saw nothing, though she did now detect the hint of acrid smoke.
    Less than a half hour later, when it looked like the sun was coming up behind them though it should have been dead dark, she truly became alarmed. Her horse, easy enough for her to manage at first, now tossed his head and fought the bit, and even the men had trouble with their mounts, murmuring soothing words to the animals as they spurred forward. Though they had to be tired from the long day, the horses were not difficult to urge to a gallop.
    Speed, the wind, the landscape flashing by…
    Cole reached the river first, his horse splashing in as he whipped off its back. He came forward and caught her reins, and her horse waded in to its haunches. Moonlight rippled off the churning water, and Victoria gasped as she was hauled from the saddle and pulled against a hard male body with an iron grip across her waist, breast to chest. “Hold on.”
    “For what?” she asked, barely able to breathe.
    “The inferno.”
    “I don’t—”
    “You’ll understand soon enough,” he interrupted. “Can’t you hear it? It sounds like a low wind at first and then thunder in the distance. Look at the horses.”
    He was right. The animals tossed their heads with increasing agitation, whinnying and thrashing in the water. What’s more, other creatures, also fleeing the oncoming wildfire, streamed into the water. Rodents first, ignoring them as they paddled by in droves, and then bigger animals: wolves, which didn’t even glance their way, the smaller coyotes, deer, even snakes, some five or six feet long, swimming past as if they didn’t exist, heading for the opposite bank.
    A nightmare, Victoria decided, the jostling in the water around her enough to make a sane person scream. She wasn’t sure how it happened, but her arms were around Cole’s neck and she clung to him, squeezing her eyes shut, pressing her face to his throat.
    “We need to be wet,” he told her, his breath warm against her ear. “Hold your breath just for a second.”
    He ducked them under, the cool water closing over her head, and since she didn’t know how to swim, she would have normally panicked, but she was well beyond that stage. When he stood up, both of them streaming water, she realized the full extent of their danger.
    The sky had turned a lurid color but it was the angry sound of the fire that was horrendous. It crackled, it screamed, and it blended with the cries of the animals. She had the horrible feeling she was also screaming, but the sound was muffled against Cole’s hard shoulder. The sparks came first, one singeing her back so she stiffened, the elemental blast probably lasting only a few minutes but the heat of it so profound she felt as if