Heart of Gold Read Free

saddle in front of him, urging Turk to move at the same time.
    She shrieked and clutched his shoulders, bouncing because she didn’t have a good seat, but he couldn’t take time to settle her. He reached for his rifle instead.
    “Remember those ruffians from town?” Charlie shouted.
    “What?” Her breathless response made his heart thump once, hard.
    “They’re following us. Coming fast.” And he’d foolishly fallen too far back from his two cowhands. How could he have let himself get so distracted?
    “What about Misty?”
    Turk took a long, low leap over a fallen log and Charlie heard Opal’s teeth clatter.
    Her concern for the animal they’d left behind was admirable, but he was too busy trying to keep their hides intact to dwell on what it said about her.
    “They aren’t after your horse, darlin’. They want the gold we don’t have.” Misty would be fine until he or Erick could ride back around to collect her. Right now Charlie and Opal needed to outdistance the desperados trailing them.
    If Charlie let something happen to the boss’s daughter, Frank would never forgive him.

     
    Opal thought Charlie must be exaggerating, trying to frighten her. Until she managed to raise her head to see over his shoulder and caught sight of the large, dark-bearded man with a rifle pointed at them.
    “He’s got a gun,” she huffed.
    “Then you’d better pray he’s not a sharpshooter!”
    She couldn’t find the breath to tell him she didn’t put much stock in prayer, not anymore.
    Charlie slid his own weapon back into its scabbard by his knee and slung his arm around her waist, bending low over the horse’s neck. Shielding her, she realized, as her arms came around his neck. From her prone position, she had to cling to him or risk falling from the horse.
    She had to rely completely on him.
    For someone used to doing for herself, she didn’t like the feeling of utter helplessness at all.
    And then a weapon boomed and Charlie jerked in the saddle.
    For one terrifying moment, Opal feared they were both going to fall from the galloping horse. But then Charlie seemed to regain his seat and his arm tightened around her.
    “Are you shot?” she gasped.
    “Yep.” His reply was short, curt, but much calmer than she expected.
    As she watched, a crimson stain bloomed on his shirt.
    She knew enough to put pressure on the wound, eliciting a grunt from him when her palm pressed flat against his muscular shoulder.
    “Good thinkin’, sugar plum.” He still pushed the horse at a breakneck speed.
    “Don’t call me that,” she snapped. “What are we going to do?”
    “This.”
    They crossed a ridge and Charlie wheeled the horse sharply to the right, ensconcing them behind a stand of scrub brush. He straightened in the saddle and removed his rifle again.
    Moments later, three horsemen crossed the same ridge. Charlie took a shot, the report of the rifle ringing in Opal’s ears, its kick rocking both of them.
    “Winged one of ‘em,” Charlie said.
    A second gunshot erupted from somewhere else.
    “Looks like Erick got one of the others. They’re turning now.”
    Opal watched as the three riders hustled back over the ridge and out of sight.
    “Did you… the men you hit-will they die?” She could barely think the words, but forced them through frozen lips anyway.
    “Possibly. Couldn’t tell where Erick’s shot hit, but mine just nicked his arm. Of course there’s always the chance of infection setting in.”
    “They gone, Boss?” One of Charlie’s men rode near, out of breath, dark perspiration covering his horse’s neck and chest.
    “Looks like it. You want to ride back and make sure? Get Misty-she threw a shoe-on your way? Jest ignore the squalling cat in the hatbox.”
    The other man nodded, though one of his eyebrows arched. “Catch up to you at the Brown’s place?”
    Charlie glanced at the sky and Opal followed his gaze to the rapidly-darkening horizon. “It’s still a ways to Brown’s. Might be