Rocks ground and gnashed and poured out in a wave of debris that lapped at Reno’s boots. Desperately Eve kept backing up, dragging him with her until she stumbled and fell. She struggled to her feet and kept pulling, but her frenzied burst of strength was spent, leaving her unable to budge him. Still she kept tugging and tugging, crying and calling brokenly to Reno.

«It’s all right, Eve. You can let go. You pulled him far enough.»

For a wild second she thought Reno was talking to her. Then she realized that it was Rafe kneeling next to her.

«How…?» Eve’s question ended in a cough.

«When the wall went, it opened up a whole new passage. I don’t know how long it will last, though. Can you walk?»

Shakily Eve got to her feet.

«Take the lantern,» Rafe said. «We’ll be right on your heels.»

He bent, levered his brother into place across his broad shoulders, and followed Eve. Soon they met Caleb and Wolfe, who had heard the rumble in the gut of the mine and had come running.

Fresh air and the jostling that came on the way through the mine revived Reno. He regained consciousness in a haze of pain and dizziness just as he was carried out of the mine. Sunlight was a hammer blow in his eyes. Groaning, he closed his eyes and wondered why the world was bumping so badly.

«Lie still,» said Rafe’s voice. «You’ve been hurt.»

Other voices came to Reno, men’s voices, Caleb and Wolfe talking as they carried him into the shelter of the camp.

Nowhere did Reno hear Eve’s voice, her touch, her scent. When he opened his eyes, sunlight blinded him.

«Eve?» he asked hoarsely.

«Other than being crazy enough to try to cut a deal with Slater, she’s fine,» Caleb said dryly. «Let’s set him down over here. Feet first, Wolfe.»

Reno heard nothing but the words about Eve. They echoed in his mind like the waves of concussion, pounding home the old truth about men and women and betrayal.

Tried to cut a deal with Slater. Cut a deal with Slater. Cut a deal…

The words echoed terribly in Reno’s mind, bringing a pain in their wake that was like nothing he had ever known. When he had felt the tunnel collapsing around him, his last thought was that at least Eve would be safe.

Her first thought had been to take the gold and cut a deal with Jericho Slater, leaving Reno to die in the mine.

«Should have learned…Savannah Marie,» he said bitterly.

«What?» Caleb asked.

«Did that cheating saloon girl…leave any gold?»

Before Caleb could answer, Reno passed out again.

Eve wished she could have done the same. She stumbled as though the ground had been taken away from beneath her feet.

Rafe caught her before she fell.

«Easy there,» he said kindly. «You’re at the end of your rope.»

She simply shook her head and said nothing.

«Who’s this Savannah Marie?» Caleb asked Rafe.

«A girl back home who used to drive boys crazy with her teasing. For a while there, Reno was young enough to think he loved her,» Rafe said as he set Eve back on her feet. «Who is the cheating saloon girl?»

«I am,» Eve said tonelessly.

Abruptly Caleb realized that his words about Eve cutting a deal with Slater had been misunderstood by Reno.

«Reno’s out of his head,» Caleb said roughly. «When he wakes up, I’ll set him straight.»

«It doesn’t matter,» Eve said, turning away.

«Eve,» Caleb said. «Wait.»

She shook her head and kept walking.

Everything that mattered had already been said. Reno might have enjoyed her company, might have been gentle with her, might have shared the most intense kind of passion with her; but he didn’t love her.

He never would. Love required trust, and Reno would never forget that Eve had been a card cheat and a saloon girl.

I understand that women have to make up in cunning what they lack in strength. Understanding isn’t the same as liking.

You can’t count on women, but you can count on gold.

Sugar child, would you feel better if I told you sweet lies about love?

While the others hovered around Reno, Eve went into a grove of trees and washed the grit of the mine from every bit of her, and while she did, she wished she could wash away the past at the same time.

But she couldn’t. She could only leave the past behind her, like the dirty water she was pouring from the basin onto the stony ground.

With a calm that came from a loss so deep it numbed her ability to feel pain, Eve pulled on her only remaining clothing — the red dress with jet buttons and a bullet hole in the hidden pocket where she carried her derringer.

Mechanically she went about her preparations. The most difficult part was figuring out how to carry the gold. Finally she brought her mount over to the mouth of the mine, tied on her empty saddlebags, and loaded them. Reno’s saddlebags, she tied around the saddle horn. Then she loaded them, too. Gold bars clanked and shifted within the heavy leather pouches.

Only Caleb noticed Eve’s transformation from grubby miner to tawny-haired saloon girl. He watched with brooding amber eyes that shifted between the half-conscious Reno and Eve’s quick, efficient preparations.

Abruptly Caleb stood up and went over to her.

«You’re getting ready to pull out,» he said.

She nodded.

«Where are you going?» he asked.

She shrugged. «Canyon City, I guess. It’s the nearest saloon.»

«You’ll need someone to ride shotgun. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.»

«I’ll pay you.»

«Like flaming hell you will. I was planning to get back to Willow as soon as I could anyway. Pig Iron is a fine guard, but he’s a mite short on social graces.»

Caleb stalked off, whistling shrilly. A black gelding stopped grazing in the meadow and trotted over to him. He saddled and bridled the horse with swift motions before he came back to camp to pick up his saddlebags. Their unexpected weight nearly yanked him off balance.

He spun toward Eve just as she mounted the lineback dun in a flurry of scarlet silk and rode across the meadow toward the people gathered around Reno.

Rafe and Wolfe looked up at her, saw the dress and the tightly drawn beauty of the girl with shining hair and golden eyes, and were too shocked to speak.

Jessi saw, too. Her eyes widened, but she said only, «Reno is much better. Steady pulse, good deep breaths. He’ll be coming around soon. I don’t think he’s badly injured at all. He’s strong as an ox.»

Eve’s smile was the saddest Jessi had ever seen.

«Yes,» Eve said softly. «He’s very strong.»

Caleb rode up, reined in beside Eve, and waited, saying nothing.

Jessi came to her feet and stood next to the girl who looked as though she had been pushed beyond her last reserves. Jessi knew what it was like to be pushed that hard by life.

«Caleb told me,» Jessi said in a low voice. «Reno didn’t know what he was saying. When he wakes up, he’ll call himself ten thousand kinds of fool.»

The compassion in Jessi’s blue eyes made Eve want to laugh and cry at the same time.

«You’re very kind,» Eve said huskily. «And very wrong. Reno knew exactly what he was saying. He’s said it often enough before.»

Jessi bit her lip and shook her head unhappily.

Eve continued speaking in an unnaturally calm voice.

«My half of the gold came to eight bars. I left two for you and Wolfe and two for Rafe. Caleb already has his.»

Wolfe and Rafe started to speak at the same time.

Eve ignored them. With breathtaking speed, she bent over and yanked Caleb’s belt knife from its sheath. The lethally sharp blade flashed, slicing through the tie that held Reno’s saddlebags to the saddle horn. They landed with a weighty thump a few feet from Reno’s legs.

«That gold belongs to Reno,» Eve said. «He can count on it.»

The lineback dun spun on its hocks and leaped forward as once again Eve left Reno behind in a drumroll of hoofbeats and a wild swirl of scarlet skirts.

23

Reno sat quietly in the shade of a fir tree, watching the meadow through narrowed eyes. For the first time in five days he wasn’t dizzy in the least. The ringing in his ears was gone, as was the nausea that had plagued him. Though his mouth was drawn in a flat line of pain, his headache had subsided until it was little more than a nuisance.

It wasn’t the headache that was hurting Reno. It was thinking about a girl who had loved her own comfort more than she had cared whether he lived or died.

Reno hadn’t seen Eve since he came out of the mine. When he had asked where Caleb was, Rafe told him that Caleb had taken Eve back to Canyon City. Reno hadn’t mentioned her name again. Neither had anyone else.

The sound of Wolfe laughing came back through the clean air, followed by the silvery music of Jessi’s laughter as her husband lifted her off the ground and spun her around and around. Finally he sank down with Jessi and disappeared in the meadow’s long, lush grass.

A bitterness that Reno refused to acknowledge as grief twisted through him, memories like razors slicing him, making him bleed in secret.

Once he had chased Eve through this meadow, caught her, and pulled her laughing down into the grass. Once, but no longer. Now even the memory of their shared passion was a pain he couldn’t face, so he shoved it down in his mind, condemning it to darkness.

Yet the pain remained, reflected in the new brackets on either side of his mouth.

Tried to cut a deal with Slater. Cut a deal with Slater. Cut a deal…