Chapter Five

Leah was lost. It was dark and she hadn't realized just how hard it would be to see with only a quarter of the moon lighting her way. The horse she had taken was not happy about being forced to make its way across the plains in the dark of night.

The stallion kept snorting and tossing his head and after hours of feeling as if she was traveling in circles, Leah felt like doing the same. She was simply following the river and praying that at some point it would lead her to a town or a house so she could figure out where she was.

She was happy thought that it seemed she had snuck away without anyone realizing it. At times she felt she was being watched but whenever she looked around her she couldn't see anything or anyone in the shadows.

Nerves were getting the better of her, she decided. The last time she had been riding the plains on horseback she and Benjamin had been attacked. She supposed she was afraid it would happen again and this time there would be no Chase to protect her.... She shook her head. Chase was not her protector, he was her captor and she would be better off without him, no matter what that little voice in her head kept telling her.

Leah had been raised in a home where right and wrong were set in stone. There was no gray area as far as her father was concerned. Her father would probably have a hard time accepting her back after what she'd done by running away with Benjamin and he certainly wouldn't accept her back if he knew she had a soft spot for an Indian who no doubt stole whatever his heart desired and murdered to get what he wanted.

And she had no reason to feel anything soft or tender toward that man. He had kept her prisoner. He had allowed her fiance to be murdered..... Leah had to force them to come, but the tears filled her eyes for Benjamin. She was a horrible person. That was the one and only explanation for her quick recovery over his death. And it wasn't that she wasn't sad because she was and she did miss him but she didn't feel that overwhelming sadness she had just days before.

Leah decided the best thing to do was to quit thinking. She was tired and when she was tired she tended to dwell on the bad and the negative. The horse she had stolen was becoming more restless and Leah tightened her hands on the reins as the horse snorted and sidestepped nervously.

Leah nearly cried out with frustration as she fought to get the beast under control. Suddenly the night was pierced by a feline scream. The mountain lion leapt out of a patch of long grass and the horse snorted loudly, reared back and sent Leah crashing on her back to the ground before running away.

Leah hit the ground so hard that the air rushed from her lungs and she couldn't seem to breath or move. Fear had her heart pounding in her ears when she heard that feline scream again. Suddenly she realized how foolish and stupid she had been. She hadn't been safe out here with Benjamin so what had made her think she would be safe alone? Her gun was in the sack, tied to the horse and currently bouncing away in the distance. As the growling grew closer and she saw the slinking shadow circling her she knew one thing for sure. She was going to die.

***

Chase had been following Leah on foot for hours. She was wandering further into wilderness instead of closer to civilization. He wanted to call out to her but knew that she would run from him if she saw him behind her.

It was clear that Leah was struggling and it didn't help that she had unwittingly taken his horse. No one other than Chase himself could truly control that beast. He was wild, unpredictable and respected no one. Leah was having great difficulty simply staying upon Blaze's back.

Chase heard the scream of the mountain lion and his blood ran cold. He knew instantly how Blaze would react. The stallion reared and sent Leah crashing to the ground. Chase heard the breath whoosh out of her in a loud gust and knew that it would be several moments before she could breathe easily again and regain her bearings.

By then the mountain lion would be on her.

Chase pulled his knife and ran as fast as his long legs could carry him. They propelled him quickly over the plains and the mountain lion was preparing to pounce when Chase jumped in between the best and Leah.

"Chase!" Leah exclaimed with surprise as she pushed herself up on her elbows.

Chase nodded in acknowledgement but didn't take his eyes off the growling, angry beast. Chase held out his arms and yelled loudly hoping to scare the beast off but he could tell by the hungry gleam in the cat's eyes that he would have no such luck. Without a gun this was going to be claws and teeth against knife and hands.

Leah watched in horror and shock as Chase and the mountain lion faced each other and then she screamed when the big cat lunged. Chase lunged at the exact same instant and the two met in mid-air. For a moment it looked as if they were simply hugging before they fell to the ground and began to roll and wrestle violently.

Leah jumped to her feet and desperately watched the battle while knowing there was nothing she could do to help. Another man she cared about was going to die all because she had been too stubborn and headstrong to do what was best!

Lord have mercy on her soul! Had she just admitted that she cared about Chase? Yes she had and she couldn't let him die....

Before Leah could come up with anyway to aid the man, the battle came to an end.

A certainly human roar filled the night and Leah watched the knife blade flash in the moonlight as Chase raised it in the air and brought it down into the giant cat's back.

Silence fell.

Everything became still.

Leah waited with baited breath and trepidation for any sign movement.

"Chase?" she whispered shakily and the body of the cat moved. Leah let out a yelp of fear, certain that the mountain lion had somehow won the battle and would now come for her. Only when Chase grunted did Leah realize the movement had simply been Chase moving the body off of him.

Leah was shaking as she watched Chase get to his feet. His shoulders were slumped and his breathing was heavy. His black eyes flashed in the night as they met hers. "Are you okay?" he asked, his voice strained.

"Yes," she replied before biting her lip. Surely he would be angry with her.

"You need to travel two days to the east to get back to your home," he informed her as he swayed appeared to struggle to stand. Chase let out a whistle and Leah heard a horse snort before the black stallion she'd been riding on trotted back into view.

"Chase are you okay?" Leah whispered.

"Go east," he repeated and then he fell to his side on the ground.

"Chase!" she screamed. Leah ran to him and fell to her knees beside him. Leah rolled him onto his back and now that she was closer to him she could see the cuts and gouges covering his body. His shirt was wet with blood and covered in holes from the big cat's claws. His buckskin pants were worse. They were ripped, torn and soaked with blood. He wouldn't live if she didn't get him somewhere and tend to his wounds.

She felt the stallion nudge her shoulder with his nose and grabbed his reins to hold him in place. Leah stood and seriously considered mounting the horse and riding east. That was what she should do. It was what any sane person would do! If she took Chase back to camp that would be like willingly walking into prison.

She should leave, go home to her family and forget about the horror of the last week. But then again, thanks to Chase, not every moment had been a horror. He had protected her from a much worse fate than she would have endured without him and Chase had just risked his life and gone against a mountain lion to save her. Could she leave him out here to die?

Seconds ticked by and turned into minutes as Leah stood with one foot in the stirrup and her hands on the reins, contemplating what she would do.

With a heavy sigh she moved away from the horse and walked to Chase. She ran her hand over his sweat covered brow and his eyes fluttered open. "You're going to have to help me get you on that horse, Chase. I can't get you back to camp by myself."

***

"What the hell happened to him?" Boss asked as Leah led the horse back into camp shortly after dawn.

She glanced at Chase who was laying on his stomach over the saddle, his arms and legs dangling. He had lost consciousness shortly after being put on the horse and Leah had led the horse on foot for hours.

"Mountain lion," she stated as she kept her eyes straight ahead and led the horse toward Chase's tent.

"What were you all doing out in the night?" Boss demanded.

Leah ignored him. She could see Petey watching every step that she took and all she wanted was to get Chase in and tend to his wounds. "I need water," she quipped her pace never slowing.

Boss signaled for two men to go fill buckets with water as he followed Leah. He hoisted Chase from the saddle and carried him into the tent, laying him down gently on the cot. He took his hat off and held it in his gloved hands.

"Do you know how to tend to wounds, miss?" he asked.

Leah stared up at the man with hatred burning red hot in her gut. She knew that this man held the blame for killing Benjamin. He had been the man to pull the trigger of that gun.

"Yes sir. I can tend to them just fine," she assured him. It wasn't a lie. Growing up her family hadn't had much money for doctors and she'd tended plenty of wounds on her brother and father that they'd acquired while out working in the fields or tending the cattle.

Boss nodded and left the tent without another word. Leah laid the supplies from the horse next to Chase and quickly went about starting a fire with the matches she pulled from his vest which he'd left on the ground beside his bedroll the night before.

By the time she had the fire roaring the men were bringing her the buckets of water. They sat them down and then quickly made their exit. Leah was grateful that she wasn't going to have an audience. The other men here made her blood run cold and her heart race with fear. They weren't Chase and she did not trust them.

Leah poured some of the water into a tin pot and sat it over the fire to get warm. She then went back to Chase and slipped off his boots. Her hands shook as she took his knife and began to cut away his pants. She was just finished up removing one leg when the tent flap opened and Petey entered.

"Well isn't this a lucky break?" he mused with a click of his tongue.

Leah felt fear rise inside of her. She cast a glance at the sack holding the gun and Petey quickly stepped between her and her only hope of defending herself. "No. No. No," he warned, placing his hand over his own gun. "Put that knife down too, little princess." he added, nodding toward her hand.

Leah laid the knife on the cot beside Chase and stood up. "Whatever it is you're wanting, sir, will simply have to wait." she stated bravely,

though inside she was trembling. "I have to see to his wounds."

"You won't see to nothing except my pecker, girlie. That damn savage will be just fine without any help from you. Now me on the other hand... I might just die from neglect if I don't get some attention real fast."

"Rest in peace," Leah snapped with her chin high. She was getting sick and tired of being intimidated by these men. She was tired of being scared. If they were going to force her or kill her then they could attempt to do so but she wasn't going to cry, beg or whimper anymore.

"You've gotten mouthy," Petey grinned. "I like that." He spit onto the fire causing a puff of smoke and a sizzle. Leering and scanning her body with his beady eyes, Petey stepped forward and grabbed Leah by the arm. Instinct had her pulling out of his grasp and shoving him backward.

Petey laughed loudly before slapping her roughly across the face.

Leah gasped at the pain and fell to her knees. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears as her head swam and her cheekbone throbbed. She had never in her life been struck in such a way.

Petey grabbed her by her hair with one hand and held her face up toward his crotch as he began to undo his gun belt with the other hand. The stench of him caused her to gag and Leah could see something hard pressing against his pants. She had seen enough about what happened between a man and a woman while in this camp to know what he was about to do to her.

Leah forgot all about being brave. A scream for help was building in her throat when Petey was suddenly pulled away from her.

She blinked and covered her mouth with shock when she realized that Chase had risen from the cot and had Petey pinned against the side of the tent with his knife pressed against the other man's throat.

"Chase, dammit, I thought you was half dead!" Petey exclaimed shakily.

"Half alive is all I need to be to kill you," Chase replied, his voice little more than a cold growl.

Leah got to her feet and watched the confrontation with just as much awe as she had the confrontation between Chase and the mountain lion. Chase looked every inch a warrior. He was deadly and lethal even while covered in blood and sweat. His copper skin was gleaming in the firelight and his black eyes were flashing with anger as he glared down at Petey.

Petey swallowed hard, his throat bobbing against the knife. "I didn't mean no harm, Chase. I was just fooling around with her is all....." Petey was cut off when Chase's arm flexed and the knife nicked his skin causing a single droplet of blood to trickle down his throat.

"You come into my home, threaten my woman, touch my woman and then say you were fooling? I would be doing an honor to the great mother if I ended your life."

"Chase, don't!" Leah gasped as she stepped forward and laid her hand on his shoulder. Petey's blue eyes filled with hope as he looked at her. "This man isn't worth killing. You are better than that."

Chase was still for several long moments. Leah could feel the tension in his powerful body and she could sense how badly he wanted to slide that knife through Petey's flesh, though the image that knowledge had running through her mind caused her stomach to churn.

Chase slowly pulled the knife away. "If you look at her again I will feel your blood spill against my hands," he vowed.

The look of hatred in Petey's eyes caused Leah's blood to run cold as he glared at her before all but running from the tent.

"You sure showed him," Leah muttered.

Chase turned to face her and Leah noticed the lack of color in his face and the thin line his lips were pulled into. "I would protect you with my dying breath, Leah. You are mine."

Leah looked up in his eyes and felt something inside of her break. The wall she had built up to keep Chase from getting in had just come crumbling down and Leah wasn't sure what to do or say. "Let's get you back to bed. I have to get your wounds cleaned up."

Chase looked in her eyes and felt his breath catch in his chest at the look he saw there. Tenderness. Leah was looking at him with tenderness. And she hadn't argued with him when he had called her his. She had come back to camp with him instead of taking herself to freedom and she wanted to take care of him. All those things spoke well for their future.

Chase nodded and went to the cot, eager to please her. While he knew he could tend to his own wounds and had many times in the past he wasn't about to tell Leah not to care for him. All he wanted was for her to finally accept him and it appeared that might be happening.

Leah grabbed the bucket of water and carried it to the cot. She tore off a piece of her dirty petticoat and soaked it before beginning to clean the deep gouges on Chase's leg.

Heat and sparks of awareness shoot through her like lightning bolts as her skin brushed against the hard muscles of his thigh. She spared a glance up into his dark eyes and then found herself unable to look away.

They gazed into each other's eyes for a long while and both knew that things had now changed. A bridge had just been crossed and a page had been turned. Chase had been saying it for a week but now Leah knew it was true.

She was his.

***

"Your visitors are here, Benjamin," Doctor Gibbons announced as he poked his head into the tiny room that Benjamin had been living in every day since a rancher and his two sons had found him shot, beaten and bloody on the grassy ground of the plains.

Benjamin nodded and adjusted the scratchy wool blanket over his legs. Legs that were now no more than useless stumps sitting below his waist.

"Let them in," he whispered. He attempted to sit up straighter and winced as his battered ribs protested.

The doctor nodded, stepped aside and Paul, Sarah and Chance Gordon came rushing into the room. "Benjamin!" Sarah gasped as she rushed to the bed and threw her arms around his neck. "What happened to you?"

"Where is my daughter?" Paul added in a stony voice as he crossed his arms over his broad chest and glared at Benjamin. Chance was a mirror image of his father standing at the other side of the bed. Neither of the men had ever had any love for Benjamin and he knew that wasn't about to change now—not after he'd allowed Leah to be kidnapped.

"They...They took her..." Benjamin replied, his voice breaking as he choked on the emotions welling up in his chest and gathering in his throat.

Sarah covered her mouth with her hands and shook her head in denial while Paul strode forward with clenched fists. "Who took her?!"

"I don't know. Men... Bad men." Benjamin glanced toward the window, wishing he could forget the fear he'd seen on Leah's beautiful face. "I tried to protect her, I swear I did, but the minute I pulled my gun they were on me. There were at least ten of them."

"I told her that bastard couldn't keep her safe but she wouldn't listen!" Chance exclaimed angrily as he swung a clenched fist and sent it flying into the wooden wall.

Benjamin began to cry. "I'm sorry."

Paul stared hard at the floor before sighing sadly. "Sorry won't bring my daughter back."

"We'll bring her back," Chance countered.

"How?" Paul demanded, his jaw tight and his eyes narrowed. "There is no law close by and even if we ride to Billings and wire the marshall, it'll take him weeks to get here."

"We have to find her! We'll track her ourselves!" Chance insisted.

Paul shook his head while Sara collapsed in the arm chair and sobbed into her hands. "We could look for years and not find her, son. She is my daughter and I want nothing more than to have her back home but there has been rain on the plains in the last couple of days and we don't know the first thing about tracking or going against outlaws. Benjamin doesn't even know who took her or what way they went." Paul's resentful tone was not lost on Benjamin. "We'll send for the Marshall, Chance, but it's already been more than a week. Our Leah is dead or as good as dead by now."

Sarah wailed loudly and her sobs echoed off the walls. Chance growled and quickly strode from the room while Paul gathered his wife up in his arms and helped her to the door. It seemed as if it were nothing more than a second thought when he turned to Benjamin. "As soon as you can get out of that bed you can come back to our home. Sarah will help you heal. I'd rather let you rot after leading my daughter out into the night the way you did but Leah thought for certain she loved you and she'd want us to help. Sarah insists."

Benjamin would have told the man to take his charity and shove it up his backside, if he were the type of man who said such things. As it were, Benjamin knew that he would need help—the rest of his life he would be dependent upon others.

"I won't be getting out of this bed anytime soon," Benjamin replied as he swiped at the tears streaking his cheeks. "They got me good with that bullet."

Paul studied him for a moment and then nodded. "I'll talk to the doc and have you moved to our home."

Benjamin sunk against the pillows as he once again found himself alone. He tried to ignore the pain in his broken heart. His beautiful, innocent Leah was dead, or worse, and it was his fault. He had failed to protect her and had not kept her safe when she had needed him to. Now he was helpless in this bed and could not even attempt to ride to her rescue.

Benjamin wished he was dead as well but he supposed he was receiving a well-earned punishment instead. He was now trapped for the rest of his life in a useless body; unable to move or be a real man ever again in his life. He would be forced to simply lay in a bed or sit in a chair and think about the angel that he had lost.

Silently he wept and prayed for the Lord to simply finish him off.