He pulled up on the reins as relief plowed through him.
They must have dumped her into the thick brush. Dirt and stickers coated her dress. Dried grass clung to her tangled hair. Narrowed green eyes burned into him.
“Lily!” shouted Reginald. He reined in beside her and jumped from his saddle. “Oh, thank God.”
Measuring the rage in Lily’s eyes, Juniper wasn’t quite ready to thank the heavens. She shouted through the roll of fabric in her mouth, and Reginald took a cautious step back.
Juniper dismounted beside him. He held up the key to the cuffs. “You want to—”
“Hell no, man.” Reginald took another step back. “You’re the one who tied her up. You can let her loose.”
Opting for the least lethal position, Juniper stepped behind her to remove the gag. “I’m sorry about this, Miss Carrington,” he said as he loosened the knot on his handkerchief. “Things would have gone differently if you’d told me who you were from the start.”
The moment he pulled the bandanna away, she spun toward him in a whirling flutter of fancy green fabric.
“You’re fired! Do you hear me? Fired!”
“Uh … sweetness? I wouldn’t do that just yet.”
Juniper bypassed her hands and crouched down to undo the binding around her booted ankles.
“He’s fired now! We need to find a real sheriff!”
“Lady,” Juniper said as he straightened, stuffing the second bandanna into his pocket. “I’m as real as it gets up here. If I didn’t govern your camp, you wouldn’t have a logging company left to speak of because your employees would have shredded it to toothpicks after the second pay hold.”
“Uncuff me!” she shouted, holding up her hands.
“I don’t know,” Juniper said, not trusting the lethal glint in her eyes. “I do that and you’re liable to back-shoot me.”
“Front, back, sideways. I’m not choosy at the moment!”
“Lily.” Reginald clamped a hand onto her arm, clearly fearing she was about to attack him.
“This whole situation could have been avoided,” said Juniper, his own temper hanging on by a thread. “What were you thinking to bring a cash box up to this camp with only a single armed guard? Why wasn’t I notified? And why the hell didn’t you tell me you were L. P. Carrington?”
“You shoved your handkerchief into my mouth before I had the chance, binding me up so that I couldn’t even protect myself!”
“I saved your life. If you had identified yourself to those men, I doubt they’d have let you off this mountain. You’re lucky they dropped you on your ass before they figured out who you were, or you’d likely have ended up like your gunman.”
Her eyes flared. “Mr. Dobbs? What about him?”
“He’s dead.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. Her gaze darted toward her cousin.
“It’s true, love. They shot him.”
“Miss Carrington, I don’t think you understand the dire circumstances you’ve created here. How did you expect to be greeted after asking your men to work for free, when they’d already been waiting on back wages?”
“The company went bankrupt, we were trying to. We came to.” Her voice trailed. She seemed lost somewhere between horror and utter confusion.
Juniper almost felt sorry for her. Other than wanting him dead, she’d obviously had plans to ease the financial strain McFarland and her subsequent pay freeze had placed on the crews. The men had plain tired of waiting. No doubt they’d heard a pot of money was on the mountain and had set out to claim what they believed to be rightfully theirs.
“Give me your hands,” he said.
She held out her wrists without question.
“How’s your head feeling?” he asked as he released the first cuff.
“It’s okay.” The second cuff fell open and she pulled her hands away, rubbing at the tender skin behind her short gloves.
He turned from her and mounted his horse. With only two mounts, she wasn’t likely to find her riding options suitable. He didn’t know Günter’s horse well enough to trust Reginald riding double. Scout wouldn’t balk about the extra weight. Used to carting his sisters around, he wouldn’t shy away from Lily’s flapping skirts. Juniper reined in close beside her and leaned down to grip her slender waist. She shrieked as he lifted her.
“Easy, boss,” he said, forcing her stiff legs to bend as he pulled her securely onto his lap. “It’s a short ride back to the wagon.”
To his surprise, she didn’t fight him. She gave a slight nod and quickly averted her gaze. He glanced down at the amber-gold crown of her head, and the grass and twigs poking out from the mass of hair that swirled around her shoulders. The shoulder-to-cuff seam in her green jacket had ripped open, revealing a pink scrape on lily-white skin. Just about every surface of the fancy dress had a rip or snag. The tender skin beneath likely bore bruises from such rough handling.
Guilt festered inside him.
“Miss Carrington, I wouldn’t have put you on that wagon had I thought you’d be in danger.”
Lily shut her eyes, anger and humiliation clashing inside her. “You’re still fired,” she said, the tremble in her voice adding to her distress.
“Of course I am.”
His gentle tone increased the fine trembling of her body. She tried not to notice the heat of his chest against her shoulder and back, or his muscular thighs all but cradling her backside. Every shift of movement was a startling reminder that Juniper Barns was very much a man.
She angled her head slightly, unable to help herself from stealing a glance at him—a handsome rogue who had an entire community fooled into believing he was a man of law-abiding morals. He glanced down and she quickly looked away from the chilling clarity of his blue eyes.
“Did you get a good look at the group of men?”
Dear God, she did not want to talk while sitting on his lap.
His arm tightened about her waist, stiffening her spine. “Lily?”
“Just the one who took me,” she said in a biting tone. “Dark hair, dark eyes and a red handkerchief—clearly a multipurpose tool for outlaws.” Her tongue still dry from the red handkerchief he’d stuffed into her mouth, she glowered up at him. “A moment later I was belly down across his legs and all I saw was moving mountainside. When someone shouted out that a woman had been taken, he was told to dump me. He did just that, after a bit of groping and foul language.”
The indignation of it all sent a sting into her cheeks, along with a delayed lash of fear. Everything had happened so fast, she hadn’t been able to truly comprehend the gravity of being abducted, defenseless against her captors.
“Did you hear his name?”
The chilling quality of Juniper’s low tone drew her gaze. The cold rage in his pale blue eyes increased the chill of her body. His reaction unsettled her, though she couldn’t say why. Perhaps because she’d have expected someone of his nature to find amusement in her mistreatment.
“I didn’t hear any names,” she said, looking away from him, all too aware that she sat in the arms of her father’s killer. “A series of gunshots drew the attention of the others. There was a bunch of shouting. All I saw was a flashing glimpse of horses before I was tossed into the brush.”
“Your