Part 9 (2/2)

But retracing her steps wasn't as easy as she had expected. Even though they had broken a path through the snow, fighting his way through the deep drifts had tired the mule. Going up the mountain was much more difficult than going down.

Daisy was miserably cold.

It was stupid to have gotten mad at Tyler. Catching her father's killers wasn't his responsibility. She had no reason to think Tyler was a gunman or that he'd ever hunted murderers. She'd just a.s.sumed he could do anything he wanted. He somehow gave her that feeling.

Maybe he wasn't good with a gun. He hadn't killed the man who came back that second time. He'd have to face three men who had twice tried to kill her and probably wouldn't hesitate to kill him. She had already endangered him and Zac by just being here. She was an ungrateful female, and if she lived long enough to get back to the cabin, she'd apologize to him.

Suddenly, for no reason she could see, the mule let out a squeal and plunged through a drift, running her into snow-covered branches, nearly knocking her into the snow. Clutching desperately for a secure hold on the mule's mane, she righted herself. Frantically, she looked around her for the cause of his wild behavior.

At first she saw nothing. Then she caught a glimpse of a tawny streak. Struggling to stay in the saddle, she craned her neck. A moment later she detected the top of a small, elegant, furry head with white and black markings. Just then the animal seemed to leap straight into the air. The mule brayed in panic and plunged into the center of a huge drift.

They were being followed by the largest cougar Daisy had ever seen. It was struggling through snow almost over its head. Daisy didn't know if it could catch them, but she did know there was nothing she could do to stop it if it did.

She had failed to bring a rifle.

”She's run away,” Zac announced when Tyler walked into the clearing around the cabin.

”What are you talking about?” Tyler hadn't found any game, and he was irritable.

”Daisy. She's run away. She's not here. She took one of the mules.”

It had started to snow again.

”Where did she go? When did she leave?”

”She went that way,” Zac said, pointing to a trail through the snow. ”I expect she left soon after we did.”

”She'll never get through.”

”I know that. You know that. Apparently she doesn't.”

She was angry at him. Tyler had seen it in her eyes at breakfast, but he hadn't expected her to do anything as crazy as this. He'd told her over and over again she was too weak travel. She could easily pa.s.s out and freeze to death in the snow.

Tyler had run away once. George had found him and brought him back.

”There's a crust on the snow,” Zac pointed out. ”If it cuts the mule's legs enough for them to bleed, it'll attract wolves or cougars.”

Tyler didn't need to be reminded. He knew wild animals could smell blood from amazing distances. Their senses would be all the more acute if they were starving. He didn't relish the idea of being stalked by a wolf pack.

He saddled the second mule. ”Don't leave the cabin. It'll probably be dark before I get back.”

”If you don't find her in a hurry, her trail might be drifted over,” Zac said, pointing to snow falling fast enough to make it hard to see. ”I don't imagine she has any idea how to get back to the cabin.”

Tyler decided if Zac had been a female, he would have been named Ca.s.sandra. No one he knew could deliver so many gloomy predictions in such a short time.

”You'd better pack something to eat in case you get caught in the storm,” Zac said.

”I don't have time. Besides, if we get caught, food won't do us any good.”

The look of Zac's features altered subtly. He looked so much like George it was unnerving.

”If you're not back in two hours, I'm coming after you,” he said.

”Stay here.”

Zac looked like himself again.

”I may be selfish, spoiled, and self-centered, but there's no way I'm going to face the family and say I stayed here and let you die.”

Zac's reaction surprised and pleased Tyler. The brat was full of nonsense, but there might be some good in him yet. ”No point in both of us snuffing it. There's got to be somebody to tell George what happened.”

”It sure as h.e.l.l won't be me!”

But as Tyler mounted up and headed after Daisy, he had another cause for worry. Two miles down the mountain, along an exposed shelf where the snow was hardly more than a foot deep, he had found the trail of three horses. The big horse carrying the heavy rider was one of them.

The killers were still after Daisy.

They were going in the wrong direction and the snow now falling would make it even more difficult for them to find the cabin, but Tyler had to face the fact those men meant to find her. He couldn't go on depending on the snow to protect them. Sooner or later he was going to have to do something about them.

He wouldn't tell Daisy just yet, a.s.suming he found her safe. He wouldn't put it past her to head out after the killers. All he had to do to get her to do something was tell her to do the opposite. He admired her determination, but worried she didn't seem to have any understanding of danger.

Tyler heard the cat scream a long way off. It made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Daisy could be around the next ridge, or she could be a mile away. It was impossible to tell. He drove his mule forward at a faster pace, but his mount had also heard the cougar, he might have caught its scent as well. It was reluctant to head toward what instinct told him was a mortal enemy.

Tyler cursed the swirling snow, which nearly blinded him and was already filling the trail left by Daisy's mule. A mule brayed somewhere ahead, and he felt a little rea.s.sured. If the animal was still on its feet and capable of fighting, Daisy would be okay until he could reach her. But when he rounded a grove of snow-covered pines, the sight ahead caused the breath to catch in his throat.

Daisy was on the ground, up to her waist in snow. She had the plunging mule's rein caught in the crook of her arm while she used a spruce branch in her other hand to hold off the cougar. The cat, confused by the branch as well as the sight of a human being, the one member of the animal kingdom it feared, circled warily.

Tyler drew his rifle from the scabbard and fired a bullet into the snow close to the cougar. The cat whirled and snarled.

Daisy whirled, too, her expression a mixture of fear, surprise, and relief.

Tyler put another bullet into the snow. He didn't want to kill the cougar, but he didn't want it stalking them all the way back to the cabin. The cat still seemed unwilling to abandon its prey. Tyler slammed the rifle back into its scabbard. He jammed his heels into the mule's side, and letting out a yell, he charged forward in a shower of snow.

The cat held its ground for a moment. Then favoring them with a parting snarl that showed four gleaming white five-inch fangs, the beast bounded away through the snow and was soon lost from sight.

Daisy turned to face Tyler.

Chapter Eight.

Tyler had expected to be furious at her. And he was. He hadn't expected to feel so relieved he felt weak in the knees. But he did. Yet even as his body sagged with relief, he felt anger rise up in him that she could do such an incredibly foolish thing.

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