“Fair enough,” he said.

“Do you like coffee?”

“I love coffee.”

“Should be a minute. Can you get up?”

He shifted. “Shouldn’t,” he said. “The stitches are pulling a little bit. Weird, because you would think that doing it from that angle would’ve produced a completely professional result.”

“Well, I could’ve done it for you.”

“Sweetheart, you looked like you wanted to keel over and die while I was doing that. I don’t think you could’ve done it.”

“I’m not a shrinking violet,” she said, frowning. “I had to defy my family to get where I am, and you might look around and not see much, but this is a life that I fought hard for. I had to learn to shoot and learn to do complicated first aid in order to take this job, because everybody on Four Corners Ranch needs to know how to contribute during an emergency.”

“Was that a threat?”

“Only if it needs to be.”

“Doesn’t need to be. I promise. You saved me. If I’d been left outside in that storm... God knows.”

“Well, I’ve never saved anyone before.”

“I hate to be an imposition, Miss...”

“Tala. Tala Nelson.”

“Tala,” he said. “I like that name.”

“Thank you,” she said, feeling warm for some reason. “And you are?”

“Clayton. Clayton Everett.”

“What is it that I’m going to do with you, Clayton Everett?”

“If you wouldn’t mind, it’d be nice if I could stay for a couple days. I’ve got money. I can pay.”

Clearly a man who didn’t know how to just... Take a favor.

“Don’t be silly,” she said. “You don’t have to pay to stay with me.”

“There’s nothing in life that’s free, and I don’t take handouts. You know, unless I’m bleeding out on the ground. Then I’ll take a handout. But I aim to pay it back.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s the right thing to do. And I don’t know why, Clayton,” she said, his name feeling strange on her lips, “but I trust you. You’re not going to hurt me.”

“No.”

“And I’m not going to get you into trouble or put you in any danger. You can stay here. But you have to stay out of sight. I can’t have anybody at Four Corners knowing that you’re here.”

“What’s Four Corners?”

“It’s the ranch that we are on. Well, it’s four ranches, actually. But they operate as one. Garrett’s Watch, Sullivan’s Point, McCloud’s Landing and King’s Crest. We are on Sullivan’s Point. Staying in one of the houses on that piece of land. I’m the teacher.”

“The ranch has a teacher?”

“There are hundreds of employees, and we are out in the middle of nowhere. There’s a one-room schoolhouse, and I teach at it. And they really cannot know that the teacher is housing a potential fugitive, okay?”

“Got it.”

“So you can stay, but you can’t cause me any trouble.”

“I’m just going to lie low until I’m 100 percent. And then I gotta disappear. I gotta go where my brother can’t find me, where the law can’t find me. I have to go underground.”