Another shot rang out, and suddenly Emily was on the ground with Chase on top of her.

“Stay still,” he growled in her ear.

He had her pinned flat, and she wouldn’t have been able to move even had she wanted to. All she could hear was his breath in her ear. All she could feel was his body on hers. His warmth and protection and care.

A minute passed. Then two.

Finally, he rolled off her, Peacemaker in hand. Body crouched low, he scanned the distant hills. In the deadly quiet that followed, Emily held her breath. Not even a bird or prairie dog dared break the silence that spread across the land like thick fog.

“Okay,” Chase said, his voice hushed. “On the count of three, I want you to run behind those rocks. I’ll cover for you.”

She followed his gaze to an outcropping of boulders thirty or forty feet away, and her stomach knotted. “Chase—”

“Do it.” His gaze falling on her trembling lips, he added in a softer voice, “I won’t let anythin’ happen to you. Honest.”

He was asking her to trust him. After what had happened in Boston, she’d sworn never to depend on another man, but something in his eyes, his expression, his voice made her want to believe that trusting him was the right thing to do.

Seeming to take her silence for compliance, he pulled back the gun’s hammer and took aim, pointing in the direction of the gunman. “All right then,” he said, his voice but a murmur as he started counting.

Head low, she rose to her feet and sprang forward on the count of three. Heart pounding, she raced for cover. A barrage of gunfire split the air. No sooner had she ducked behind a large granite boulder than Chase joined her.

“Stay down,” he ordered. Kneeling by her side, he quickly fed bullets into his gun’s chamber.

Gasping for air, she asked, “Who’s shooting at us?”

“Someone with bad judgment,” he said. After reloading, he closed the cylinder and spun it hard. Resting his gun on top of a granite rock, he aimed in the direction of the shooter.

For several moments, neither of them moved. The air was still as if even nature held its breath. The only thing breaking the silence was the pounding of Emily’s heart.

“Is he still there?” she whispered at last.

“Don’t know.”

At the sound of horses’ hooves, she sensed Chase stiffen, and her already-taut nerves threatened to snap.

Chase surprised her by suddenly standing and waving. “Over here.” In a softer voice, he explained. “It’s okay. Come on.”

Holstering his gun, he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her to her feet. Emily didn’t think there could be a more welcome sight than Kansas Pete, Foxhound, Big-Foot Harry, and Boomer, all on horseback.

“Y’all okay?” Kansas Pete hollered from his saddle. “We heard gunfire.”

Chase hollered back. “Someone started shootin’ at us. The shots came from those hills.”