Wild Sweet Love by Beverly Jenkins
PROLOGUE
Teresa July was riding across the flats of Arizona Territory like she had demons on her heels because she did. Pinkertons, bounty hunters, local sheriffs, and U.S. Deputy Marshals had combined forces to finally put a stop to her bank robbing. She supposed she should be flattered that the authorities thought they needed thirty men to bring her in, but she didn’t have the time to crow. Her destination were the craggy foothills ahead in the distance. Once there, she knew she could elude them because she’d hidden out in the area many times before. The hills, however, were a pretty far piece away.
The big powerful stallion beneath her continued to eat up the distance, but they’d been riding hard for miles and Teresa could feel the horse tiring. She bent low and shouted encouragement. “C’mon, Cloud! C’mon!”
Shots rang out, the sound loud over the horse’s thundering stride, and she prayed she didn’t get shot in the back. Her own firearms were in her holster. She didn’t have time to shoot back, she was too busy riding.
The hills were getting closer, but so was the posse. In her mind she could feel their hot breaths on her neck. Perspiration was pooling on her skin beneath her black leathers. If she didn’t make it there ahead of them, she’d be in a jail before sunset, and she wanted to avoid that.
The shots were coming hot and heavy now, and she and Cloud were moving as one. Teresa loved to ride. Being set on a horse’s back was one of her first memories. No matter the circumstances, riding thrilled her, even when she was riding for her life.
The earth-hued foothills rose into sight. She looked back at the herd of men and grinned. She was going to make it. “C’mon, big boy! C’mon!”
Teresa and Cloud had been running from the law together for a long time, and the black stallion knew sanctuary when he saw it. He gave her all he had. An exhilarated Teresa threw back her head to shout the victory cry of her Black Seminole ancestors, but was immediately silenced by the sight of the ten mounted men waiting for her up on the rock face. They’d appeared out of nowhere. Panicked, she hauled back on the reins, sending Cloud in a circle in a desperate attempt to find an escape route. But there was none.
Riders were charging from the right and the left, and the posse behind was closing in. The men in the hills had their rifles drawn and were close enough to pick her off like a jackrabbit. She sighed with resignation. After successfully eluding this particular group of men for months, and others like them for years, she’d finally been run to ground. She couldn’t go forward, nor could she go back. As the net closed in on her, she gave Cloud an affectionate bittersweet pat. “Guess it’s over, boy. We had a great run, though, didn’t we?”
Faced with defeat, she dismounted and removed her gun belt. After tossing it aside, she leaned back against Cloud, folded her arms and waited for her captors.
Later, when the sun set, she was behind bars, just as she’d predicted.