Reckless Love

Elizabeth Lowell

RECKLESS LOVE

Chapter One

Heart pounding, body flattened to the hot earth, Ja

He'll never make it, Ja

Crimson streaks appeared on the man's broad back as he struggled to his feet and began to run once more, doubled over in pain, lurching from side to side between the two lines of half-drunk warriors. When he reached the end of the gauntlet he straightened unexpectedly and surged forward, his legs driving hard, his head up, ru

The laughing, jeering Utes remained unconcerned about their prey's apparent escape. Other men had run the gauntlet before. Most of them never reached the end before being knocked unconscious and clubbed to death. The few prisoners who managed to survive the gauntlet had provided great sport for the renegades as they tracked their bleeding quarry through the rugged canyons, plateaus and mountains of the lower Utah Territory. Whether they found their prisoner a hundred yards away or a mile, the end was always the same-torture and a death that was no more merciful than the red-rock desert itself.

Go to the left, Ja

As though he heard her silent pleas, the man passed up the brush-choked entrance of a small ravine and ran on. For a few more moments Ja

The stranger disappeared around a bend in the dry wash, still ru

Once Ja

If he got that far.

Despite her urgency, Ja

Just before Ja

Ja

Yet it was the man's determination that impressed Ja

It was a long chance, but it was the only one he had, and he had been smart and tough enough to take it.

Ja

The farther up she climbed, the more she allowed herself to believe that the stranger would make it to the top. Up there was water, cover, game, all that a man would need to survive. Up there she could hide him easily, care for his wounds, nurse him if he required it.

Hopes high, Ja

There was no one in sight.

But there was no way out of the rugged little canyon except the way he had come, and she certainly hadn't seen anything bigger than a rabbit. He had to be somewhere in the pinon- and rock-filled hollow behind the landslide- unless he had spread spectral wings and flown from this trap like a shaman.

A frisson went over Ja

Don't be foolish, Ja

Intently Ja

A few minutes of silent observation convinced Ja