“You’re doing no such thing. You just trot your horse back out to the field with Lucky and the palomino. We’re staying with Braddock.”
“Is that what he makes you call him—Braddock? Or is it Mr. Braddock?”
“He doesn’t make me do anything.”
Corey folded his arms over his chest. “So you’ve chosen to turn your back on me all on your own.”
“Turn my back…” If he hadn’t grown several inches taller than she, she would have followed through on the urge to whack him hard on his backside. “All I’ve done since I’ve gotten to New Mexico is clean up your mess. You’re in a lot of trouble. We’re in a lot of trouble because of you. You’re not running out on your responsibilities this time.”
“Didn’t you learn anything from Berkley? Braddock’s no different. He isn’t going to help us. He just wants to get his axle greased.”
Corey sidestepped her while she stood with her mouth open. When she recovered enough to use her voice, You don’t even know him died in her throat. Those were the same words she had used when her mother warned her Berkley would never go against his father to marry her. She had been so sure then. Almost as sure as she was now.
She kept her distance while Corey pawed through Christopher’s saddlebags.
“You shouldn’t do that. Those are his things.”
Corey raised a pistol in each hand. “These are mine.”
After he stashed the weapons in his pockets, her brother went for the flowered valise that held their supplies.
She grabbed the bag out of his hand. “You’re not taking our food.”
“Our food?” Corey arched a brownish red eyebrow. His cynical expression was that of a grown man. A hard man. She didn’t know when or how the transformation had happened.
He lunged for the bag.
She twirled to the side, removing it from his reach. “Listen to me, Corey Sullivan. I’m just trying to keep you alive. I can’t let you leave here by yourself.”
He brushed past her. “What are you going to do, yell for your lover?”
She dropped the bag and grabbed his arm to keep him from reaching his horse. He shook her off and she stumbled back. He didn’t even turn to see if she caught her balance.
“Corey, are you going to leave me?”
He dropped the foot he had raised to place in the stirrup. “I don’t want to. I want us to be together, but you’ve chosen him over me.”
“That’s not true.” She couldn’t explain what Christopher meant to her. She didn’t even know herself. “He’s going to find Mulcahy and help you.”
“Yeah, he’s going to use me to find him, even though I told him Mulcahy wants to kill me for messing up the robbery. And then, if Mulcahy doesn’t kill me, I get to go to jail for the rest of my life. No, thank you. I’d rather go live with the coyotes. At least they take care of their own.”
“What do you think I’ve been doing?” Frustration broke her voice.
He must have seen her pain, because he turned back to his horse but didn’t attempt to mount. “Don’t cry, Lori. I’ll find you after everything blows over.”
Being wanted for murder wasn’t going to blow over. He might look like a man, but he was still her little brother. She’d come all this way to be with him, and she couldn’t let her own selfish desires separate them, or worse, cause Corey harm.
“If you have to go, I’ll go with you.”
He glanced at her over his shoulder. “He’ll follow us.”
“He’ll follow you anyway.” She knew it with a certainty she wished she didn’t.
Corey turned. “You can stop him.”
“I can’t.”
Corey gazed intently into her eyes, giving Lorelei the sinking feeling this was what he had planned all along. “Maybe if we work together we can get him handcuffed. There has to be a time when he has his guns off. A time when he isn’t expecting it.”
Lorelei took a step back, realizing what that direct gaze meant. “Oh, no! I won’t use our relationship to hurt him.”
“He’d do it to you.”
“You might as well ride out of here, Corey. I won’t do what you’re asking.”
She turned her back on him and walked toward the wood she had gathered for a fire. Her hands shook as she stacked the dried pieces of timber. Corey’s boots crunched twigs and earth as he followed her. He hadn’t planned on leaving at all, not without her cooperation. Christopher had good reason to worry about taking off his guns. Had he truly believed she would agree to such a thing using her body to trick him, ambush him?