The jumping one's voice cracked with panic. Fall back. Fall back. Retreat. All the leader's earlier bluster had drained clean away.
Inside 2 minutes, the whole crew thundered off down the road, doubled up on horses that hadn't already bolted, leaving nothing behind but settling dust and a badly torn fence line. Silence dropped over the ranch. Wyatt held his position a good while longer, making certain they truly weren't circling back before finally lowering his rifle and walking toward the barn. Naellili stepped out, holding a rifle in each hand, a wide grin, lighting her whole face, eyes still bright with the rush of it. It worked.
Your crazy plan actually worked. Wouldn't have worked without your aim. Wyatt found he was grinning too despite everything they just survived. They stood looking at each other a beat too long. Both aware something had shifted out there in that gunfight.
Something that turns two strangers into people who trust each other with their lives without a second thought. Wyatt walked the fence line first, counting the damage in the fading light, three posts down, a length of wire torn loose and coiled uselessly in the dirt. Nothing that couldn't be fixed inside a day or two of honest work. The barn smelled of guns smoke and old hay, and somewhere in the rafters, a startled owl shifted and resettled, unbothered now that the shooting had stopped. The house itself had barely been touched.
The bandits hadn't gotten far enough to steal a thing before the shooting scattered them. Naellili looked around the small plain rooms with open curiosity. Your house is small enough for me. One room, a kitchen, a stall for Duke. Never needed more than that.
More comfortable than a tent. Real warmth carried under the words. Wyatt felt the whole weight of the situation land on him at once. a beautiful woman, daughter of a powerful chief, alone with him under his own roof, and his face heated up in a way he hadn't quite expected. Take the bed. The words came out quicker than he planned.
I'll bunk in the stable with Duke. Naellili's mouth curved with quiet amusement. Afraid of me, Wyatt, not fear, respect. Your father is a powerful man. Wouldn't want him thinking.
My father judges men by what they do, not by what other men assume. Gentle, but firm. And what you've done is save my life twice now. She stepped closer, and the faint scent of wild sage still clung to her hair from the road. You're different from other white men I've known.
Honorable. Just try to do what's right. That, she said, is exactly why you're different. The days that followed on the ranch settled into something strange and unexpectedly peaceful. Wyatt tended cattle and mended the fence line the raiders had torn apart.