Trail of Kisses by Merry Farmer

face as if to cool it and smoothed her hair
back.
    “ This is clearly a threat, and I
won’t have anyone threatening you in any way,” he said, more
determined.
    “ No, no, it’s nothing.” She
cleared her throat when her voice cracked.
    Cade gaped at her. She smoothed her skirt now
and did her best to stand taller. He couldn’t fathom her fragile
calm.
    “ This is not nothing,” he told
her. Fire was running through his blood now and he would fight
anyone to keep her safe, even her. “This means that someone—and I
think we can guess who—is here, in this wagon train with us, trying
to do you harm.”
    Lynne shook her head, breathing deep and slow.
“It’s probably just an accident. I may have left something sharp
sitting against my father’s portrait and accidentally cut the paper
when I lifted it.”
    “ Lynne,” he scolded, stepping
closer to her.
    She backed away, twisting the ends of the
half-untangled braid that drooped over her shoulder. “Yes, that’s
the most likely explanation. I…I took Papa’s portrait out of the
frame for some reason and it was accidentally damaged.”
    Cade couldn’t believe what he was hearing. She
couldn’t possibly be so blind as to think this was all an
accident.
    But that was the point. She wasn’t that
blind.
    “ I know you don’t want to think
about the danger you’re in,” he began as if soothing an upset
child.
    “ It was an accident,” she
insisted, suddenly as stubborn as a mule. “Now give me the
photograph. I’m going to bed.”
    Cade wouldn’t be put aside. He handed over the
photograph, but rested a hand on her shoulder as he did.
    “ Look, I know you’re scared,
but—”
    “ I am not scared,” she
snapped. She pulled herself to her full height, tipping that pretty
chin of hers up high. It trembled in spite of her declaration. “I’m
not afraid of anything. I’m Papa’s brave…. You’re the one who’s
making this molehill into a mountain.”
    For a moment, Cade could only stand there and
gawp at her. “You may not take this threat seriously,” he
began.
    “ It’s not a threat, it’s an
accident.”
    “ But I do.” He leaned closer to
her. “I swore that I would protect you, keep you safe, and I intend
to do it. Whether you like it or not.”
    “ You’re a fool then,” she said,
but her threat didn’t mean much when her bottom lip
quivered.
    He stared at that lip and its mate, wanting
nothing more than to kiss them. The urge rose up in him, powerful
and sudden as a thunderstorm. He could feel the energy of her
emotions in her body, and stepped even closer to her. She leaned
into him as if she could do with a kiss to calm her down. She would
taste like wildfire and honey. And he would get completely carried
away when he had a job to do.
    He took a step back and a deep breath. Lynne
gasped, losing her balance, her soft lips pressing shut in a tight
line. It was just his luck that she’d been willing to let him kiss
her. He couldn’t be distracted.
    “ I’m going to find who did this,”
he said, cursing the fact that his voice was full of
gravel.
    He cleared his throat and marched around the
side of the wagon, searching for clues.
    “ Ben?” he called. The boy would be
the first one who would have seen anyone tampering with their
wagon. “Ben? Where are you?”
    A scuffle and snort sounded from the front of
the wagon. As Cade reached the driver’s seat, Ben scrambled to his
feet, rubbing his eyes.
    “ Huh?” he mumbled as Cade put a
foot up on the wagon wheel and looked up at him. “Sorry. Must’ve
dozed off.”
    Cade narrowed his eyes. “You been drinking
with the miners again?”
    “ Psht, no.” Ben swayed where he
stood, losing his balance and bumping against the buckboard. For a
second, Cade thought he would fall off the wagon
completely.
    “ You see anyone interfering in the
wagon recently? Anyone in there who shouldn’t be?” Cade pressed
on.
    “ This is unnecessary.” Lynne
strode up to his side.