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the two women headed inside, Jessica dared a last glance behind her to see Cole Reklaw still watching her. She stifled a shiver. His dark gaze was so intense that she half expected to go up in flames . . .

 
    Chapter Five
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    This woman was trouble.
    That was Cole Reklaw’s thought as he stood lounging against a tree, chewing on a stalk of grass and scowling at the bag of trinkets Billy had taken from the stage passen gers. He pulled out the lady’s ring with its odd numbers, 19 94. He fought a smile as he recalled Wesley suggesting that perhaps this was the number of notches on the little lady’s bedpost.
    1994. The numbers confounded him. They for sure couldn’t represent a date, since this was the year 1888. He held the ring up to the light and could just make out some additional small lettering: “ University of New Mex ico .” Hmmmm. Cole knew of no such institution in New Mexico Territory , but then he was neither a widely trav eled, nor a widely read, man. And hadn’t the lady said she was a schoolmarm somewhere else— Pawnee College , wasn’t it? Another school he’d never heard of. Plus, both she and the sheriff had claimed she was on her way to teach at Mariposa. This little lady got around quite a bit, he mused cyni cally.
    Who was this mysterious female and where had she come from? The fact that she’d been in Lila Lullaby’s old parlor wagon had really perplexed him. Cole had known Lila well—too well, in fact—before she’d been run out of Colorado City, and seeing her old bordello wagon had stirred up mixed emotions within him.
    As for the lady, she was quite a study in contradictions. She’d been dressed like a schoolmarm and was obviously well educated. But she had a peculiar manner of talking, had blessed them out with all the vehemence of a cathouse madam, and had met his eye with a boldness that should have scandalized any proper lady.
    Whoever she was, Cole felt uneasy about her being here. Damn her for goading him into throwing her over his horse in the first place. Kidnapping her had been a mistake. She’d get the boys all worked up for no good reason, maybe even turn them against one another.
    Hell, she already had him all riled up. She was a pretty one, with that curly auburn hair, those large, fiery green eyes, and that sassy, full-lipped mouth. He smiled as he recalled her feistiness when he’d brought her home. Re membering her lush curves wiggling against him, her derriere bobbing so enticingly to the rhythm of his horse, he felt himself growing hot. And he had only himself to blame for putting himself within temptation’s reach.
    Cole uttered a curse under his breath and spat out the stalk of grass. What had come over him that he’d allow a female to so beguile him? As head of the outlaw gang, he could ill afford such luxuries as love and marriage, and he had little need of women beyond the satisfaction of his physical needs. Besides, he’d learned long ago that women weren’t to be trusted. They took your money, lied to you, stole your heart with their feminine wiles, then betrayed you. The last female Cole had taken a cot ton to had seduced him with her siren’s body, then turned him in to the law for the reward money. It had taken all the boys’ efforts to bust him out of the calaboose and save him from a certain necktie party.
    No, women weren’t to be trusted. He and his brothers were about a dangerous business, and they couldn’t afford a potential traitor in their midst.
    The problem was, his ma had taken a real shine to the lady, and so had his brothers. Cole’s ma had never had a daughter, and had always wanted one; she’d also lost two good husbands at the Aspen Gulch Mines, and Cole hated to bring her another disappointment.
    So they were stuck with the lady, at least for now, and that left it all to him. As the eldest, it was obviously his call to protect his family from the little temptress.
    Perhaps it was time he had a word with the