The two riders recovered from their surprise and plunged their horses over the edge after Alex. That was when Carmen realized what Alex was doing. He was going to outride them. They thought this would be easy, him being a dude and riding bareback. They were wrong.
Half way down the slope, one of the riders fell from his horse. The other was hanging on for dear life. Alex brought his horse to a sudden stop, lifting the rifle.
He had both men where he wanted them. They lifted their hands in surrender. It was impossible to hear what Alex said to them, but they sat on the ground and removed their boots. Alex dismounted and gathered their boots, sending the men downhill without them. He grabbed the reins of the other two horses and watched as the men took mincing steps, fell and stood. They would be busy for a while. Certainly it would be easy to escape them now.
Alex returned to find Carmen waiting for him. She couldn't decide whether she wanted to scold him or tell him how magnificent he was. She did neither. Instead, a flow of questions erupted from her mouth.
"What would you have done if they hadn't followed you? What if they had stopped and shot you instead - or if they could ride better than you?"
He gave her a wry smile. "That thought never entered my mind." When she didn't respond, he shrugged. "It was worth a chance. They thought I didn't even know how to saddle a horse, much less ride one."
He was right, of course. Wasn't he always right? She sighed. "Kind of like a bird faking a broken wing to save the nest."
His brows lifted. "I suppose - a little." He shrugged again. "It's over now and we have three horses.
She hugged him for a moment. When she looked up at him, he was watching the camp. She stroked his cheek. It was rough with a new growth of whiskers. She couldn't remember ever seeing Alex with whiskers before. He was always clean shaven. She ran her thumb across his chin, enjoying the feel of the whiskers as they bent under her touch.
When Alex gripped her wrist, she looked up at his eyes. His gaze traveled over her face, settling on her lips. She slid her arms around his neck and pulled his face down to hers, kissing him thoroughly. When she drew back, she smiled up at him. "What would I do without you?"
He grunted. "We'd better get back to the children."
When they returned to the children, Alex watered all the horses. He checked the rifles on the two horses and shoved them back into the boots. "They're loaded," he said. It was an observation that had a double intent. If the men had stopped and grabbed their rifles instead of following him, Alex probably wouldn't be here right now. It wasn't like Alex to linger on thoughts like that. Instead, he turned his attention to the next phase of his plan.