Copyright © 2016, Caroline Lee
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First edition: 2016
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Little Red
An Everland Ever After Tale
CHAPTER ONE
Wyoming Territory, 1875
Her back hurt. Why did her back hurt? Rojita cracked her eyelids just a bit, wincing at the way the full brightness of the late-winter sun lanced straight through to the back of her brain. Never mind, better to just keep them closed.
She was lying on the frozen ground; the sharp rock or stick or something under her rear end told her that. And just as soon as the dull ache in her back faded, she’d get around to shifting off of it. In the meantime… why did her back hurt at all?
She’d been riding hard, and then—oh yes, the horse had stopped suddenly. Had she been thrown? Wiggling her toes in her boots and flexing her fingertips, Rojita gave a little sigh of relief. Nothing hurt worse than her back, which meant that nothing was broken, and at least she could walk. The mean-spirited animal—no doubt a trait inherited from its master—must’ve tossed her off in such a way that she’d landed almost-safely.
Where was the blasted animal? How long had it been since the accident? Had it wandered off, leaving her here in the Wyoming wilderness with no hope of rescue? Was El Lobo even now picking along her trail—having gotten another horse, of course—creeping ever closer to doing her unspeakable harm? Had this delay cost Abuela the orphanage?
Rojita groaned, and then winced at the sound. She couldn’t be that weak, could she? Abuela and the children were counting on her getting to Everland before Lobo, even if they didn’t know it. She had to stand up, to find that darned horse, and to start riding before he caught up with her.
“It’s about time you woke up, Red. I was getting worried.”
Too late. He’d found her. He was here.
She kept her eyes closed, wondering if she could fool him into thinking that she was still unconscious. Everything that she knew about the man said that he was ruthless, but surely he’d wait until she was awake to do any harm that he had planned?
“I can see you wiggling over there. Anything broken?”
He had a deceptively nice voice. Warm and smooth; comforting like café con leche on a cold day. It was a shame, to waste such a voice on a gunslinger like El Lobo. He wasn’t warm or comforting or nice, but he sure sounded like it. That voice was probably his secret weapon; he could convince anyone that he was a kind-hearted, law-abiding citizen, and then he’d swoop in and defraud their widows of land that they’d purchased legally and rightfully.
But Rojita wasn’t going to be fooled. She knew him for what he really was, thanks to Abuelo’s warning. She knew about the men he’d goaded into drawing on him, and how he shot them down without a flicker of conscience. She knew about the lawmen he’d killed in Mexico, and about the way his name was used as a curse by law-abiding folks throughout Texas. And since he’d found her in Salt Lake City, she knew about his cruel smile and calm certainty that absolutely no one would stand in his way of getting what he wanted.
Unfortunately, she was what he wanted, and Rojita had to suppress a shiver at the thought. Think! She was going to figure out a way out of this. She’d been to school in a big city; surely she was smart enough to outthink a common bandito like Lobo. Just because he was at a complete advantage here didn’t mean that she couldn’t beat him to Everland after all.
“Come on, Red, wake up. I managed to run down your horse—you’re welcome, by the way. All we’re waiting on is you.”
Her horse? Her horse? She’d stolen it from him. Lobo would know that, and would be… angry, wouldn’t he? So why did he sound exasperated instead?
Unless… Her eyes snapped open, the bright Wyoming sky not bothering her nearly as much as it had a minute before. Unless this wasn’t El Lobo.
With a gasp, Rojita jerked herself up onto her elbows, twisting to find the source of the caramel-warm voice. She had just a glimpse of a small fire and a man hunched behind it, before the pain made everything go black again.