Read Online Chasing Emily [Duoterra 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) by Jennifer Denys - Free Book Online

success. Holding a hand over her mouth, she began to feel nauseous.

Chapter Nine
     
    Robin threw a handful of twigs onto the fire. It burned brightly against the darkness as night fell. Neither of the planet’s two moons could be seen.
    He shivered. It was fall, and the air felt cold in the woods that he was camping in. He was just glad that he had stopped when he did to settle down for the night. It wasn’t that he was unused to being in the woods as his job meant he spent a great deal of time in the forest near his home, but he knew those woods. These ones, which were on the road to Eden, were unfamiliar to him.
    His biggest fear was falling asleep and being attacked by a wolf-cat, although he’d never heard of one this far south. A further fear was that he would inadvertently lie on top of the nest of a poisonous lizard known as the double-whammy lizard because of its two heads, both of which spat venom. Thankfully the creature was only a few inches long, so its venom wasn’t deadly, unless you stepped—or lay—on a nest of them.
    It was three weeks since Emily had run away. It had taken him this long to decide what to do—to give her up as a lost cause, or to chase after her.
    The fact that he was on the road having packed enough stuff to take with him, had given leftover food to his sister and abandoned any jobs, clearly told anyone what his intentions were.
    His initial worry though had been “Where the hell had she gone?” No one had seen her leave town, although there was only one road out of Frontier, but she could have decided to take refuge with various friends who had farms out of town. He thought the most likely place would be the Hollis farm. They had left town shortly after Emily had absconded. After deciding he wasn’t prepared to give her up, he had ridden out to their farm, but much to his annoyance, Emily was not with them.
    “Where on Duo is the damn woman?” he had demanded.
    “Robin, I—there was something Emily said—” Brianna was hesitant as she tried to tell him something about Emily. Robin jumped off his horse and ran over to her, grabbing hold of her arms.
    “What? What did she say? Did she tell you where she’s gone?”
    Adam, the eldest of Brianna’s husbands, moved forward and wrenched Robin’s hands off Brianna. “Don’t touch my wife again,” he snarled.
    Backing away a few steps, Robin pleaded, “I need to know where she is. If you know anything, for the love of God, please tell me.”
    “Well, we were talking before the dance,” Brianna explained. “You know I ran away from my home in Goldtown to come here, so Emily said if she had been me, she would have gone to Eden, it being easier to hide out there than other towns.”
    “Eden!” That worried Robin. It was where the brothel was.
    Curt, who was just coming out of the house behind Brianna, frowned and queried, “Are you sure that it was Eden, Bree?”
    The last of the Hollis brothers, Eric, cried out, “Oh God, she hasn’t gone to the brothel there, has she!”
    Robin suddenly felt his knees go week and had to bend forward to stop falling over. Adam grabbed him before he fell, their previous altercation forgotten. “Are you all right, man?”
    Taking a few deep breaths, Robin stood upright pulling away from him. He felt color come back to his cheeks. “It’s okay. I’m fine.”
    With his head clearing, he moved away toward his horse.
    “What are you going to do?” asked Curt.
    “Go to Eden, where else?” was Robin’s weary response.
    “At least stay the night. It’s going to be dark soon.”
    He hadn’t wanted to delay any longer, but they persuaded him, and it gave him a chance to talk some more to Brianna about Emily and what her intentions might have been. He learned that she was unlikely to have taken refuge in the brothel. Her most likely option would be to find a job in a bar.
    Arriving home the following evening, he had stumbled into bed exhausted—mostly from emotional weariness. The