Read Online Ruth by Lori Copeland - Free Book Online

swirling mist. “Now what?” he repeated.
    “I don’t know. I didn’t expect to bump into you—literally—this soon,” she admitted. “I’m thinking.”
    After a minute, he shifted his weight to one foot. “Can you think a little faster? I’d like to get out of these clothes.” The smell of manure turned his stomach.
    “Okay—don’t rush me.” She straightened, taking a deep breath. “As you might suspect, this is the first time I’ve ever tried to heist anyone.”
    “Heist.” He grumbled under his breath. For two cents he’d forget common sense and take the Colt away from her. “Heist,” he muttered. Why didn’t she just say ambush ? bushwhack ? buttonhole ?
    Ruth took her own sweet time thinking about the situation. Eventually she cleared her throat and explained. “I didn’t want you to know I was following you—not for another day or two, but now that you do, you might as well know you’re going to have to take me to Wyoming whether you like it or not.”
    “Oh yeah?” He shifted his weight to the other foot. “How do you figure that? I could leave your worthless hide out here and ride off.” The idea was more than tempting—it lay in his brain like the thought of a steak dinner. “Someone might find you next spring. Then again—” he turned sinister now—“the buzzards would have picked your hide clean by then.”
    Her eyes bulged at the suggestion. She cleared her throat.
    “But you won’t because your conscience and duty as a U.S. marshall won’t allow it, and if you turn around and take me back to Denver City, you’ll be late for your appointment.” She sent him a smug smile from beneath the brim of the tattered hat.
    His eyes raked the man’s clothing she wore. “You look ridiculous.”
    “Thank you. You don’t look so spiffy yourself.”
    His hand self-consciously smoothed a bearded three-day growth. “What if I just took the gun away, shot you, and left you for the crows to eat? Seems to me that would take care of both problems.”
    Her eyes narrowed and she steadied the gun with both hands. “You can’t do that. I won’t let you.” Her clasp tightened around the pearl handle.
    He smiled diabolically. “Oh, but I could.”
    Inching closer, she pushed the barrel into the tip of his tender nose. “Just try it, mister.”
    He stared at her, teeth clenched. One swift move and she’d be flat on her back. But cool reasoning prevailed and made him hold off. He couldn’t shoot her, could never gun down an innocent woman.
    His sense of adventure began to override his annoyance. How far would she go? He’d bide his time and find a way to scare some sense into her. His features relaxed. “Okay, you got me. What now?”
    Ruth jerked her head toward his waiting horse. “Reckon we’ll have to ride double until we can find my mare.”
    “And if we don’t find your horse?”
    The tip of the gun mashed the end of his nose. “Then you walk.”
    “To Wyoming?” Again his temper flared. If she didn’t move that gun, she was a dead woman. His eyes skimmed her clothing a second time. “Why are you dressed like that?”
    “If I’m dressed like a boy, no one will know that I’m a woman. My reputation won’t be ruined, Mr. McCall. Not that I had one to uphold. Nobody knows me, and I’ll never pass this way again. When I reach Milford and his family in Pear Branch, no one will be the wiser.”
    He shifted the gun barrel out of his face. “Saddle up. We have a long ride ahead of us.”
    She trained the pistol on his back as they walked toward the waiting animal. Dylan’s horse shied as he reached for the reins. Dylan imagined the stallion wasn’t fond of its own smell any better than he was. “But we should get out of these clothes first,” he said.
    “No time. Let’s go.” Ruth motioned for him to mount. Once he complied, she climbed up and slid on behind him, gun pressed to his ribs. He peevishly adjusted the barrel more to the left for comfort.
    “You’re