Read Online Angel Gone Bad by Sabine Starr - Free Book Online Page A

want you ready to roll when I say the word, so stay in the area.”
    â€œMaybe I’ll just stay busy cheating every guy in sight,” Angel said, still miffed.
    â€œDarlin’, long as you cheat with me, not on me, I’m up for you anytime.”
    â€œShe’s with me.” Rune glanced around the group. “Don’t forget it.”
    Angel wrapped her hand around Rune’s muscular arm and leaned against him. “Right. I’m with him.” That said, she turned and flounced away from the table with Rune on her heels.
    â€œThings change,” Baines called out, grit in his voice.
    Angel pretended not to hear as she went out the front doors, but his words sent a shiver up her spine.

Chapter Fourteen
    â€œF ine friends!” Angel muttered as she stomped down the boardwalk away from the Red River Saloon.
    Rune walked beside her, keeping an eye out for trouble. He didn’t want to get involved either. On top of that, he wouldn’t trust Baines to plan an outhouse heist much less a train robbery. A strike on government gold would bring the feds down on their heads like a house afire. Wrong-headed didn’t even begin to describe it.
    Yet he needed his outlaw credentials with the Verdigris Gang to get close to the Badger Gang. He’d been accepted, so he wanted to keep up the illusion that he was one of them. No matter how much it went against the grain, he must stay focused on his bigger goal and somehow not get drawn in too deep. Even more important, he had to keep Angel safe, not easy with Baines, Lucky, and the other guys sniffing after her like hound dogs.
    â€œMaybe it’ll all go away like a bad dream. I don’t even have time for it. I’m scheduled to read from Sweet Rescue over in Paris in two days.”
    Reality struck Rune like a cold shower. He’d drawn Angel into his web of deceit, but she didn’t understand the true extent of the danger. If she knew, she’d probably run for the hills, figuring that loss of job and reputation were the lesser of evils. He couldn’t tell her the truth. She was safer not knowing anyway. But it meant he had to bend her to his will, and he was growing more reluctant to do that all the time. If so much hadn’t been on the line, he’d have cut her loose.
    â€œLet’s go get a cup of coffee at Mama Lou’s,” he said, hoping to ease her out of her doldrums.
    â€œI’m hot. I’m tired. I want out of these clothes.”
    Rune chuckled at the thought. “I’d like you out of those clothes, too.”
    â€œStop it! I’m in no mood for your lecherous ideas.”
    â€œYou sure?” He put a hand on her shoulder and gently squeezed.
    She shrugged, tossing him a gaze full of daggers. “Keep your hands to yourself. I’m about ready to draw my derringer on the next person who looks at me sideways.”
    Rune tried to repress his laughter, but couldn’t. Maybe he needed relief from the tension riding him, but the vision of her fumbling in her reticule to get at the derringer and then pointing it at some liquored-up cowboy who couldn’t see straight was funny as hell. “You might as well use a pea-shooter as your little one-shot against a six-shooter.”
    She stopped, spun toward him, and poked him in the chest with the tip of her finger. “Then why did you give it to me if it’s no good?”
    â€œAt a poker table where everybody is close and the derringer is within easy reach, it works fine.”
    She hefted her reticule in her hands. “It’ll work as a club, too.”
    He laughed harder. “I guess if you gave your bag a good swing and hit somebody in the head, it’d do some damage.”
    â€œThen why are you laughing?” She sounded more irritated than ever, especially after a guy stumbled into her, begged pardon, and went on his way.
    Rune tucked her hand in the crook of his arm. “I’m tired, too.