Read Online Circle Eight: Vaughn by Emma Lang - Free Book Online Page A

closed. She had to save Granny. “Tie her up. Him too.”
    The men yanked off their neckerchiefs and made quick work of tying their hands. Vaughn shot arrows at her from beneath his thunderous brows. She glared back at him, wondering just how she could get word to her family about what happened. Her brothers would come after her, of that she was certain.
    “I saw a few mounts in the barn. Go saddle two of ’em.” Gibson sent one of his men off while the other stood at attention, pistols aimed at Elizabeth and Vaughn. At least she still had the Colt. It could save her if she timed it right. “Now march outside and don’t give me any more trouble.”
    The early morning air had a hint of honeysuckle, sweet and fragrant. She walked across the ground, the familiar dirt beneath her shoes. Her mind told her to focus on how to get out of the ridiculous situation while her heart kept telling her to shoot Gibson in his black heart. Although her hands were tied, she was sure she could get the gun out, maybe not quickly, but she could do it. If she were wrong, or if they spotted her struggling with her pocket, then her element of surprise was gone.
    The second man came out of the barn with two of the cow ponies saddled. They were solid, if slow, animals. Javier and Lorenzo usually used them. Sweet God, what would her family think when they returned home to find her gone and Martha alone? It would be another two days at least and Martha could barely walk. There was a distinct possibility she could starve or fall.
    Anger bubbled back up her throat. “Where are you taking us?”
    “Where I can make him tell me the truth, if’n he knows how.” Gibson shoved Vaughn until he stumbled.
    As soon as she had the chance, she would find out who Vaughn Montgomery or O’Connor was. He had likely been lying to her from the moment he opened his mouth. The man was a conniving snake and had put her family in danger because of it. Maybe she should use the bullet on him instead, but it seemed a shame to waste it. She wasn’t about to revisit what she’d done with him the night before.
    “Why do you need me? I’ll only slow you down.” She had to try to stop this ridiculous series of events before things got out of control.
    “You made a deal with me, missy.” Gibson was in her face, his fury palpable. “Are you a liar too?”
    She poked him with her tied hands. “I don’t lie. Ever. I keep my word. What about you? Do you keep your word?”
    “We ain’t talking about me.” Gibson could do with a bar of soap and a razor. If he wasn’t a lowdown jackass he might have been a decent man.
    “That’s what I expected. A whole lot of nothing.”
    Gibson’s expression changed at her words. A shadow passed over his face and his whiskered jaw tightened. “Jeb!”
    The man holding the pistols jerked to attention. “Yes, Tobias?”
    “Burn it. All of it.”
    Elizabeth didn’t even remember throwing herself at Gibson but she found herself on top him again, her tied hands slamming into his face. Blood gushed from his nose while he howled for someone to get the crazy bitch off him.
    “You solve your own problem, Gibson.” Vaughn had a prideful tone in his voice, as though pleased by her violent outburst. “She’s killed a man before, you know.”
    “I can’t take my guns off O’Connor, Tobias,” the one named Jeb whined.
    Gibson grabbed her wrists, nearly crushing the bones. “You stop fucking hitting me. Now.”
    Elizabeth’s cheeks were wet but she wasn’t crying. It had to be sweat. “You threaten to burn my house, my barn, my horses and my goddamn grandmother and you want me to stop hitting you?” she screamed with all the rage of a Graham.
    “Dammit, Jeb, shoot her.” Gibson tried to throw her off but she wouldn’t let loose.
    Vaughn growled. “You shoot her and I will tear your throat out.”
    She had no time to consider that Vaughn was protecting her. She had a two-hundred-pound bull beneath her, ready to kill. Tobias