Read Online Katy Run Away by Maren Smith - Free Book Online Page B

tapped a finger to his hat brim and Katy recoiled, but then the shadow of his face turned to lock on Cal. “So tell me, who here has been robbed before?”
    Too scared even to fidget, Katy looked at Cal. She couldn’t see him any better than she could see the bandit, but she could feel him beside her and something told her, if she could see him, there’d be that ominous pulse of muscle leaping his jaw like it did when he took off his belt and came at her. It wasn’t proper, but unsure where his hand was, she touched his thigh just so she could feel him. He wasn’t angry, per se, and he didn’t feel scared. Just grim and tense.
    “No one?” the bandit guessed, cheerfully answering for them when neither one offered otherwise. “Ah well, this is going to be fun, then. Here’s how it works: I say, give me all your valuables. Much as you did your gun belt, you’ll pass over what you have. Then I’ll say thank you and we’ll leave, and nobody will get hurt. You’ll both continue on to your respective destinations somewhat lighter financially, but with an excellent story that you can embellish at will later on when you no doubt recount all this excitement to your friends and neighbors. We will also continue on in our nefarious patterns of life, slightly richer financially but (as you’ll likely be quick to note) one bootstep closer to that abysmal day of reckoning when the devil shall take his measure of us, find us all delightfully lacking of proper social and moral niceties, and set us to suffering in the burning mires of Hell everlasting. So!” Clapping his hands, the bandit rubbed them briskly together. “Is everyone ready to play their part?”
    The muscle under Katy’s hand tensed slightly.
    “Not particularly,” Cal said.
    The bandit flashed his teeth, his smile becoming a grin. “I admire your honesty. Pass over your valuables or I will shoot you where you both sit.”
    Katy sat motionless, feeling as Cal as he parted his money from his wallet and reluctantly placed the bills in the bandit’s outstretched hand.
    “You have a waistcoat watch,” the bandit noted.
    “I don’t suppose it’ll make any difference that it was a gift from my deceased father?”
    “None whatsoever.”
    Even more reluctantly, Cal handed that over as well.
    “Thank you.” Pocketing both, the bandit turned his eyes to Katy. She shrank against the back of the seat as, again, he flashed his teeth in smile. “Hello, my lovely.” He raised his hand, pointing at Cal before he could move to shield her. He tsked. “Don’t do it, my friend. You don’t want my attention to come back to you, I promise. No hardship will befall our dear Madame Pope, so long as she cooperates and you don’t do anything stupid.”
    Katy swallowed hard. Her breasts rose and fell, each breath coming just a little bit faster as the bandit fixed her with a speculative look.
    “No rings on your pretty fingers. No earrings or necklace. No pendant. Either Madame Pope has taken a vow of poverty or she has something very wonderful hidden in her luggage. Where is your purse?”
    “On a northward train,” Cal informed him. “Unfortunately, our luggage departed for Wyoming yesterday. We’ve been trying to catch up ever since.”
    The bandit cocked his head, his face shadowed by his hat. It was hard to see even his mouth now. “Are you playing with me, my friend? Because I’ll warn you now, I favor very few games at all.”
    “Believe me, being shot is not on my list of day-to-day ambitions,” Cal assured him. “You’ve already taken everything we have.”
    “And if I take Madame Pope out of this wagon and search every lovely inch of her, am I going to find you’ve told the truth or lied through your teeth?”
    “You have,” Cal repeated, “everything of value that we are carrying.”
    The bandit stared at them in silence for almost a full minute, and then tsked. “Very well. You leave me no alternative…”
    Cal moved, putting out his arm as