Read Online Nest of Vipers (9781101613283) by Jory Sherman - Free Book Online

lumber camp close by. See if they have any horses they bought in the last few months from some wandering horse trader.”
    â€œThat’s a damned good idea,” Joe said.
    â€œIt’s another place to start,” Brad said. “I still want to go to Wild Horse Valley and see if the horses are wild or broke and stolen.”
    â€œI think we will find out something,” Julio said.
    â€œBound to,” Joe said.
    Brad walked to his bedroll and unbuckled his gun belt with its knife and pistol. He wrapped the holster and sheath in the cartridge belt and set it next to his bedroll. He rolled up his saddle blanket and put it down for a pillow at the head of his blanket. He sat down, pulled off his boots, and set them under his saddle.
    Then he lay down and rested his head on his folded arms.
    â€œGood night,” he said to Joe and Julio. “See you at daybreak.”
    â€œGood night,” Joe said. He walked to his bedroll and started his preparations for sleep.
    â€œBuenas noches,” Julio said and put more small logs on the fire.
    Brad pulled his blanket up after he buttoned his denim jacket. He continued to stare up at the array of sparkling stars, those in clusters, and those that seemed to be all alone on that vast dark prairie of space. They looked like little campfires out on the plain, or the lights of houses in some lonesome prairie town.
    He closed his eyes and began to dream of Felicity.

ELEVEN
    Just before Brad fell into slumber, his gaze fixed on a lone star. He wondered if it might be Felicity and if she was sparkling and winking at him as a way of saying good night. It was a foolish thought, he knew, but he dreamed of her that night and when he awoke before dawn, he thought she was lying next to him. He could feel a slight pressure on his blanket and it seemed that her spirit had somehow come to him and her ghostly hand had touched him.
    He got up quietly and shivered in the morning chill. Joe and Julio were still asleep, and the fire had turned to ashes with a few tiny coals glimmering under the gray mounds of ash. He walked away from the camp to relieve himself and check the drag marks of trees that had been hauled away after being cut.
    The star he had seen the night before was gone, moved to another place in the sky, or maybe, he thought, that had been a sign from Felicity that had disappeared as soon as he had fallen asleep.
    He missed her. He missed her terribly, and he no longer thought about the way she had died but the way she had lived. Now, it was like a hole had been ripped out of the universe, leaving an empty hollow place in its fabric where she had once been, alive, breathing, and loving. He could hear her voice in his head, but everywhere he looked there was that empty hole where she should have been but was no longer. His thoughts twisted him up inside, and he had to summon his willpower to keep from sobbing. He wanted to talk to her. He wanted to hold her in his arms. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to ride up over the bluffs and into the timber with a tablecloth, a basket of food, and a bottle of wine so that they could spend an afternoon away from the ranch and Leadville, all the cares and worries of the civilized world. As they had done more than once, he reflected. Moments remembered; moments gone. Forever.
    He walked back to camp and put more wood on the ashes. He stirred the small coals with a stick and saw smoke rise from beneath the thin claws of the squaw wood. Some of the twig-like fingers caught fire and blossomed tiny flames. He blew on the coals and they flared up, heated the skinny limbs, and burst into flame. He added firewood once the flames were raging and this wood caught fire, too, and he felt the welcome warmth as he piled on more dry logs.
    Julio woke up first and fixed coffee to set on the fire. Then he walked away to relieve himself. Joe sat up and threw his blanket aside, his features lit by the firelight, his face orange and shadowy, his