Read Online Out of Control by Mary Connealy - Free Book Online Page A

might as well work abovestairs in a cathouse. Your pa as good as put an innocent out on the street corner to earn money.”
    Audra had to fight to keep food in her belly at the ugly things her husband was saying. However Wendell wanted to twist it, she was his wife and she’d done nothing wrong by giving him husbandly prerogatives. “Then why are we out here if you’re such an important man back in Houston?”
    The laughter cackled with a desperate edge. “I got my hands on the richest haul of my life. And I saw my chance, so I took it and ran for the West.”
    â€œRichest haul? You mean money? We have no money. No great pile of it anyway.”
    â€œSure we do. And I hightailed it out of town with my wife and family for cover. Men hunting me were looking for someone traveling alone. Didn’t you wonder why I came home one night and said we were heading west before first light?”
    â€œYou know I wondered. I asked you many times why you decided to move.”
    â€œI’ve moved on a lot of times in my life. Ask Julia how many towns we’ve lived in.”
    Audra knew Julia and her father had wandered. That was part of the reason Audra hadn’t bothered to fuss about the sudden trip. Julia acted like it was something she’d done many times before and had just begun packing without acting upset.
    â€œThe kind of man I owe will find me if he has to hunt the rest of his life. Men like him have been the reason for every move I’ve made. I put enough down to buy a building in Rawhide and opened up a new gambling business under a new name. The rest of the money I’ve hidden where you’ll never find it.” He laughed and reached for a cigar as if to celebrate his genius with a smoke. “I stuffed it in a deep, deep hole.”
    His story made her dizzy. His talk of her father made her ill. She didn’t have time for dismay. Maybe she could appeal to his greed. “What good is your money if you can’t spend it?”
    â€œI plan on living out here for a few years, then getting back to a bigger town somewhere.” He shoved the metal cylinder that held his cigar back in his pocket.
    Audra was relieved she wouldn’t have that vile smoke in her face.
    â€œI picked a new name. In town I’m John Gill. But there ain’t enough money or people out here to run a good game. When we head out next time, I’ll set up somewhere under another name and start the gambling up again, and you’ll live in the country again and you can call yourself by any name you want because nobody will know you exist.”
    Audra couldn’t handle any of what he was saying, but she latched on to his complaints about the town not being big enough. “Let’s go now. We’ll find Julia and get out of here before anyone dies.” If only Julia was still alive. Lost, maybe hurt, but alive. “Please, Wendell.”
    She sounded like she was begging, and that wasn’t her intention. She wasn’t going to ask for his permission. She was leaving with or without him. But with him they had a lot better chance of making it. She gave him one more chance.
    â€œThink of the children. We can’t raise them out here. There are too many risks.” When she said those words, she suddenly focused on what her husband had done all those years for a living. “Is that it? Is risking your daughter’s life just one more gamble to you?” Audra looked squarely into the face of evil and stood strong. “I’m leaving.”
    â€œNo, you’re not.” He sank a crushing hand onto her wrist.
    She shoved hard. Wendell stumbled back. His skin went from flushed red to a sickly shade of gray, and he seemed to shrink right before her eyes, until he was more a slinking rat than a vicious wolf.
    He had only the power over her that she chose to give. And she would no longer give any. “I’m leaving this place as soon as I can find Julia,