Read Online Samantha James by Outlaw Heart - Free Book Online

enough, a hand like a claw roughly grasped his shoulder. He testily batted it away like a pesky fly, his subconscious rebelling at such a rude awakening.
    The sudden movement was a mistake. He promptly discovered his entire body ached as though he’d been kicked from one end of a corral to the other. There was a blacksmith hammering away inside his brain that wouldn’t go away. He tried to swallow, but his tongue felt thick and clumsy, as if a wad of cotton had been shoved in his mouth. Belatedly he recognized the source of his misery. He rolled over with a groan. Why, he hadn’t been this drunk since the night he’d come home and found Lorelei …
    Lorelei. His woman. His wife. The only thing in his whole miserable life that had ever had any meaning. The only person on earth he had ever really loved … and who had loved him. When he’d met her, he’d thought he could finally make something of his life. For the first time ever he’d been … truly content, even happy. But then she had died …
    She didn’t just die , a voice inside mocked. She was murdered . And that was when it all started …
    The pain that scored his gut was agony, fiery and burning like acid, clear to his soul.
    “Kane,” sniped a voice that sounded nothing at all like the dulcet tones in his dream. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll get up right now!”
    He winced. “Be a good girl, sweetheart,” he mumbled. “Keep it down, all right?”
    “I am not your sweetheart, nor am I ever likely to be! And I’ll thank you to stop calling me that!”
    He dragged his eyelids open, first one and then the other. A woman stood over him, looking for all the world like an enraged virago. A lantern dangled from one slim hand. Jesus! he thought incredulously. What on earth had possessed him to bring a woman to a smelly barn when there was a perfectly good bed at the hotel?
    The light from the lantern trapped him in its center. He flung back an arm and shielded his eyes from the yellow glare. Inky-dark sky was reflected in the window behind her head. “Get up?” His voice was a hoarse croak. His throat felt as if it had been stripped raw. “Cripes, what the hell for? It’s not even daylight!”
    “It will be by the time we leave!”
    Abby’s mood was anything but tame. She had just spent what was probably the longest night of her life. She’d tried for nearly an hour to wake Kane but he was dead to the world. Adding insult to injury was the fact that it had cost her another five-dollar gold piece before Todd agreed to let them spend the night here. By now, she was frustrated and angry, but most of all disgusted—Kane was tousled and bleary-eyed. He smelled like a brewery and needed a shave. God knew she’d expected neither a hero nor a gentleman, but she hadn’t expected a drunk either.
    “We’d better get started,” she said sharply. “Thanks to you, Stringer Sam is a good twelve hours ahead of us—and so is Dillon!”
    Dead silence met her pronouncement.
    Kane had risen on one elbow to stare at her. One lean hand came up to absently rub his whiskered jaw. Beneath the lock of black hair that tumbled on his forehead, his brow was furrowed in concentration … or was it puzzlement?
    She slapped her riding gloves against her thigh; not sure whether to laugh or cry. “My God,” she said numbly. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember!”
    It was less a question than an accusation. Snatches of memory invaded Kane’s brain. He recalled her turning his gun on him—that, he decided grimly, was unforgettable. But most of what he remembered was her —the lush feel of her body against his. And he remembered the taste of her mouth trapped beneath his—her lips were like crushed fruit, damp and moist and dewy.
    But Stringer Sam … all at once the name jarred something inside him. He sucked in a harsh breath. It came back in a flash—she wanted him to take her to Sam’s hideout.
    He lumbered to his feet none too steadily. “Lady,”