Read Online Shotgun Bride by Linda Lael Miller - Free Book Online

back.”
    Gig gave a sigh, as if he were being martyred, but he took his hat and went, disappearing into the trees down the creek a ways, where he’d surely left his mount. Emmeline lowered the rifle, but she and Mandy both stood still and utterly silent until they heard him riding away, his horse’s hooves clattering on the rocky hillside.
    “Tell me who that was,” Emmeline said. “Right now.”
    Mandy lowered her head. “He was my mother’s man,” she confessed, ashamed even though it hadn’t been her choice to bring Gig Curry into the household.
    Emmeline looked puzzled. “Her husband?”
    “Just her man.” Mandy had lied to all sorts of people in her life, mostly out of necessity, and she supposed she’d go right on doing it, but right then, in that time and place, she found she couldn’t wrap her tongue around another tall tale. Not with Emmeline, who’d been so kind to her.
    “He came here to do you some harm.”
    Mandy avoided Emmeline’s gaze. Shook her head. Dear God—Cree would come if something happened to her, set on revenge, and he’d surely get himself killed. One-on-one, her brother could handle Gig any day, but Gig never worked alone.
    “Mandy,” Emmeline insisted. “You’re scared to death. Why?”
    “Don’t meddle in this, Emmeline,” Mandy pleaded miserably. “Please.” She might as well have been talking to a rock.
    “I’m going to report him to John Lewis,” Emmeline said decisively. “We’ll go to town directly and have the rounder arrested.”
    “Please,” Mandy repeated, with quiet fervor. “Leave this alone.”
    “That would be cowardly. Anyway, I have to tell Rafe.”
    “No,” Mandy cried, surprising herself as much as Emmeline by grabbing her friend’s free hand and clasping it. “No, Emmeline—you mustn’t—Gig’s fast with a gun, and he’s mean, and he doesn’t do his fighting out in the open like other folks do. Like as not, he’d bow and scrape to Rafe if he came up against him, then shoot him right out of the saddle one day just for crossing him!”
    Emmeline paled. “That’s all the more reason to go to the marshal. Besides, Rafe and I don’t keep secrets from each other. We made a promise.”
    Mandy’s knees nearly gave out; she fought to stay on her feet. It would have been better if Emmeline hadn’t come along and saved her from Gig; that way, she’d have been the only one to suffer. If Emmeline brought any trouble down on Gig’s head, a whole lot more peoplewould be drawn into the resulting fray. “I’ll leave, Emmeline,” she said with mounting desperation. “If I do that, none of you will get hurt.”
    “I’m not afraid of that low-down scoundrel,” Emmeline said with conviction, trying to help Mandy up and manage the cumbersome rifle at the same time. “And you’re not going anywhere. Now, come on. He’s getting away.”
    “Let him go,” Mandy pressed. “I’m telling you, he’s a kissing cousin to the devil himself.”
    Emmeline looked solemn, and her eyes seemed to search Mandy’s very soul. “That’s why we we’re not going to let this pass.”

Chapter 12
     
     
    T he Circle C ranch house was square, made of fieldstone and mortar, and though considerably smaller than its counterpart on the Triple M, it made an imposing picture that afternoon as Kade approached. He felt a grinding sensation in the pit of his belly—maybe it was envy, but it sure as hell wasn’t fear—just looking at the spread. Chandler, the cagey old buzzard who’d owned the place before, had always sworn that if he ever got itchy feet and decided to sell out, Angus would have first chance at it.
    Instead, he’d sold to Cavanagh, and he’d gone behind the McKettricks’ backs to do it. Taken his profits and moved on without a word of explanation.
    Kade put aside his bitter musings as best he could and concentrated on the task at hand. Holt was on top of the barn with some other men, driving nails into new shingles, and Kade knew his half