Read Online The Bride Backfire by Kelly Eileen Hake - Free Book Online Page A

looking for a cow. He gawked at you like I’d look at Midge if nobody was watching.” Red crept up Pete’s ears, but he thrust out his jaw to make up for it. “Only I wouldn’t look like I lost half my brains.”
    â€œStop pretending to know what other people think, Pete.” Opal refused to so much as glance at Adam for fear she’d get distracted wondering what ran through their prisoner’s head. “Adam does not look at me like ... that.”
    â€œLike a man?” Ben supplied. “He is one, ain’t he?”
    â€œNo!” She realized her mistake when Adam gave a sort of growl, making Pete bash him in the skull and Pa push in front of her again.
    Someday she’d wonder over his ability to take offense at something so paltry when he seemed indifferent to facing death, but for now she didn’t have time to dwell on it. “Adam doesn’t ... I mean, he’s”—she huffed as she shoved back into the thick of things—“a Grogan!”
    â€œBut still a man. Who ogled my daughter.” Pa’s tone brooked no argument. “And even though we only got half the message, he obviously planned what that note said.”
    â€œI’m sure there’s another explanation.” Opal swallowed.
    â€œIt’s too late for excuses.” Ben cocked his gun. “He doesn’t leave this property alive.”
    â€œBut he has to!” Opal looked at the hardened expressions of the men she loved and knew her words fell on fallow ground. “It’s murder!”
    â€œEvery man has a God-given right to protect his family,” Pa informed her. “If Pete hadn’t shown up early for dinner...” His left eye twitched. “Grogan set his course when he trespassed. He knew what he risked.”
    Adam stood utterly still, apparently accepting his fate.
    Well, I don’t accept it. Not Adam. She couldn’t give up after all he’d done. “He saved my life two years ago. I owe him.”
    â€œYou helped save Larry’s.” Elroy rejected her reasoning on behalf of the entire family, earning a glare that should have left him a pile of ash.
    â€œDr. Reed saved Larry, but Adam pulled me from that fire.” She tried to appeal to their masculine integrity. “Consider it a debt of honor.”
    â€œYour honor—and safety—is exactly why I can’t let him walk away.” Pa wouldn’t look at her. “There’s nothing in the world that can save him now.”
    â€œYou kill him, and the Grogans will come for us all.” Opal threw herself to her knees before her father. “There’ll be more death. Don’t do this!”
    â€œIf we don’t, they’ll strike again.” Elroy hauled her to her feet. “Run on home, Opal. You shouldn’t see this.”
    â€œI’m not leaving until you listen to me!” Tears pricked her eyes. For Adam, the only Grogan man she’d call innocent. For her family, who’d turn themselves into killers. Over her. I’m not worth it! How can I change their minds, Lord?
    And suddenly she saw the way to save Adam’s life ... if her strength held. Opal felt her tears burst free, washing away any ties to her past.
    To save them, I have to betray us all.
    ***
    Caught gaping like a schoolboy with a crush, Adam had no choice but to let himself be taken to the field where the remainder of the Speck men worked. Only then did he know the identity of his captor—Pete, the lanky boy he’d least concerned himself with.
    â€œWhat on earth?” Murphy spotted them before his sons, though they followed hard on his heels. “I’d pegged you as the Grogan with half a brain, boy.”
    â€œAdam?” Elroy’s eyes widened before he lowered his hat brim to hide his surprise. “I could’ve sworn we spoke with you about your brother trespassing and warned what would happen the next time.”
    â€œYou