Read Online The Bride Wore A Forty-Four by MAGGIE SHAYNE - Free Book Online Page B

here
someplace. You can bet she'd have sense enough to lay low till you
were long gone," he said. "She'd know she was my only chance. But
as it is, I guess I'm screwed."
    Kira closed her eyes, heard the message he
had meant for her to hear. She had to stay quiet stay safe, and
rescue her husband from the grip of madmen.
     
    For more than an hour she crouched in the
darkness, underground. Eventually, she couldn't bear it any longer.
She had no way of knowing if Peter's thugs still lurked outside,
but she had to move. It was too easy to imagine what they might be
doing to Michael.
    She crept up the stairs and shoved at the
trapdoor. It gave easily this time, and she peered out saw nothing,
then reminded herself that Michael hadn't seen anything either
before stepping into the open and being spotted. So she crept out
on her belly, pushing the trapdoor up only as much as she had to.
When she was clear of it, she lay still on the ground, one gun in
her hand, and she listened with every part of her. Carefully, she
lifted her head, looked at her surroundings.
    Darkness surrounded her. The only sounds were
the occasional call of a nightbird, the songs of crickets, the whir
of other insects buzzing past
    She pushed herself up, got to her feet, and
glanced back at the trapdoor, then blinked because she couldn't see
it. After a moment she realized it was completely camouflaged. It
looked like a part of the forest floor, leaves, branches, grass
actually growing from it The thing was invisible.
    She looked around, trying to get her
bearings, and started in what she hoped was the direction of the
cabin. Within a few yards, she saw soft yellow light gleaming in
the distance. She moved closer, instinctively moving without making
a sound, creeping from one tree to the next The light took form—it
was coming from the cabin windows. And there were cars parked in
front
    "They didn't take him away," she whispered.
Then she wondered why they would bother. They had the perfect place
here. Michael had told her himself, no one else knew about it. Not
even the good guys.
    Hell. She really was on her own. She worked
the action on the handgun, then stopped, realizing what she had
just done. No one had shown her how. She just knew. Just like she
knew she wasn't going to miss what she targeted.
    Just who the fuck do those assholes think
they're dealing with?
    The voice in her head made her smile, just a
little. There was something familiar and comforting about it. About
knowing it was her voice.
    She crept closer to the house, moving around
it watching carefully for guards who might be posted outside and
seeing none. Then she went still closer, skimming along the outer
walls and peering in through the windows. Quick, careful glimpses,
followed by slower, longer looks if she saw no one inside. By the
time she'd circled the cabin fully she knew exactly what she
faced.
    Peter was nowhere in sight She didn't think
he was there. Michael was tied to a chair in the bedroom. One thug
in there with him. The other three were lounging in the living
room, eating.
    My goddamn pot pies.
    She returned to the bedroom, crouched below
the window, and started to shake. The woman she'd spent the last
six months believing herself to be was scared to death right now.
She didn't want to do this. She wanted to run out of these woods,
find a phone, call for help.
    Kira closed her eyes, and immediately her
mind was flooded with images. She saw herself, cornered by three
men in a dark ally. She saw blood dripping from her nose, tasted it
on her lips. Her weapons were lying on the ground, out of reach.
She lifted her gaze to the men, knew with a grim certainty they
meant to kill her, and sent them a smile. "Guess this is it,
then."
    "Maybe not quite," someone said from the far
end of the alley.
    The three men spun around, so surprised by
the voice coming from behind them that they started firing without
even aiming first Kira dove for her guns, even as Michael strode
into the ally,