Read Online The Gallows' Bounty (West of Second Chances) by Desiree Banks - Free Book Online Page A

she’d never bear the mark of his hand.
    She shifted restlessly to her side, her hair spreading across the pillow.  Where it touched her skin, her hair was damp.  Moving to his dresser he retrieved a length of string from its top drawer.  Back at the bed, he gathered her hair and smoothed it back before tying it clumsily at the nape of her neck.
    He lifted the cloth from her forehead only to discover it was hot to the touch.  He refolded the cloth and replaced it.  After that, there wasn’t much more he could do for her.
    He blew out the lamp and returned to his place on the floor.  He’d barely settled beneath his covers when a shout came from the bed.
    “Get away!”
    He turned the lamp up as quickly as he’d turned it down and placed a hand around her flailing wrist.  “Shh…It’s all right.  No one’s bothering you.”
    “Brett, no!”  she struggled harder against his grip.
    “It’s Boden, not Brett.”
    She wasn’t hearing a word he said. The utter fear in her voice told him more than anything he'd heard before that Brett Roberts had indeed been one mean bastard.
    “Please, God, no!” she shouted again.
    He held on as she flailed and cried out.
    If he let her go in this state, she was bound to hurt herself.  Knowing her restlessness wouldn’t end soon, Boden decided he’d join her in the bed.  Of course, he was climbing into the bed to keep her from hurting herself and not because the floor had his body in pain.  Boden held both of her hands in one of his and climbed over the top of her.  He settled on his side, facing her back, and draped an arm over her, effectively stilling her.
    He worried for the woman he’d made his wife.  He tried not to imagine all of the horrible things that fueled her nightmares.  They only fueled his anger.
     
    SUN STREAMED INTO THE room and gently awakened Willow.  She sat up slowly and massaged her temples.  Her head and her whole body ached.  Her eyes were gritty, and her mouth felt decidedly unpleasant.  A slight breeze coming through the window cooled her naked back.
    Naked back?  Where was she and why was she naked?
    Her memory came back in flashes.  The continual rain, the flooded creek, jumping off the horse, the kick to the chest, and fading into unconsciousness.  That still didn’t answer why she sat holding a crisp white sheet over her bare body.
    “I see you’re awake,” a quiet, masculine voice spoke from the doorway.
    Willow looked up and up into a pair of brown eyes.  She had to think a moment before she remembered who stood before her.  It was her husband, but he looked different to her somehow.  And then it dawned on her; he no longer wore a beard.  What had hidden behind that beard had her tongue-tied.  The man was handsome.  Truly handsome. Definitely too young to possess the notoriety of a name like Butcher Boden.
    But his eyes were not those of a boy.  Their depths demonstrated that he was all man.
    “I–” She cleared her dry throat and tried to speak, but the attempt brought on a fit of dry coughing.
    “Here,” he said a moment later.  His strong hands held a glass to her dry lips, and she drank greedily.
    When she finished with the glass, she found that she could speak.  “Thank you.”
    “I’m just glad you’re awake,” he said, sitting himself on the edge of the bed.
    She held the sheet higher and tried to scoot her naked back against the headboard.  He had undressed her, seen her bruises and her body.  She tried to force down her embarrassment and her fear.  Had he done anything else to her while she’d been unable to defend herself?
    He caught her gaze.  “You were soaking wet and burning up with fever when we got home.”
    He answered her question as if she had spoken it aloud.  Unnerved, she looked away from him and out the window.  What she saw comforted her.  She wasn’t sure why it did.  Maybe it was the cleanliness of the barnyard, the tall cottonwood providing shade, the foal