Read Online The Loner: The Blood of Renegades by J. A. Johnstone - Free Book Online Page A

and told me that someday I would be his wife. And my father stood right there smiling, too!”
    “I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Conrad said. “And I don’t mean to judge you. Lord knows, I’ve done plenty of things myself that I’m not proud of. But you could have told us about this. That way we would have known Leatherwood and the others were after you because of something other than Hissop’s wounded pride.”
    “What difference would it have made? Leatherwood still would have tried to kill you and take me back to Juniper Canyon, no matter what the reason.”
    Conrad had to admit she had a point. Once the lines were drawn and Leatherwood regarded him and Arturo as enemies, the violence would have played out the same way as long as the two of them tried to protect Selena. And Conrad also had to admit he wouldn’t have abandoned her and allowed Leatherwood to take her back to Hissop, even if he had known about the money.
    He gestured toward the coins. “Just to be clear . . . you did steal this from Hissop, is that right?”
    Selena’s chin jutted out defiantly. “Yes, I did. And I’d do it again.”
    “You don’t have any money your mother saved to help you get away?”
    “No. My father always kept her on too tight a rein to allow anything like that.”
    “You didn’t happen to kill anybody when you stole the money and ran off, did you?”
    Selena stared at him in evident disbelief. “Of course not! I wouldn’t do a thing like that.”
    Conrad nudged the pile of coins with his boot. “Maybe not, but you’ve already done more than I would have expected just to look at you. That’s why one of those gunmen reacted like he did when I called you an innocent young woman. He said I was a fool for thinking that.”
    Selena shook her head. “You’re not, Conrad. This is the only thing I’ve kept from you, and I only did it because I . . . was afraid. Think about it. You don’t know me, but I don’t really know you and Arturo, either. It wasn’t that I was afraid you wouldn’t help me. I was afraid if you knew about the money, you’d take it for yourselves and leave me for Leatherwood!”
    “Miss Webster has a point, sir,” Arturo put in. “For all she knew when she met us, we might have been outlaws. Utter scoundrels. Cads. Bounders.”
    “I get the idea, Arturo.” Conrad looked at Selena. “I don’t like being lied to, but I don’t suppose you really did that. You just didn’t tell us the whole truth. And you’re right that it wouldn’t have changed anything. So I guess”—he shrugged—“I guess I’m sorry. This money is your business, not ours. I’ll pick it up.”
    “That’s all right.” She hurried forward and dropped to her knees next to the saddlebags and the spilled coins. “I’ll get it. You have other things to do.”
    Arturo said, “I believe she’s referring to digging more graves, sir.”
    “I know what she means.” Conrad picked up the shovel.
    Selena had started stuffing the coins back in the saddlebags. She paused and looked up at Conrad. “You’re still going to take me to Nevada, or wherever you can put me on the train?”
    “That’s right. Leatherwood and Hissop won’t get their hands on you if I can help it.”
    “Thank you. I swear, I won’t lie to you again.”
    Conrad nodded. He walked several yards away, and a moment later the shovel blade bit into the sandy ground as he began to dig.

Chapter 12
     
    By the middle of the day, the three travelers had put the water stop at Navajo Wash far behind them. They headed west, following the railroad. No more trains had come along, westbound or eastbound.
    The landscape became even more arid, fully deserving of the name “desert.” Occasional clumps of grass and twisted, stunted mesquite trees were the only vegetation. Those plants didn’t provide much color. Everywhere Conrad looked, his eyes saw only browns, tans, grays, and now and then a splash of red sandstone. He spotted a hawk gliding