Read Online The Wild One by Terri Farley - Free Book Online

look at our tracks, you know exactly what happened,” Sam snapped.
    For Jake, it would be as if she’d left a note saying she’d galloped off with a wild horse.
    â€œYou want to talk about it?” Jake pulled his fingers through his rein ends.
    â€œNot now,” Sam answered.
    â€œThat’s what I figured, but there’s two things I need to tell you. First, if you’ve seen the Phantom, you know he has a scar on his neck. Slocum put it there.”
    Sam caught her breath and felt dizzy. “How?”
    â€œSlocum roped him from the back of a moving truck. The other end of the rope was tied to a barrel full of hardened cement.”
    Sam covered her lips to keep a gasp inside. Shethought of her colt’s delicate neck, of the concrete snubbing him to a stop.
    â€œHe couldn’t get away, but he tried, flinging himself against the rope, even though it was choking him.”
    Sam could almost hear the echo of the stallion’s terrified scream.
    â€œBut Slocum got greedy. He left Phantom fighting the barrel, and went after an Appaloosa mare running with the herd. By the time he got back, the Phantom was gone.”
    Sam thanked the instinct that had forced her out of the valley and away from the wild horses, before Slocum found her.
    â€œSlocum asked me to track the Phantom.” Jake gave a cold smile.
    â€œBut you didn’t,” Sam said.
    â€œThe blood drops would’ve made it easy and he offered me a couple hundred dollars,” Jake said. “But I was too busy with school and stuff like that.”
    Sam wanted to tell Jake she was proud of him, but her mind kept replaying the stallion’s screams. She rode beside Jake in silence, wondering what kind of monster would leave a wild horse alone and fighting, with every chance of breaking his neck.
    Only the plastic corral and Gram’s chuck wagon marked the place where camp had been. The herd of red and white cattle had moved on.
    Before they rode in, Sam pulled Ace to a stop. “You said you needed to tell me two things. What’s the other one?”
    â€œJust this: you got hurt before because I wasn’t watching you close enough.” Jake raised his voice, refusing to let Sam contradict him. “This time, I’m going to stick to you like glue, Samantha Anne. Slocum’s dead serious about catching that horse. He’ll do whatever it takes—including using you as bait. But I’ll do whatever I have to, to keep you safe.”
    Then Jake touched the brim of his hat and galloped away, before Sam had time to say a word.

Chapter Seven
    J AKE HAD A LOT of nerve. He’d “stick to her like glue,” would he? In Sam’s opinion, she’d proven herself halfway to being a cowgirl.
    As she rode drag on Strawberry, Sam wondered why Jake still worried over a fall that had happened years ago. She thought about it because it had, after all, been her head Blackie had kicked as he escaped.
    You got hurt because I wasn’t watching you close enough , Jake had said. Had someone blamed Jake for her accident or was he blaming himself? Sam made a mental note to ask Gram.
    Sam glanced up toward the front of the herd, but couldn’t spot Jake’s black hat and paint cow pony. After the drive, she and Jake must talk this out. She wanted a friend, not a watchdog.
    They’d ridden for about an hour when Strawberry’s gait changed. Had she picked up a rock? Sam stopped, ground-tied the mare and patteddown her leg to lift a rear hoof and examine it.
    In the quiet, wind rattled the buck brush and cattle calls drifted back to her. No rock was lodged in the hoof, and the stop had cost her only a couple minutes.
    She gave Strawberry a pat before remounting. As Sam swung into the saddle, she glanced ahead to see if she’d have to hurry to catch up. That’s when she noticed him.
    Slocum had dropped back, too. Through the rolling dust, he sat watching her and scanning the open