Read Online Zooey Pinkerton- a Daughter's Right by Heather McAlendin - Free Book Online

child, but it was
business. You must understand it was nothing personal.”
    “How about Marta?” Zooey asked
while angrily shaking the gun in his direction. “Was that
personal?”
    A deep sigh escaped the big
outlaws curled lips and he nodded. “It wasn’t personal for me. Now,
I can't say that of my men. I would have preferred to keep the old
woman busy in the kitchen, but when you have men who have not seen
hide nor hair of a woman for months...well you must understand that
things can happen.”
    “You disgust me,” Zooey
spat.
    “Alright Zooey, you've had your
say, now let us do our job.”
    Just as Zooey shifted to allow
the Sheriff a closer view of Tom, the man lunged forward with a
pistol in hand.
    Shots rang out and Tom and Zooey
hit the floor simultaneously.
    “Zooey!” Joshua shouted as he
turned to grab her as she fell. The rifle dropped from her hands
and she crumbled into Joshua's arms. Franklin trained his rifle on
Tom who was still unmoving on the floor, a pool of blood spreading
beneath his left side.
    “He’s been shot, Sheriff. I
doubt the tough bugger is dead though. May have knocked him
silly.”
    “Keep an eye on him, Franklin,”
Joshua said as he cradled Zooey to his chest. He checked for a
wound and he found that Zooey had been shot in the arm. The bullet
had gone clean through, from one side to the other. “You've been
shot, but it's not bad. The wound is clean.”
    Zooey moaned as she came too.
“Is he dead?”
    “No,” Joshua said. “But you got
him pretty good.”
    As Zooey tried to sit, a half
dozen of Joshua’s men came in through the back and side door.
“Round up whoever you can find and make sure their weapons are
confiscated. And find the boss! He's got to be here somewhere!”
Joshua shouted while tearing the bottom of Zooey's shirt. He
hastily tied up her wounded arm. “You'll be okay, Zooey. I
promise.”
    ”I’ve been waiting for you,
Joshua,” a rough voice broke in. Joshua looked up to see a tall,
older man dressed all in black. At the same moment, the woman
standing next to him let out a scream.
    “Tommy! What did you do to
Tommy?”
    “Shut up!” Jack shouted as he
slapped Sarah across the cheek. “Ungrateful whore! I bring you here
with me and you scream about a man who would beat you to
death?”
    Stunned, Sarah grabbed her cheek
and ran back into the parlour, leaving the men behind.
    Jack focused his attention back
on the Sheriff. “What?” Jack raised his hands in an innocent
gesture. “Not happy to see your old Pa, Joshua?”
    The air was thick with tension
as Joshua got his feet and faced the man.
    “Josh?” Everything finally made
sense to Zooey. “This man is your father?”
    Joshua took a deep breath and
looked Jack straight in the eyes. “This man may look like my
father, but he’s not. My father is dead to me.”
    “And here I thought we would
have a sweet reunion, son. Pity about your mother, though. She was
a lovely woman. She just couldn’t keep that mouth of hers
shut.”
    Joshua balled his fists in
anger. “You still drinking?”
    “Barely. The drink causes too
many problems. Obviously the men chosen to protect this ranch were
substandard. I always knew Tom was substandard, but I guess that's
why it took a woman to finally best him.”
    “Shut up!” Joshua yelled at
Jack. “I'm taking you in, Josh….or is it Jack now? You ran away
from your family and changed your identity too?”
    Jack Duncan laughed. “Jack it
is, my boy. Old Josh Duncan is gone with the wind. Jack Duncan, on
the other hand, is a very powerful man. Do you really think once
you have me in custody, I’ll stay there?”
    “If I have my way, you
will.”
    Jack made a “tisk tisk” sound in
his throat and grinned. “So much defiance - and so much like your
mother that way. But we all know how her defiance ended.”
    “She wasn't killed by robbers or
Indians, was she?” Joshua asked quietly, already knowing the
answer.
    “No, she wasn't, but it gave me
a