A Heart So Wild by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online Page A

huntin’ criminals. You think someone is gonna go up against these hard cases if they know they can’t kill ’em if they have to? There’s always a fight, and if the bounty hunter or marshal or whoever isn’t good enough, he’s dead. He takes that chance. If he is good enough, then he gets his man and the reward—and that’s one less criminal to bother decent folks. Would you rather no one tried?”
    â€œNo, I suppose not.” Courtney sighed. She never had answers for Mattie’s reasonable arguments. “It just seems so harsh.”
    â€œYou’re just too tenderhearted,” Mattie said, “but you can’t tell me you were sorry when Polecat Parker was killed.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWell, they’re all like that, Courtney. It’s better for the rest of us if they’re dead.”
    â€œI…guess so, Mattie.”
    Mattie grinned. “You’re hopeless, Courtney Harte. You’d pity a snake.”
    Courtney shook her head. “A snake? I don’t think so.”
    â€œWell, anyhow”—Mattie tapped the poster—“you’d think this fool would change his name, with so many of these posters around.”
    â€œMaybe I like my name the way it is.”
    The girls gasped and whirled around. Jim Ward stood right next to them, looking none too pleased. Of medium height and lanky, with close-set eyes over a hooked nose, he had a long,untrimmed mustache reaching clear to his jaw. He yanked the poster down, crumpling it and then stuffing it in his back pocket. He turned his cold gray eyes on Mattie, who was speechless for a change. Courtney managed to find her voice. “She didn’t mean anything, Mr. Ward.”
    â€œMaybe I don’t like bein’ called a fool no time, no how.”
    â€œYou gonna shoot me?” Mattie sneered, suddenly reckless.
    Courtney could have pinched her black and blue. Her knees turned weak.
    â€œThat sounds like a right fine idea,” Ward said hotly.
    â€œHere now!” Lars Handley called out to them. “I don’t want trouble in my store.”
    â€œThen stay where you are, old man,” Ward ordered harshly, and Lars stopped where he was. “This here is between me and Miss Bigmouth,” Ward finished, and Lars eyed the rifle he kept under the counter. But he didn’t reach for it.
    No one else moved, either. It was deathly quiet. Charley and Snub had come in right after Ward did, and were sitting in the barber’s section enjoying the show.
    Hector, finished with his customer’s shave, found his hands had began to tremble. The customer wiped his face clean, but he made no move to rise from the chair. Like the others, he quietly watched the drama unfolding.
    Courtney was near to tears. My God, had she just moments before felt sorry for this man because someone would probably shoot him someday?
    â€œMattie?” She tried sounding calm. “Mattie, let’s go.”
    â€œUh-uh,” Jim said, his hand snaking out to grab one of Mattie’s braids. He jerked her face very close to his. “Bigmouth ain’t leavin’ until she apologizes. Then I’ll tend to you, honey. Well?” he demanded of Mattie.
    Courtney held her breath, seeing Mattie’s blue eyes spitting sparks.
    â€œI’m sorry,” Mattie finally said quietly.
    â€œLouder.”
    â€œI’m sorry!” the girl shouted furiously.
    Chuckling, Jim Ward let her go.
    But those close-set eyes lit on Courtney now. He smiled disagreeably.
    â€œNow, why don’t you and me go somewhere where we can get better acquainted, honey? I’ve had my eye on you since—”
    â€œNo!” Courtney blurted out.
    â€œNo?” His eyes narrowed. “You’re tellin’ me no?”
    â€œI—I have to get back to the hotel, Mr. Ward.”
    â€œUh-uh.” His fingers moved up her arm, then clamped around it tightly. “I don’t