Belle Gone Bad by Sabine Starr Read Free Book Online

wouldn’t talk about her past. She’d helped stabilize him so that he’d felt better than he had since coming to Texas.
    Yet he knew what was killing him and it wasn’t any damn ghost. Sheer arrogance was the culprit. He’d believed in Free Love like many others in the Spiritualism movement. He’d thought women were for play, not commitment. He’d known he could seduce, satisfy, and be on his way because he’d done it often enough with the ladies. But he hadn’t counted on Victoria. She was something he’d never encountered at any of the Spiritualism picnics and camp meetings. Everything in him had told him to stay away from her, but she was the most seductive woman he’d ever met. He couldn’t resist the temptation and the conquest. Only he’d been the conquered one. And she wouldn’t let go.
    If he’d left a trail of broken hearts before, he was paying for it now. But he’d truly believed in Free Love and he’d thought all those women had felt the same way. Still, maybe that’s what he’d wanted to believe. He couldn’t tell anymore. He knew only one thing. Even if it cost his life, he was going to save Diana. Call it penance. Call it self-serving. Call it helping a friend. It didn’t matter. She was a woman who deserved a long, happy life. And if she somehow saved him along the way, he wouldn’t complain.
    He shrugged out of his fancy vest and replaced it with a sturdy leather one. He tied a red bandanna around his neck. In case the weather turned bad, he rolled up a long, cotton duster and tucked it under his arm. He doubted Belle had one, so he’d get a duster for her from Ludmila. He finished packing his saddlebags and added a sketch pad and pencils. He glanced around the room. He might not see it again. He touched the sketch of Tempest with one long finger. As much as he hated to think it, he might never finish this painting.
    He adjusted his hat as he turned his back on the peace he’d known for a short time and stepped through the doorway. He’d linked his future with Belle. Only time would tell if two brave ladies could lift the curse of a powerful, vengeful woman.
    And if he could find redemption.

Chapter 8
    B elle slowly walked down the boardwalk in front of the Lone Star Hotel. She peered over the tops of hitching posts, hoping to find useful sign. So far she hadn’t discovered anything helpful due to Main Street’s churned-up dirt. She stepped down on the ground and moved back and forth, but still she saw nothing that provided a clue to Diana, her kidnapper, or the pacer.
    Riders steered around her and wagons gave her a wide berth, but both kicked up dust. As she knocked the dirt off her jacket, she realized that she’d better change clothes before she went to Indian Territory. She’d be going into rough country and she didn’t want to call attention to herself as Texas Belle Thompson, the bounty hunter.
    She sighed. Big Jim and Mercy had turned her life upside down. She’d been headed in a known direction. Now she was headed into the unknown. But the living took precedence over the dead, no matter how well loved.
    Yet she suspected that her two trails might converge. She’d been searching for a pacer since she’d seen that type of horse track at the death sites of both Tex and Hackett. Now she had to wonder if Diana’s kidnapper could be the same man as Tex and Hackett’s bushwhacker.
    She didn’t see how there could be more than one pacer in the area since Standardbreds were rarely used like Thoroughbreds as saddle horses. Pacers were popular for harness racing and as light buggy horses.
    After she’d found the pacer’s tracks, she’d made a point of learning about Standardbreds. Pacers left a distinctive track. They moved two legs on the same side forward together, unlike a trot where the two legs diagonally opposite each other moved forward together. A