Cowboy from the Future by Cassandra Gannon Read Free Book Online

“Good.  We’ll send a message to Brian.  Where is he?”
    “Yellowstone.” 
Unless he’d already given up and gone back to Arizona, which was very possible. 
“It’s to the west, a long way from here.”
    Cade
shook his head, the stunning angles of his face set in a frown.  Did the guy
know how to smile?  It was a shame, because he probably would’ve looked even more
spectacular if he tried.  “The western pass is blocked with snow.  It won’t
clear until spring.”
    Wonderful. 
Addy had no idea what month it was in this time period, but she could tell it
was still very, very winter.  “How long until spring?  A couple weeks?”
    “Two
months.  Give or take.”
    “Two months?! ”  She gaped at him.  “I’m stuck in this town for two months? ”
    He
seemed to take offense at her tone.  “Would you prefer to camp out in forest?”
    “I’d
prefer to be in my heated condo.  Barring that, I’d at least like to stay someplace
where the bed has more than three legs.”
    “I
built that bed.”
    She
hesitated, unsure if he was messing with her.  “You’re kidding.”
    “No. 
I’m a carpenter, in my spare time.  I made all the furniture.”
    She
looked around at the lopsided, rickety decor.  “You don’t have a lot of spare
time, do you?”
    Cade
didn’t appreciate her decorating critique.  “If you are so unhappy, leave the
same way you arrived.  However you got here, just go back and this mess
will be over.”
    Addy
gave a slightly crazed laugh.  “I’d love to.  Believe me.  I have no idea what
I’m doing here or how to reverse it, though.  I fell and hit my head.”
    “You
injured your brain?  Well, that explains much.”
    Addy
decided to ignore that.  “When I opened my eyes I was face down in a pile of
snow.”  She shook her head.  “I need to go back to the last place I remember
being, which is Yellowstone.”
    Cade
thought that over for a long moment.  “So, when spring comes you will get a
message to Brian in this Yellowstone?  That’s your plan?”
    Jesus,
spring sounded super far away.  Addy didn’t have much of a choice, though. 
Somehow, she had to get back to Wyoming and that meant staying put until the
western pass opened.  “Yeah.”  She lied.  “When the snow melts, I’ll pony
express a letter to Brian, okay?  I really think it’ll work.”
    “What
is a pony express?”
    “It’s
like email on a horse.”  She ignored Cade’s suspicious frown and pressed
onward.  “So, you’ll let me stay here until spring and it’s all settled then.”
    “What?
 Four gods, you’re not staying here .  There are other places in the
polis, where you’d be…”
    She
cut him off, afraid of leaving this man.  “No.  I want to stay with you .”
    Cade
hesitated, his amazing lavender gaze searching her face.  She’d never seen eyes
like his before.  The color of them was like staring into the heart of an
amethyst.
    “I
can help around your bar.”  Addy wasn’t above begging.  Not when her whole life
was on the line.  “Really.  I waited tables at a bistro in college.”  For two weeks,
before she’d been fired.
    Addy
had never kept a job for more than six months, much to her father’s disgust. 
Either she quit out of boredom or they handed her a pink slip.  Jack of all
trades, master of none.  That was Adeline Mulhaney.  She was always searching
for something that clicked with her, so she had a little bit of skill in
a wide array of fields, hobbies, and subjects… None of which were particularly
useful here in the Wild, Wild West.
    “Help
in the bar?”  Cade sounded appalled by the very idea.  “Shit, we have enough
fights down there.  Do not go near the customers.  Do not go near anyone else in this polis, except my brothers.  As long as you’re here, you stay right
beside one of us.  It’s the only way you’ll be safe.”
    Addy
beamed, interpreting that grumpiness in the most positive light possible.