Jamie's Revenge by Jenny Penn Read Free Book Online Page A

taut until
Sheridan
agreed to Caelen’s and his plan.
    After a deep breath,
Sheridan
’s gaze finally lifted to meet his a second time. “Okay. I’m braced. Why don’t you tell me the real story behind this boy Danny?”
    “What did she tell you?” Caelen asked, drawing
Sheridan
’s somber look in his direction.
    “Well, she said he seemed like a very nice, proper young man, which I take to mean she thought he was weak and easily manipulated. She said it was her own exuberant anticipation that made her reckless enough to accept his offer of a ride to the ranch. Given that she said you were both rude and insulting when you approached her in town, I take it to mean she agreed to go with this boy out of rash spite.”
    “And did she tell you just how determined she was not to listen to reason,” Brodie demanded, feeling the hot smite of his anger boiling anew as he considered just how close Jamie had come to harm. “Did she tell you I told her it wasn’t safe and that we’d bring her home?”
      “Those are not the kind of details my daughter focuses on,”
Sheridan
retorted with a hint of dryness. Brodie could never tell if the man found humor or despair in his comments.
    “That boy was no good,
Sheridan
,” Caelen added in softly. “He intended to do more than just rape your daughter. He intended to make her suffer.”
    A roll flexed over
Sheridan
’s muscles, and Brodie could well imagine it came from the same place his did—a deep well of anguish at the very idea of Jamie suffering. “And did she lie about liberating herself before you arrived? Even shooting the man?”
    Since he couldn’t say no, Brodie’s agitation just intensified. “She got lucky.”
    “Or maybe you trained her better then you knew.” There came that odd sense of mirth in the old man’s response. It was there and then gone as he looked back at Caelen. “Either way, it appears after all these years, I find myself having to extend a lifetime debt for seeing to my daughter’s safety.”
    “It’s a debt that could easily be paid by simply changing her title to my wife.” Caelen pressed for their ultimate goal, but it didn’t surprise either brother when
Sheridan
resisted.
      “And why should I even consider that option?”
    Caelen set his empty glass down very carefully on the table before responding with slow precision. “I think you need to face the honest reality that Jamie needs a husband to keep her safe. A strong one…preferably two.”
    Sheridan
didn’t even consider that for a second. “That’s her decision to make, Caelen. If you want her hand, you’re going to have to find a way to get her to give it to you.”
    “Your opinion does hold sway,
Sheridan
.”
    Sheridan
finished off his drink before settling his glass onto the table. “Five years ago, you hurt my daughter something bad. Maybe that don’t mean much to you two, but it means something to her and to me.”
    “We did what was right,” Brodie shot back, not about to be taken to task for standing with honor.
    “Right for who?”
Sheridan
returned.
    “For her…and don’t give me that look,
Sheridan
. Five years ago you agreed with me.”
    That got the old man out of his seat. “Five years ago I was afraid of what you might do to my daughter. Now I am afraid of what you did do.”
    “ I didn’t do anything .”
    “ You broke her heart .”
    Caelen intervened fast before either
Sheridan
or Brodie’s temper turned the conversation away from their goal. Not that Brodie would lose this battle, even if it came down to a matter of force.
    “Maybe we did,” Caelen offered up as a compromise. “Maybe we treaded too heavy on Jamie’s tender feelings five years ago, but you got to ask yourself,
Sheridan
, what price are you willing to pay for that sin? What price are you willing to let Jamie pay? ‘Cause we both know that as angry and hurt as she is, she’s going to make trouble. It’s already started, and she almost already paid a very high