Mariette And The Cowboy (Western Night Series 2) by Rosie Harper Read Free Book Online

pleased to make your acquaintance.”
    “I’m sorry the office is closed and I am about to leave,” she said haughtily, but she could feel the anxiety in her chest. She had been right to be fearful after all. The voice was unknown to her, as was the pock-marked face that eventually moved into the light where she could see him. He wore a black hat pulled down over his face, and held a shining pistol in one hand.
    “Oh yes you are, but not without us,” he indicated two men behind him, dressed in black both with gun holsters on both hips. She gulped nervously. “You see, you’ve been meddling where you just aren’t welcome, and there’s folk around that just don’t like that. My boss, well he says that you need to be taught a lesson. And so, you can either go to your public meeting and tell them all that you were wrong, and that your ferreting around has found nothing to substantiate your claims that there are companies trying to buy up land across the State in the hopes that they may contain oil, or you can come with us to meet my boss.”
    “You cannot force me to say any such thing. I have the proof, and I will not bow down to anyone who thinks they can send a bunch of thugs into my office. Now, let me pass,” Mariette was fuming now, and feeling almost crazily courageous. She knew that they were onto something, but this proved without a doubt just how big a something they had dug up. To think that they thought they could intimidate her with a couple of idiots like this.
    “Oh yes we can, and we will. Now, shall we leave? And do you want to go across the street, or out of town?”
    “I’m going over the street. You may go and crawl back under whatever rock you crawled out from without me.”
    “Oh I so love it when they resist,” the man said to his companions. “Tie her up.”
    “You cannot seriously think that you will be able to tie me up and whisk me out of town without somebody noticing. There will be people outside waiting to attend the meeting, nobody will let you take me,” she said full of bravado as the two henchman set about their task. She squirmed and wriggled as they caught her, trying to get away, to avoid the ropes they bound tightly around her wrists and then her ankles. The truth was she had no idea how many people would even consider turning out on a dark night for her meeting. But she had to hope.
    “Gag her too. Her smart mouth is beginning to annoy me,” he said.   “There didn’t seem to be any sign of anyone, but that just might be because of this,” he held up a sheet of paper, on which was printed a change of night for the meeting. She went to protest, but almost retched as a salty, stinking rag was tied around her mouth. “Ah, now that is better. Didn’t anybody ever teach you that a woman should be seen and not heard,” her abductor said with a lecherous grin as he ran a dirt-encrusted finger across her collarbone. He then lifted his gun, and with a quick flick of the wrist the butt connected with her skull, hard. Searing pain made her cry out, and then thankfully everything went black.
    When she awoke she was slumped on the floor of a carriage, her abductor was looking inordinately pleased with himself. She wanted to hurl insults at him, to scratch and claw at his already ugly and scar covered face. But mostly she just wanted to cry. She had always known that she had been lucky over the years, that she had tested that luck to its limits and even beyond with her exploits, especially in the early years as a prospector. But even she had to admit that maybe that luck had finally reached its limits. In just one day she had lost the man she loved, and been kidnapped and was being taken to God only knew where.
    Feeling defeated she accepted there was little hope of rescue. Nobody would know she was gone, but then she had no idea when they had distributed their ridiculous flyer. Maybe there would be someone who didn’t get it? Surely Melissa and Mr Cole, having only spoken