McCrory's Lady by Shirl Henke Henke Read Free Book Online Page B

the opening of the box canyon. As soon as Colin approached, the four gunmen around the campfire would lie in wait, using her as bait until Judd gave the order to spring the trap. He was the clever one, the planner.
           Maybe if I could kill Judd... But she had already tried stabbing him with the cook's knife, even coshing him on the skull with a sharp rock. His far greater size and strength had doomed her puny efforts to failure. Just as she was finishing up the second boot, a big hairy centipede crawled from the hollowed-out interior of the log.
           Eden stifled a scream and sat very still, watching the poisonous creature make its way toward her. Very slowly and carefully she lay one of Judd's boots down on its side, the open end toward the centipede. It was a common Southwestern ritual, even indoors, to shake out one's boots before putting them on as a precaution. Eden had grown up doing so and knew how deadly those pincer legs' venom could be when sunk into human flesh.
           She held her breath while the centipede meandered its grotesque body around the edge of the boot. Would it climb in? Praying fervently, she watched out of the corner of her eye while she continued to work on the other boot.
           “What in hell's taking you so long, Eden?” Lazlo yelled.
           Just one more minute. Half a minute. The centipede was crawling over the lip of the boot. “I'm almost finished, Judd.” And so are you.
           Men did not die quickly of centipede bites. The venom worked slowly and very painfully. Judd would probably kill her, but if the poison finished him before he could trap her father, it would be worth it. With trembling fingers she picked up the boot and walked slowly and carefully back across the camp to where Judd sat.
           “Do you want me to put them on you?” she asked sarcastically.
           He studied her patrician profile. He had lied when he told her she was skinny and washed out. She was the most beautiful female he had ever bedded. Real quality. And he hated her for it. She had been devastated by his betrayal at first, but then that streak of Scots steel he had recognized in Colin McCrory showed through in his daughter. Judd Lazlo had wanted to break her spirit, to utterly degrade and humiliate her. So far he had failed. Maybe once she saw her precious father's dead body she would snap. He hoped so.
           “Give me the damn boots and get your ass over here to fetch me my supper,” he commanded roughly·
           Eden set the boots on the ground in front of him and walked away, not daring to look back for fear of giving away her secret.
           She had not taken half a dozen steps when a loud oath rent the air. Whirling around, Eden watched Judd roll on the ground, shrieking and cursing as he held his foot. One of the other men rushed over and stamped on the centipede with his booted foot, making certain it was smashed into the dust before he stopped.
           His face chalk white, Lazlo glared at Eden with hate-filled green eyes, serpent eyes. “You did this, you bitch! I'll kill you...” Sweat was pouring off his face and his voice shook with fear and rage.
           “You gotta get to a doc, Judd,” one of the men said. The others exchanged looks. This far out in the wilds of Sonora, the chances of Judd Lazlo surviving such a deep puncture wound was practically nil.
           “Maybe some whiskey will help,” Haywood suggested, uncorking a bottle.
           “You want we should kill her, boss?” a third man offered.
           “No,” Lazlo rasped out, calming a bit now. He yanked the bandana from his neck and tied it around his ankle. An angry red set of punctures was already creating swelling on the instep of his right foot. “I'm riding to San Luís. They got a doctor there. You keep her here for me. I got real good plans about how I'll kill her myself. I learned a few tricks from the