McLeod, Anitra Lynn - Dirty Cowboy (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) by McLeod-Anitra-Lynn Read Free Book Online Page A

Everett didn’t think he could be any happier if he tried.
    Blazing sun ate up the water from the rain. By midday, Everett would have sworn summer came back for a second visit. He lifted his hat and wiped the sweat off his brow. They were going to be welcoming the nightly cool-off this evening. Traveling with Dalton was a lot more pleasant than going alone. They didn’t talk much, but it was nice to have someone to see what he saw. Marveling at the curious alone was boring, but with Dalton, it was high entertainment. Dalton had a way with words and a way of looking at the world that renewed Everett’s somewhat jaded interest. Things just looked different to him now. Dalton faced everything with an openness, a breezy spirit that Everett admired. Even the fact that the man had no boots didn’t bother him.
    “It’s not like I’m walking anywhere. I’ll get a pair at the next town.”
    Dalton had found a few items in the wagon they could trade, and Everett had some money. All in all, he felt like the richest man in the world. Money wasn’t everything. There was a lot to be said for finding the answer to that gnawing longing that had always plagued him.
    But like always, good for one meant bad for another. Just when he thought things couldn’t get any better, they up and got a hell of a lot worse.

Chapter Nine

    Everett hoped the dot on the horizon was moving away from them, but it wasn’t. Whoever the rider might be, he was coming right at them. When the shape clarified into a man on horseback, his hackles rose. All the sweat on his body went suddenly cold. He shivered. A lone rider in the middle of nowhere? Either the man was a scout for a larger group, he’d befallen a fate worse than Everett’s, or he was a no-good scoundrel.
    Knowing his luck, Everett had a feeling it was the latter. Now that he’d found exactly what he wanted, he wasn’t all that surprised someone showed up to take it away. Difference was, this time, he would fight tooth and nail to keep what he considered his. Before, letting go was always easier. Letting go and walking away became a way of life.
    But not this time.
    Everett could wait until the man made a move to know there was a problem, but his gut churned with knowing, and that inner voice woke up and started whispering fast and furious into his head. Everett wasn’t a prognosticator by any stretch, but he knew when something felt off. This situation felt a hundred kinds of wrong.
    Dalton saw the man, too, but made no outward reaction. Everett would have told him to get his gun ready, just in case, but his guns were long gone. The thieves who’d taken off with the cattle had taken off with the weapons, too. All Everett and Dalton had were their fists.
    “You know how to fight?”
    Dalton nodded.
    “We may not have to,” Everett said hopefully.
    “I think we will.” Dalton kept his gaze dead ahead. “Seems I always have to fight. Or run.” Dalton gave him a measured look. “And I am damn sick of running.”
    His words so closely mirrored Everett’s thoughts he shivered. They were two peas in a pod. A strange thought crossed Everett’s mind. He tried to shake it, but the thing clung like a burr to his gray matter. In the end, he asked, “You know this man?”
    “No more than I know any other man.”
    A normal response would be a simple no. That Dalton replied in such a way caused Everett’s hackles to rise even higher. There was something about the tone of Dalton’s voice and the flat look in his eye that scared the sinner right out of Everett. If he were a praying man, he would have offered up a quick one to the man upstairs, but he’d never been religious, and he didn’t think God would listen to the desperate plea of a fallen man.
    The closer the lone rider came, the tighter Dalton’s posture became. By the time the man was but a few yards in front of them, Dalton was so taut one good clap on the back would propel him off the wagon like a bow shot. He damn near toppled