Nights with the Outlaw by Lauri Robinson Read Free Book Online Page B

burned the backs of her eyes, but she refused to give them freedom. She’d lived through pain before, the death of her parents, the loss of cattle, Drake’s interferences. She snapped her gaze up. “This is about Drake, isn’t it?” She hadn’t questioned the hatred she’d seen in Clint’s eyes that day, had assumed it had to do with what she’d told him about the lawman, but now she knew differently.
    â€œYes, it is,” he admitted.
    Like heat lightning on a hot summer night, flashes sparked in her mind. Trains, banks, stagecoaches. She held strong, refusing to let despair take root inside her. “He’s why you really agreed to stay, isn’t he?”
    Clint glanced around, looking everywhere except at her.
    Tension built in her spine with every second that ticked by. She fought, holding her breath and curling her toes to keep still.
    â€œLet’s sit down—” he pointed toward the woodpile “—over there.”
    â€œNo,” she insisted. “Tell me what you have to say, here and now.”
    He let out a heavy sigh. The sound was as piercing to her heart as a knife. She grabbed his arm, mindless of how her nails buried into his flesh.
    â€œDrake isn’t his real name,” he said. “It’s Martin Harmon. The deputy is his brother Henderson.” A sneer in his tone said more than the words.
    â€œAnd you know them.” It sounded like a question, but she already knew the answer.
    He nodded. “Their older brother was my mother’s second husband.”
    Drake or Harmon, whatever his name was, was the epitome of evil. She’d known that from the moment she’d met him. The fact Clint knew this man iced her chest. Her fingers relaxed the hold they had on his arm, and her hand fell to her side. “They’re the men you rode with, aren’t they?”
    â€œYes.”
    Doubt was an evil companion, sneaking in when least wanted, and latching on tighter than the clothespin she’d just stuck on the rope. She didn’t want to doubt herself, question the set and steadfast beliefs she had about Clint, yet, all of sudden, she did. Doubted everything about him, and doubted herself.
    â€œYou went to town yesterday to find them, didn’t you?”
    Clint looked over her shoulder, as if he couldn’t meet her gaze. “They’re the men I was hired to track down.”
    That fact was no better. “Track down, or kill?” She heard the question, knew it was her voice asking it, but she didn’t want to hear the answer.
    He took a step back. “That’s what hired guns usually do.”
    The stinging in her eyes burned hotter. She thought she could live with his past. An outlaw. A gunslinger. But deep down, inside where it really mattered, could she? Could she go to bed at night knowing the man lying beside her was a killer? “W-was it a fair fight?”
    A haunted look hovered in his eyes.
    She’d seen him use a gun, knew how quick and precise he was with every bullet. Her heart was slipping downward, would soon be pumping blood from her toes.
    â€œI didn’t kill them, Doreena,” he said, sounding almost disgusted.
    â€œWhy not?”
    The way her eyes snapped, and her curt and harsh tone, had Clint’s guts churning. No, he hadn’t stayed because of the Harmon brothers. He’d stayed because of her, but that didn’t matter. His innermost consciousness, that hidden piece of him that had warned him to keep on riding when he’d seen that pig tearing up the tree, had been right all along. For as much as she protested and said his past wasn’t an issue, the minute it came into question, she believed the worst about him. A heated tussle erupted inside him. Half of him said he should have told her everything. How the only way to keep Nelson Harmon from battering his mother had been to ride with the gang, do everything they told him—a kid of