Rue Allyn by One Night's Desire Read Free Book Online Page A

having a shoot-out over a piece like the Wildcat. Either of us rides out of here now, that gunslinger’s not gonna wait for Salter or his posse. Better leave after they bed down for the night.”
    “Good idea.” Boyd turned back and joined Quinn at the porch rail.
    The gunman eyed Quinn, who still juggled the earrings in one hand while he returned the photographs to his pocket with the other.
    “How much did that clerk get from you for those earbobs?” asked Boyd.
    “Two double eagles.”
    “You’ve been robbed, friend. Don’t know why you’d want them anyway, ‘less you got a woman pinning for you somewhere and you want to give her a present.” Boyd probed.
    “No woman and not a gift. These earrings are evidence.”
    “Evidence? You mean the Wildcat steals more’n cattle and horses.”
    “No, according to the files I received these earbobs actually belong to her. I thought the woman in the mercantile might have got them from the Wildcat. I didn’t realize ‘til just now that she was trading with her own earrings.”
    Boyd snorted. “Where’d a desperado like the Wildcat get something that valuable?”
    “Inheritance. The Wildcat’s not who she appears to be.”
    “Shee-it. I know that. Every wanted poster I’ve seen of her makes her look like a gun-toting madwoman. One look at her photograph and you can see she’s sane. Knows she’s a pretty little thing too. You saw how she manipulated Salter by just blinking her eyes.”
    It shamed Ev mightily that those eyes had lured him into staring when he should be more discreet and a whole lot less fascinated. The more he stared the more his body reacted to the look of her. Luckily, he’d gotten himself under control and turned aside before she found him staring.
    “No, I mean she really isn’t an outlaw. At least she didn’t start that way. She’s a socialite by the name of Kiera Alden who ran away from her home in Boston.”
    “You’re kidding. How does a city-bred woman become a criminal like the Wildcat? Unless maybe she isn’t.”
    “I’m pretty certain she’s not as bad as she’s been painted. Regardless of what I believe, there’s witnesses who’ll swear to murder, the arson, and the horse-stealing, and that makes it my job to arrest her.”
    “Maybe, but what kind of criminal orders packages of silver nitrate and pays for it with family heirlooms?” wondered Boyd. “If stealing doesn’t bother her, why not just take the package and run? She can’t be a thief.”
    “Because there are witnesses who might stop her. You and I were in the mercantile when she was.”
    “True, but if she wanted to steal the parcel, she could have come back later when no one was around. Instead she uses those to pay.”
    Ev tucked the earrings into his shirt pocket then shrugged “She’s a woman. Who knows why they do the things they do? ‘Sides,
why
don’t matter. If you break the law, you pay the consequences. If you’re accused, you go on trial until your guilt can be proven.”
    But Boyd’s doubts only echoed what Ev thought all along. Doubts about the Wildcat’s guilt lingered, nagging Ev into wondering exactly who and what kind of woman she was.

CHAPTER THREE
    As the moon emerged from its cloudy curtain, Boyd held his gelding to a walk beside Ev’s big bay “I thought you said they were going to head west.”
    “Are all of Big Si’s hands as talkative as you?” asked Quinn for the umpteenth time, wishing he’d left the man behind at Brown’s camp. Boyd’s interest in Kiera Alden was clear from the sheer number of questions he asked. However, Ev hadn’t figured on holding conversation for days on end with a man who was more of a greenhorn than Ev expected of a hired gun. Which — much though Ev might wish otherwise — made him think having the other man ride along could be more help than hindrance. Of course, without someone to show him how to go on, Boyd just might hurt himself.
    “Nah. I’m just curious by nature.”
    “Could