Texas Lucky by Maggie James Read Free Book Online

try again because Jake snatched the gun away from her and then slapped her—hard.
    “Damn you,” he roared, hitting her again. “You tried to rob me…shoot me. I oughta throw you down on that desk and take you like the bitch you are.”
    Tess had stumbled to the floor, but only for an instant, as he wrapped cruel fingers in her hair to yank her up.
    “You’re lucky I don’t have time to give you what you deserve,” he growled as the frantic pounding on the front door began.
    Gunfire around the saloon might not have raised brows, but shooting in the assay office had brought the whole town running.
    Jake dragged Tess by her hair out of the back room and all the way to the front to unlock the door.
    Worley Branson was the first man to rush in.
    “She tried to rob me,” Jake cried, flinging Tess on the floor. “Tried to kill me, too, but I got her gun away.”
    Tess tried to get up, but Jake held her down with his foot. “That’s not how it was,” she protested to the dozens of hostile faces suddenly staring down at her. “My fiancé left his silver ore here the day he died, and by rights it’s mine. That’s all I wanted.”
    “All she wanted was to rob and kill me,” Jake bellowed. “She should hang for it, too.”
    “That’s for the judge to decide.” Worley reached down and grabbed Tess by the nape of her neck and yanked her to her feet, then, twisting her hands behind her back, fastened cuffs about her wrists.
    He shoved her out onto the crowded boardwalk.
    Someone called out, “Jake’s right. She deserves to hang. She could’ve killed him.”
    “That’s right,” Jake agreed. He had tucked the Colt in his belt but pulled it out to show everyone. “See what she had? No decent woman would be carrying a dangerous weapon like this. And I think she’s been lying since she got to town. She was hiding Abe’s murderer in her hotel room, remember? I think they came to town together, hell-bent on robbing folks, and then she heard about Saul and tried to say I had his ore here, which isn’t so.”
    “Of course it isn’t,” Worley agreed. “I remember us talking about it and wondering how come he didn’t have any ore with him this time. He was always bringing in just enough to lose at poker.”
    A few of the men snickered, and Tess knew she was beaten—until she spotted Lulie watching from the edge of the crowd.
    She was her only hope.
    “Lulie, you tell them,” she begged. “Tell them what Saul told you. How he’d left silver ore, by his estimate ten thousand dollars’ worth, and how he told you he planned to marry me. You said I’ve got a right to it.”
    All eyes turned on Lulie.
    Lulie backed away a few steps, looking nervous, but only for a few seconds before recovering to lash out at Tess, “You dare ask me to back up your lies after you stole my mule and buckboard, you shameless hussy?”
    A murmur went through the crowd, and a man yelled, “She’s a horse thief. That’s even worse. Hang her.”
    “That’s right,” someone else chimed in. “Horse thieves got to hang.”
    Tess, her eyes filling with tears, could only stare at Lulie in disbelief, but the woman quickly backed into the throng to disappear from sight.
    All around, the shouts were loud and clear. The people wanted Tess executed then and there.
    But Worley Branson declared, “There’ll be no lynching. She’ll get a fair trial when the judge comes through. Till then, she goes to jail.”
    Grumblings of disappointment went through the crowd. Worley, tightly gripping Tess’s arm, said, “All right, let’s go.”
    “But this is wrong,” she argued, casting a final, scathing glare at Jake Harville as she was led away. “I only wanted to take what’s mine, and Lulie lied. She gave me the buckboard and mule, and—”
    “Shut up.” Worley slung her in front of him, causing her to stumble and almost fall. “Or I’ll let them vultures have you.”
    She was shoved along the street, with people jeering now and then,