The Wedding Ransom by Geralyn Dawson Read Free Book Online Page B

in our hands.”
    “We’ll be able to meet it as long as Malone has better luck than Lucky and I did when we headed down there to fetch it,” Gus said.
    Lucky frowned. “The first mistake was sending me to begin with. I’m full of luck—all bad.”
    Nobody bothered to argue with him. Instead, Gus said to Rafe, “We’re running out of time. The rat’s moving into the hotel only rams that truth home harder. We have fewer than six months left. It doesn’t leave much room for error.”
    “It doesn’t leave
any
room,” Snake added glumly. “If Malone fails we won’t have time to send anyone else.”
    Rafe sat up straight. Lucky Nichols had no way of knowing that his words had touched Rafe’s most sensitive nerve, a nerve born during the war for Texas’s independence almost a decade ago. The setting of a failure that had changed the course of Rafe Malone’s life. He met the gazes of each of the others in turn, then flatly stated, “I won’t fail.”
    At first no one reacted to his grim confidence. A long moment passed before Gus slammed his fist into his palm, Lucky broke out in a crooked-toothed smile, Snake folded his arms and smirked, and Ben acknowledged Rafe with a nod, his blue eyes twinkling.
    Maggie St. John beamed and said, “Excellent! So, when do we set sail?”
    The subsequent argument dragged on for hours. Rafe hadn’t seen such down-and-dirty fighting for years. When it was done, the victor kissed each vanquished combatant on his cheek. Each combatant except for Rafe, that is. To him she offered a smug, victorious smile.
    He decided then and there he’d have his kiss, and soon.
    Not on the cheek, either.
    ~~~~~~~~~~
    Carrying a tea tray, Maggie paused outside the door to the suite of rooms Barlow Hill had usurped upon his arrival at Hotel Bliss. On the tray sat a pot of coffee and a plate of molasses cookies baked by her own hand. Hill wanted refreshments for two, and Maggie was pleased to provide them.
    She eyed the sweets’ burned edges and smiled. For the first time in memory, Papa Snake had crowed with pride when viewing the results of Maggie’s baking. In fact, he had declared she should do all the cooking for Mr. Hill while her papas saw to the final preparations for their trip. A week of Cuisine Maggie probably wouldn’t kill the man, and a little bit of subversive activity was good for morale. Gus had even expressed the belief that enough of Maggie’s cooking might cause Hill to reconsider his decision to live at Hotel Bliss.
    It doesn’t hurt to hope,
Maggie told herself as she knocked on the door.
    “Enter.”
    Maggie pasted on a false smile and pushed the door open.
    “Ah, Miss St. John,” Hill said from his seat behind Papa Ben’s large mahogany desk. He climbed laboriously to his feet. “Finally. I’ve been looking for you the better part of the day.”
    Actually, he’d sent Malone and the papas with his various summons. Far be it from Barlow Hill to make the effort to search for her himself.
    The other occupant of the room also stood and Hill motioned to him now. “I want to introduce you to our visitor. Mr. Graham Knight is the architect overseeing the construction of my personal home here at Lake Bliss. Knight, may I present the most beautiful lady in Texas, Hotel Bliss’s hostess, Miss Mary Margaret St. John.”
    Befitting her finishing school education, Maggie outwardly glided right along with the social amenities. Inwardly she wondered what Hill was up to. He’d always treated her politely, even during the trial. Now, though, he acted as if she were queen of the castle.
    She poured coffee for each of the men beneath Hill’s watchful eye. When she returned the silver server to the tray, she saw him nod with what appeared to be satisfaction. What in heaven’s name was going on? The situation grew even more strange when she turned to leave.
    “Maggie, dear,” Hill said, stopping her. “If you have a moment, I’d like you to look at the plans I have had drawn