West (History Interrupted Book 1) by Lizzy Ford Read Free Book Online Page B

forehead, taking my cheeks.
    “Thank you,” I murmured. His look was not something I would ever forget. The pure, selfless joy of a parent over his child, aimed at me. That had never happened. For a moment, my amusement at this world, and the sense it wasn’t real, trembled.
    I was pleased that Carter dropped me off somewhere safe. But I couldn’t help thinking why here? Where my departure was going to break the hearts of two good people who truly believed me to be someone I wasn’t? I was going to save so many lives. Maybe hurting two people shouldn’t matter, but it did.
    John’s smile grew even wider, and part of my heart melted. He was truly happy to see me. He saw no difference between his real daughter and me, and I was suddenly envious of how much he loved his Josie. I had rarely experienced a major holiday where I didn’t think about my parents and certainly missed them.
    His features were so happy, his eyes shining. His joy was contagious, and I yearned for it to be real and directed at me. The kind man before me made me wish I had known my father, who died when I was two.
    “It’s um, good to be home,” I added more softly, touched by his emotion, even if it was misdirected. “I wore your favorite dress.”
    “Matches your eyes.”
    I forced a smile, guilt drifting through me.
    “I was thanking the sheriff who returned you to me,” John said, moving away to face the two men near him and the Native Americans behind them.
    Stoic and stone-faced, the lawmen appeared hard to read. A Native American in his early thirties stood a short distance away, as unfriendly as the lawmen, while his teenage companion was a couple feet back holding the reins of four horses.
    “Ma’am, I’d like to speak to you about your whereabouts the past year,” the sheriff said.
    My gaze fell to the man who had rescued me – and stuck. Tall, lean, with the striking green eyes, rugged features, high cheekbones, a strong jaw and a face almost as dark as the natives’, he was closer to my age than John’s. His clothing was worn, dusty and stitched in multiple places, his boots scuffed and the star-shaped sheriff’s badge on his chest like something I had seen out of a western movie.
    His eyes, however, were pinned to me as if he already knew my story was bogus. Carter had vaguely warned me about the others I might encounter without defining who they were.
    The hairs on the back of my neck rose in mild alarm at the fear I had been figured out on day one. I wasn’t certain what to say, not with the rugged cowboy and his green gaze distracting me. The sense I had gotten last night, that he was hiding something about how he knew to find me in the crater, returned.
    It’s not possible, though.
    “When she is rested, Sheriff,” my faux-father said. “You will not upset my daughter so soon after her return.”
    “Of course not, Mr. John,” the sheriff said. “The Indians convey their congratulations at having your daughter returned.”
    “They did what the sheriff wasn’t able to,” John said to me. “They found you when I thought you were gone forever.”
    “Amazing,” I agreed. “Thank you all.” This I directed at the Indians hanging back behind the sheriff.
    Suddenly, everyone was looking at me hard.
    “Why, Josie. Wherever did you learn Indian?” John asked.
    My brow furrowed.
    “She did not know our tongue last night,” the older Native American said with a frown.
    “Not here,” the sheriff replied to the restless native. “You must consult with the shaman over what you found.”
    “What you found?” I asked, puzzled. “Me?”
    “You really understand us.” The sheriff’s features appeared even more severe.
    Shit. It all sounds like English to me. I clamped my mouth shut, suspecting by their uneasy looks that I wasn’t supposed to know Native American but kind of grateful one of the microchips in my brain was working.
    “We are done here,” the sheriff said. “I expect to see you in town soon to