Colorado Moonfire by Charlotte Hubbard

Author:Charlotte Hubbard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Charlotte Hubbard
Published: 2016-01-11T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Lyla tossed, knowing her dream was the result of another night on a bad bed, yet unable to let go of it. She saw Barry at the cabin, clutching her note, looking behind every door and in the shed for signs of her. Calico was contentedly munching straw, but when the marshal realized she wasn’t to be found, his face crumpled into a pained grimace: betrayed…again. Once more she’d left him, without giving an explanation or allowing him his. He gazed forlornly at the note. “Honey, I’m so sorry…so sorry,” he murmured.

Her own sob woke her. As her night vision faded away, Lyla got her bearings, feeling foolish for allowing a dream to upset her so much. Now that she’d apparently ducked out on him again, Thompson wouldn’t be the least bit sorry to be rid of her…would he? And thinking that her mare had returned to the shed at the cabin was nonsense…wasn’t it?

Not that either of these things mattered now. She was in a rough shanty, out in the middle of nowhere. Dawn’s first light revealed Kelly Jameson snoring on his bedroll, in the shadows of the far corner. Connor Foxe was seated on the floor at her feet, grinning down the barrel of his pistol.

“Nightmares, cupcake?” he asked in a suave whisper. “They’re not over yet. Unless you try to run, and I put you out of your misery.”

“You wouldn’t kill me,” she blurted. “This is all Frazier’s doing and you’re taking me to him. Aren’t you?”

Connor chuckled, a gleam in his agate-black eyes. “He wouldn’t mind if you had a hole in one of those luscious thighs. Wounds and scars, they sort of fascinate him, you know?”

Sickened, Lyla stood slowly and straightened her rumpled clothing. She buttoned her coat against a coldness the log walls couldn’t keep out, then slipped her hands into her pockets. The bundle of twenties was still there. At least Foxe hadn’t swiped it while she was asleep.

From the single window she saw endless pastureland, rolling in every direction like pastry dough powdered with sugar. The image startled her: she was so hungry, everything reminded her of food. Out here, though, there was no such luxury as fresh bread—not a tree to hide behind or a rock formation to shield her, either, should she dart away when Connor wasn’t watching.

And Connor Foxe was always watching, his motives clearer and more repulsive with each hour they waited. For what, Lyla was afraid to ask.

“Where are we?” she mumbled, figuring to keep him talking. Perhaps he’d reveal information she could use to escape. And he’d have less chance to reconsider the vile suggestions he’d been threatening her with since the ambush.

“Welcome to Foxe Hollow, Miss O’Riley,” he said with a sneer. “Hope you like what you see, because you’ll be on this sheep ranch for a long, long time. If you’re lucky.”

Lyla ignored his insinuation—always hinting she’d be killed on a whim, Connor was—and clutched at a familiar straw. “Frazier raises sheep?”

“Thousands of them.

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