Dodge City Brides Boxed Set by Julianne MacLean

Author:Julianne MacLean
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Julianne MacLean Publishing Inc.
Published: 2016-06-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Barely able to get a full breath into his tight lungs, Fletcher dropped his gun into his holster. He took in John’s snug-fitting red underwear and bare toes. “Now, listen here…”

“Don’t you ‘now listen here’ me!” John shouted. “I’m about as savage as a meat ax over what you did!”

“It’s not what it looks like,” Jo tried to say.

“You stay out of this, Mrs. O’Malley.”

“It is my business, not yours!” she replied.

Before Fletcher had a chance to explain anything, a tight fist came hurling through the air, straight for his nose.

“No, wait!” Jo cried.

The crack of bone against bone cleared Fletcher’s lungs in a hurry. His cheekbones vibrated with agonizing spasms of pain that shot straight to his brain until his whole head hammered. “Ah, hell! Not again!” He cupped his throbbing nose, feeling blood flow out of his nostrils.

“John! Stop it!” Jo yelled. The other ranch hands emerged from the house and gathered on the covered porch to watch.

John pounced away like an amateur boxer. With both fists drawn, he bobbed up and down on the balls of his bare feet. “Face me like a man, Marshal.”

“Let’s talk about this,” Fletcher said, holding up a hand to try and calm the situation.

“What’s there to talk about?” John asked. “Somebody’s gotta stand up for the lady.”

Furious, Jo ripped off her hat and threw it onto the ground. “I can take care of myself!”

“No lady should have to take care of herself against a man like him,” John said. “Preying on this lonely widow—listening to the gossip about her, no doubt. You’re a disgrace to your badge!”

Fletcher bent forward, still holding his nose. “Jeez, what next?”

“If you weren’t such a bastard, I’d force you to marry her!”

“Marry her?” Fletcher replied, looking up.

“Marry me!” Jo echoed.

Not sure what to say, Fletcher tried to stand up straight. He wiped his bloody nose on his sleeve. John bounced like a March Hare toward him and threw another punch. Fletcher dodged it.

“But you ain’t good enough for someone like her. So if you ain’t gonna honor her by proposing, I will!” Another punch flew past Fletcher’s ear. He wiped more blood off his throbbing nose, his nerves just about at the breaking point.

“Nobody’s marrying anybody,” Fletcher said.

John bounced around the barnyard, then made one more lunge forward. “Oh yeah? We’ll see about that!”

Enough was enough. Fletcher went for his gun.

The very next second, John was flat on his back, blinking up at the sky and rubbing his bruised noggin. Fletcher dropped his gun back into the holster.

“Damn, that was fast,” John mumbled.

Jo set the glass of water down on the ground and knelt beside him. “My word. Are you all right?”

“I think so,” John replied in a daze. She helped him sit up. “I feel a little dizzy, though.”

Jo gave Fletcher an irritated look.

“What—he was going to punch me again!” Fletcher insisted.

“You didn’t have to hit him so hard.”

“I wasn’t about to get my nose broken a third time.”

Jo parted John’s hair to examine his head.

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