Holt's Gamble by Barbara Ankrum

Author:Barbara Ankrum [Ankrum, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Romance, Historical, Western, Historical Romance, Westerns
Amazon: B00EPPVJM4
Publisher: ePublishing Works!
Published: 2013-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

His words made Kierin dizzy and she took a faltering step backward. A sick sense of dread crept over her as she remembered where she'd seen him before. Of course it had been at Talbot's—his face, one of the thousands she'd seen there. Had it been only weeks since she'd been serving whiskey and beer to the likes of him? Out on the dance floor with Clay, it had seemed like another lifetime ago, a past she could leave behind. How foolish she'd been to let herself believe that.

"You're mistaken, Mr. Bledsoe," she said with all the conviction she could muster. "Y-you must have me confused with someone else..."

"Oh, no I don't. It's Karen, ain't it?"

Her eyes widened.

"No..." His smile broadened. "It's Kierin. I remember now. Unusual ring to it. Had every head turnin' yer way in that waterin' hole. All woman, you was, in that little red thing you was wearin'."

Kierin was stunned into a hopeless, forbidding silence.

"Got you a sweet setup here, ain't ya?" His pale eyes lingered on her bosom. "All these God-fearin' men an' their dried-up wives, just waitin' fer you to scratch their itch."

Her voice returned in a rush. "No, you're wrong—get away from me."

"Why, I'll bet yer servicin' every buck on this train from here to—" His eyes suddenly narrowed. "What—you think I ain't got money like anybody else? Well, I do." He reached into his pocket and pulled out some jingling silver.

She blindly knocked the money from his hand. "I don't want your money. Take your hands off me or I'll scream."

An angry look clouded his face and he crossed his forearm brutally against her throat, pushing her up hard against the rough-hewn wall behind her. "Fine," he spat. "We'll do it without money, then. Makes no nevermind to me." He spit a stream of tobacco juice at her feet. "You whores are all alike. Always thinkin' yer too good fer the likes o' men like me."

She tipped her chin up and gritted her teeth. "I'm not... a whore... at all."

He gave her a mean little shake, banging her head against the hard wall behind her. A pain shot through her temples.

"The hell you say, girl. I know what I know." His squinty eyes narrowed further and an evil gleam came into them. "But I'm gettin' the notion the good folks on this here train maybe don't know what you was back there."

Kierin's chest rose and fell rapidly against the grimy sleeve of his long johns.

He let out a little laugh. "I'm right, ain't I? Well, you kin play yer little game with the rest of these greenhorns, but you ain't foolin' me none. I reckon as how that little secret's worth somethin' to ya, ain't it, little lady?" He glanced back at the circle of dancers. The music was still loud enough to drown out their conversation. "I don't reckon I'll have to think too hard on how you can get me to keep it."

His mouth came down hard on hers and his tongue impaled her.

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