Read Outlaw Bride (Lawmen and Outlaws) Online
Authors: Tanya Hanson
Tags: #Romance, #Western, #Historical, #Texas, #lawman
Outlaw Bride (Lawmen and Outlaws) (11 page)
“Your brother?”
“Of course my brother. Oh, Redd, Teresa’s caught his fever.” Jessy Belle howled like a wolf pup. “And she’s got it bad. She told me just yesterday she had no use for a man. Oh, no. What is she thinking?”
He held her close. “I once had those feelings, about no use for a woman. Then I met you.”
“But it didn’t happen in an instant!”
“No?” After a long warm while, he spoke into her hair. “What’d she write?”
“Ahab came upon the convent in search of me. Found her room.” Jessy Belle sniffed loud. “Left her unmolested when she woke up. They spoke and she saw a lost boy who needs love and a home. In her heart, too, she knows his evil must be stopped. What better partner than a woman who already has already done so?”
She explained how Teresa had stabbed her iniquitous stepfather.
“So you mean she’s going to kill Ahab?” As if in preparation, Redd laid a hand at his waist where his Bowie hung sheathed.
“No. Oh, Redd. It means she’s going to revive him to faith and truth.”
“What about those damned pearls?”
“Language, Mister Redd.” She raised her eyebrows. “Likely they’ll pawn ’em somewhere down the road, for safekeeping. And if Teresa has her way, she’ll retrieve ’em for me later.”
“Why would she get her way?”
Jessy Belle stabbed at the rumpled paper. “She says she’s noticed the way...the way you’ve been looking at me. She saw that same light of love in Ahab’s eyes when they talked.”
“Aw, hell, Jessy Belle. Some of that’s lust.” He rolled his eyes and grabbed his coat. “Let’s get going. They can’t be that far ahead. Let’s go get her back.”
“Maybe Teresa won’t want to get saved,” Jessy Belle said. “Hers isn’t the first head Ahab has turned.”
“Well, either way, he’s got a price on his head, and she’s got the law after her. She’s going to need help.”
“I reckon.” Jessy Belle digested the wisdom of his words. Ahab couldn’t write and Teresa’s letter had sounded honest, but...
Her blood pounded. Maybe Teresa had been taken against her will. Maybe she’d been gagged and unable to scream.
Maybe she was in danger because...Ahab had forced the letter at gunpoint. Redd was right. They had to get her back.
“Come on,” he said with great calm. “Let’s gather our possibles and head out. We can water the horses and let ’em graze at the creek. Then we’ve got stop another to make.”
“Where? Breakfast?” Jessy Belle’s belly grumbled in spite of the turmoil.
“Pima.” Redd touched her cheek. “ I’ve come to my senses. I know a fellow there named Wilmott Wickersham.”
“Fancy name. Just who might he be?”
“A justice of the peace.”
“What?” Hope just about split her heart in two.
“I need to make an honest woman of you.” Redd grinned, and she grew warm when his gaze settled at her bosom.
“That’s funny.” Her whisper today was louder. “Considering I’m an outlaw.”
“
My
outlaw.”
She reached for him, promise drawing them close. “Well, I guess it’s a proposal. And I accept. But we do need to hurry. Teresa’s been meant as my bridesmaid all along.”
“Cold day in hell, Ahab Perkins be my best man.” Redd grunted as he saddled Snapper. “But at least you’ll look pretty with those pearls around your neck.”
Jessy Belle grinned. “A far sight better than a noose.”
“You got that right, my outlaw bride.”
A word about the author...
Tanya Hanson is a California beach girl who loves those cowboys. College days in Nebraska and Colorado—and a real-life wagon train trip around the Tetons—honed her love for historical western romance.
With her firefighter hubby, she enjoys seeing new places and spending time with their two little grandsons who are, as she claims, the two halves of her heart. She also writes contemporary inspirational romance and recently sold her first paranormal inspirational Young Adult novel under the pen name Anya Novikov.
You can find her at:
and
Tanya Hanson, Author at Facebook
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