A Promise of Roses Read Free

telling anybody who we are. Will you, Meggie ?"
    "Of course not,” she answered. She had no intention of describing these men to anyone—except Marshal Thompson, the Leavenworth Daily Times , and the Kansas Weekly Herald .
    But now that the outlaws were revealing themselves to her, she had to do some serious planning on how to get away. She wasn't naive enough to think they would let her live after she'd seen their faces.
    Evan pulled his red handkerchief down around his neck and gave Megan an engaging smile. She had been fully prepared for the outlaw leader to resemble the back end of a bull moose. Instead she faced a handsome, dark-haired man with sparkling brown eyes. Without a doubt, Dougie was Evan's younger brother. They had the same chestnut hair and high cheekbones.
    Frank made Megan's skin crawl. His black hair fell far past his shoulders in matted tangles. She thought the ends might have dangled into his supper on more than one occasion. A scar circled his neck, but she wasn't close enough to determine if it had been caused by the blade of a knife or an uncomfortably tight rope. Either way, he had escaped from some sort of deadly trouble. Megan made a note to avoid Frank as much as possible.
    Tommy seemed to be about Dougie's age—sixteen, if she didn't miss her guess. Hair the color of summer wheat tumbled into green eyes filled with adolescent excitement.
    And then there was Luke, the one who had shot the pistol right out of her hand. He was a good shot, she'd give him that much. He hadn't so much as nicked her with that little trick. His bandanna remained over the bottom half of his face.
    When he noticed her gaze upon him, he gave a wink and tugged the brown material down over the bridge of his nose, the pale pink of full lips, and the slope of a strong chin in need of a shave. Megan swallowed and lifted her eyes back up to his. They shimmered like chips of ice melting in the hot summer sun. Oh, yes, she would remember him.
    "Have a seat, will you, Meggie ?” Evan waved to the four chairs surrounding a lopsided table. “No sense acting like complete strangers, now is there?"
    Megan arranged one of the chairs at an angle so she could keep the whole room in view. Frank leaned over, lifted the table, and pulled a deck of cards out from under a leg. The table thudded back to the floor, teetering precariously.
    "Deal me in.” Dougie straddled a chair and rested his elbows on the table, which then slanted to the other side.
    "We need some grub,” Frank said, but he made no move to do anything about it.
    Evan nodded. “Tom, Luke, you go into town and see what you can find. Take money from the strongbox if you need it."
    Tommy bent over and shook the padlock.
    "Don't bother,” Luke said in a low voice. “I've got some cash on me. No sense getting into that yet."
    "I agree,” Evan said. “After we get a bite to eat, we'll divvy it up."
    "No hurry.” Luke shrugged. “It's not like we're going anywhere for a while."
    Evan chuckled. “Right. Luke's the sensible one,” he pointed out for Megan's benefit. “Glad you came along, Luke. Mighty glad."
    Megan watched the door close behind the two men, then turned her attention to the game of poker going on at the scarred, lopsided table. Frank raised a booted foot to rest on one corner, and the spur dug deeply into the wood. Well, now she knew how the surface had gotten so scratched, Megan thought a moment before asking to play.
    "Think we got enough supplies here?” Tom asked, glancing down at the two sacks of fruit and meat and cheese in his arms.
    Lucas didn't answer but kept his eyes on the scraggly black gelding standing in front of the makeshift saloon of Cubilo del Diablo. Why the town just outside Leavenworth carried that name, Lucas would never know. He hadn't seen that many Mexicans in residence. But then, the outlaw crowd of Diablo stuck around about as long as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
    Lucas stopped in the middle of the