Benjamin Read Free

down from a challenge or for ignoring a wrong. Yet storming the compound wasn’t the best choice. There were probably people there who remembered him, who would raise the alarm the moment he was spotted.
    The very thought of seeing the walled structure made goose flesh march across his skin. He’d escaped because of his brother Caleb, who had been a Texas Ranger at the time. The smart thing would be to enlist Caleb’s help again, even if the former lawman had returned to ranching and was busy raising a family.
    But no, Ben wouldn’t reach out to any of his siblings. He was a wanted man and he wouldn’t put them in danger because of his crime. They would bend the law and put themselves, and their families, in danger. He was the only unmarried Graham and he couldn’t allow any of them to choose between him and their spouses and children.
    The smoke from the small fire hung in a haze in the small structure. The door he’d made from branches let some of it out but Ben found himself stifled by the air. He got up from the log he used as a seat and opened the door, breathing in deep of the fresh forest air. The scent of pine filled his lungs.
    “You don’t want me here.” Her voice was subdued.
    “I don’t have to respond to that, do I?” He didn’t talk much, ever, and this woman was pushing his limits. He’s spoken more in the last half an hour to her than he had in a year probably. Relentless female.
    “Thank you for agreeing to help me.”
    He hadn’t agreed; he’d been blackmailed into doing it. “Remember my rules.”
    “And remember my rule.” She poked at the fire with a stick, sending a few sparks into the shadowed interior.
    The woman was stubborn and bossy. Two things he didn’t like in a female. He didn’t want her there. She wasn’t stupid so she was sure to notice. Hell, she’d managed to find him when no one else had and he was sure they were looking.
    “This is a bad idea.” An understatement of epic proportions. It was the worst idea in the history of the world.
    “It’s the only thing left. I’ve tried every other way to find out where the compound is. I’m not even sure Dominic is a Cunningham but he’s definitely the third man in this triangle of monsters.” She stared into the flames, her face bathed in the orange flickers. “Will you talk about what they did—”
    He left the lean-to before she could finish her sentence. No one had ever asked him what happened when he was held captive. The only person who knew part of it was Cat, and she wouldn’t tell a soul what he’d said. Now this rifle-toting female pretending to be a man thought he was going to spill the poison that ate at his soul with a single question? She was crazy and had balls of steel.
    Goddamn it.
    Ben ran without realizing he was running until his side screamed in pain from the stitch that had formed. He stopped and bent over, pressing his palm to the painful spot while he gulped air, desperately trying to jam the memories back in their toxic box deep within.
    An animal noise threatened to erupt and he closed his eyes. He thought of his family, their smiling faces, their rambunctious children, the Circle Eight house and its big table built for ten. Soon his anguish had morphed into sadness for all he’d lost and would never regain with the people who existed in what was left of his heart.
    It was the woman Grace’s fault. She dared to throw a “you owe me” story at him. She might be lying about Cat, about her missing son, hell, about everything. Ben needed to get to the bottom of her story and figure out for himself if she was a charlatan or a grieving widow and desperate mother.
    He strode back to the lean-to at a fast walk, his righteous anger growing by the second until it bordered on fury. Ben thought of a thousand things to say to her, to tell her to get the fuck out of his life. He was six feet from the door when he heard the singing.
    It was a lullaby, one his mother must’ve sung to him. The