Benjamin Read Free Page B

door. If Ben hadn’t walked up to it, she might not have found it. He hid himself so well from the world, she wondered if he’d follow through with going with her. The man hadn’t wanted to be found.
    Grace checked on the horses nibbling grass nearby. The sun reflected off their shiny coats. Her horse seemed to get along with Paladin. She would never forget that beautiful gelding and how he looked streaking across the ground as though he’d been flying. Ben’s sister Catherine had ridden him to victory against Grace in the spring.
    That was when Grace lived as Duffy, a drifter, a man who gambled against horse races. She’d been hunting the Cunninghams, Manfred in particular. The man Ben Graham had beaten to death in front of a hundred witnesses.
    The image was burned into her mind. It was exactly what she’d wanted to do but lacked the strength. With Cunningham’s death, however, Ben had set in motion a series of events that she and he were both now mired in. Stuck together.
    Truth be told, she was a little afraid of him. Grace didn’t allow herself to feel much anymore. All of it had been shunted aside. The tears she’d shed earlier had been an anomaly in the life she’d been living for a year. No more. She could be nothing but strong and ruthless until Henry was back in her arms.
    Ben finally emerged from the lean-to with a pair of saddlebags on his shoulder. “We’ll need supplies.”
    She gestured to her horse. “I’m well stocked.”
    “I’m not. Let’s go.”
    With very little in the way of speaking, they readied the horses and were on their way a few minutes later. Grace could be patient and wait for him to speak. What she couldn’t do was allow him to deter her from her mission.
    “Where are we going?”
    “Supplies.”
    She counted to ten. “And where are the supplies?”
    “What do you have to barter?” Not really an answer.
    “I have supplies. You’re not using my things to get yourself some.” She was annoyed he would ask. “Why don’t have you have food in your lean-to?”
    “I have meat, but otherwise I was fixing to restock before the fall weather got here.” He looked at her from the corner of his eye. “When somebody showed up and derailed my life.”
    Grace felt a pinch of remorse, but she pushed it aside. Ruthless. “How long will this take?”
    “As long as it does. Old man Frasier is up the trail a piece.” He gestured with his hands at the wooded area.
    She held in her frustration, unwilling to be pulled into an argument with Ben. She needed him to get to her ultimate goal. The compound and Henry. Riling Ben’s temper further wouldn’t help the situation. She was glad that he’d given in to her request even if she’d held him at gunpoint to force him to listen to her. She had been prepared to do anything she had to.
    They rode in thick silence for another hour. Grace began to wonder if her hat was actually a stove filled with the late-day heat that had settled on them. The sun was beginning its journey down the sky when they finally rode up to a small, ramshackle cabin. The entire structure leaned to the left and had huge patches of moss growing on it. The trees around it provided ample shade and dipped low over the cockeyed roof.
    Did every man in the woods live in an unlivable hovel?
    The snick of a gun cocking made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Her hand crept to the rifle in its scabbard. She had always been skilled with guns since her Pa had taught her how to use one when she was a little mite. Any Texan worth her salt could use a gun no matter what the occasion was—a snake, a deer, or a hermit who wanted to shoot her.
    “Don’t move or I’ll give you a new hole in your head.” The voice came from somewhere in the woods ahead of them. She couldn’t see anyone, but the threat, and the gun, was very real. Damn it. This was not what she wanted to get caught up in. Time was slipping through her fingers.
    “Shit.” Grace glared at Ben. “You