Born To Be Wild Read Free Page A

on home.”
    “Without you? What about the beer Hank and me owe you?”
    “Beer?” Isabel echoed. “You’re not even legal, Bobby, and your brother is just a kid, younger than me. What kind of an influence are you on him?”
    Micah cringed inside—did Isabel really want to chance raining trouble down on herself?—but kept in bluff mode as he stared Bobby down. “The two of you don’t even have to buy me the beer you owe me if you just leave well enough alone.”
    Bobby thought it over for a moment and then said, “Well, as long as there’s something in it for me…”
    Taking the easy way out, Bobby shrugged, gave Isabel one last angry look, and to Micah’s relief, rode off.
    Hank was right behind him.
    “Walk those horses!” Isabel yelled after the boys. “You need to cool them down!”
    “I know you’re an expert on horses, and all.” It had been a point of contention between their families that the Falcons ran a horse ranch directly next to the Wilds’ cattle ranch. “But you could stir up Bobby again.”
    “I’m not afraid of him.”
    For a moment, he almost believed her. Then he caught a glimpse of doubt in her thick-lashed hazel eyes. And her full lower lip trembled before she caught herself and clenched her teeth together. She really was afraid and determined not to let him see it.
    “Sure you are,” he said reasonably, “as you should be. You’re just too stubborn to admit it.”
    “Am not.” Isabel returned her knife to the sheath attached to her belt. “And you should be walking your horse, too, to cool him down.”
    Like he had to be told.
    When she turned her gelding, clucked, “C’mon, Crank,” and walked him off, Micah followed on Slade.
    “What do you think you’re doing?” she asked.
    “Making sure you get home safely.” He was almost disappointed when she didn’t argue. For some reason, he enjoyed her prickliness. “At least to the Falcon property line.”
    He didn’t dare ride onto Falcon land without expecting some kind of retribution.
    They rode in silence together for a few moments, before she said, “You had to work there to call Bobby off. Thanks.”
    “No problem.” As an afterthought, he added, “You know I wouldn’t have let him touch you.”
    Isabel glanced at him and something in her expression caught and held him. He felt as if a vise were gripping his throat, making it hard to swallow. She was gazing up at him like he was a hero or something. But Micah knew damn well he was nothing but Trouble-with-a-capital-T, as Dad and Gramps kept telling him.
    Shaking away the weird feeling, he asked, “You always carry that thing on you?”
    “The knife? When I ride out, absolutely.” Then Isabel smiled at him, a smile that showed her perfect white teeth and made his pulse rush a little faster, and said, “After all, I never know when I’ll run into a snake.”

Chapter Two
    Isabel hadn’t been able reach Mama, so she’d left a message on her voice mail to please call her. She hadn’t wanted to leave the bad news, and hoped that by the time she heard from her mother, Lucy would be safely home. Then she’d called Poppi and told him. After which she’d cried herself out.
    She was back in control well before Micah’s truck pulled up on the other side of the adobe wall that surrounded the house—she could see the dust-covered black vehicle through the walkway opening. She had never let Micah see her tears, and she wasn’t about to start now. A quick look in the mirror revealed that her eyes were a bit red. The tip of her nose, as well. Nothing she could do about it but tough it out.
    Going to the window, she watched her daughter’s father get out of the truck and take off the short oilskin duster and hat he’d probably been wearing out on the range. He threw them in the back, then started up the stone path. Taller and broader than his brother and father, Micah exuded the kind of power only a man with his assertive nature could claim.
    Indeed, as a mature