Daring Read Free

sarcastic snit.
    “Don’t worry. We will,” he said confidently. Knowing he’d be behind her just as soon as he could get the ropes around his wrist untied. They had unfinished business.
    “When pigs fly,” she said, and grabbed the prisoner by the arm, yanking him to his feet. Quickly, she untied his feet, so he could ride. “Come on. You’re going with us.” She pulled him toward his horse.
    The man stiffened, resisting Ruby. “I’m not getting on this horse. No way I’m riding with a couple of women.”
    “Suit yourself. But if I have to make you get on that horse, you’ll go with a bullet in your man parts. Get my drift?”
    “For a pretty woman, you’re a mean bitch.”
    She glanced back over at Deke and smiled. “That I am.” She pointed her six-shooter toward his crotch. “Now, are you going to climb on your horse or do I have to put you there?”
    He crawled up on his animal. She and Caroline climbed on their horses, and Ruby turned to wave goodbye to Deke. She should feel bad for taking his bounty, but she didn’t.
    As they rode out, Caroline sighed. “I’ve captured my first bounty. I’m a real woman bounty hunter.”
    Ruby almost choked, trying to keep from laughing out loud. What could she say? That her cousin was a buffoon who had almost gotten them both killed? That if it hadn’t been Deke Culver, they would have faced a much tougher resistance? As it was, she couldn’t believe he just let her take his bounty.
    She took a deep breath and released it slowly. Caroline had to get better if she wanted to keep from dying. “Yes, Caroline, you are an official bounty hunter.”
    “Better than a pig farmer’s wife.”
    Ruby laughed. “Most definitely better than a pig farmer’s wife.”
    As she turned her horse toward town, she glanced back at Deke. He was standing in the center of camp, working the knots on the ropes. He’d soon be loose.
    Once again, the man she’d fought Annabelle over, flirted outrageously with, who she’d begged to take her virginity, had shown up in her life. And this time, she was older, wiser, and frankly had no desire to ever see that jackass again.
    When she’d needed him most, he’d turned her down. And while now she could see he was right, that didn’t ease the embarrassment or the shame at how she’d handled his rejection.
    In fact, even taking his bounty hadn’t eased the pain of him declining to take her virginity. Since the day of his dismissal, she’d believed that men were ignorant beasts.
    No man had changed her mind, yet.
    *
    Deke Culver leaned against the wall just outside the sheriff’s office. He was too late to take his bounty back. Ruby’s horse and her cousin Caroline’s were tied to the hitching post outside the lawman’s office. And while he could go in and protest, he really didn’t want to create the scene he knew Ruby would stage and become the star in.
    No, he was better off letting the bounty go, though he wasn’t ready to let the woman go. She was still a sassy little thing he couldn’t resist and felt attracted to. Before she’d been way too young and out of respect for her father, he’d refused to participate in any deflowering no matter how much she begged.
    Because then he’d have felt honor bound to marry the girl.
    After realizing she was one of the bounty hunter women he’d heard about that were collecting rewards on criminals, he believed someone else had probably already done the deed, and he could just be there to sample the wares. If she’d let him get close enough. It had been a long time since he’d experienced a woman. And he was more than ready.
    The door opened, and the two women walked out, unaware he leaned against the wall behind them. The dark haired woman was a beauty, but she lacked that fiery spirit he found so appealing in Ruby. Her I-dare-you-to-come-and-get-it attitude was like an aphrodisiac to him, drawing him to the blonde bounty hunter.
    So unlike Laura.
    “Wow, I can’t believe we made