Lawless Love (Lawmen and Outlaws) Read Free Page A

big spread. Only thing we know is someone found him dead, reported it, and no horse to be seen. Someone said they saw a young kid riding with it.”
    Lacey put her knife and fork on her plate and started to clear the dishes. “Well, how do you know the horse didn’t just run off and this kid found it, was bringing it in?”
    “Could be, but I doubt it. The boy was riding through town, not stopping. Lewiston sheriff said when he went to investigate there were signs of a struggle, bit of cloth caught on a bush, things scattered about.”
    “Well, that don’t prove the person who got the horse was the same one as shot him.”
    “No, but it’s the only lead I got. Got to at least question this boy. If I can find him.” He stood to help her clear, walking behind her to the pump. “You know a man named Morgan?” he said to her back.
    Lacey’s hand shook as she put the dishes in the wash pan and slowly turned to face him. “Everyone here knows Morgan. He holds the mortgage on this house.”
    “Well. Not anymore he doesn’t. Not anymore.” His hand went gently to her shoulder before he lifted her chin so she looked at him. “You all right?”
    “I…I’m just wondering who will own it now, who his heirs will be. Who I’ll have to pay.” She moved toward the larder, but he clasped her shoulder. “I’ve made pie…”
    Dylan leaned his head toward the girl, his lips brushing Lacey’s before they settled like a butterfly on a quavering leaf.
    She didn’t push him away, but she didn’t respond either.
    “Sorry.” He lifted his head suddenly, his eyes narrowing as he took in a sharp breath. “Sorry.”
    Lacey hesitated before moving to get the pie. In silence, she removed it from the larder, brought it to her worktop, and uncovered it, aware his gaze followed her every move.
    Dylan returned to the dining table and pulled out his chair. The perfume of the apples wafted in the air, and Lacey got a tray with cream and sugar and brought it to him.
    “Sorry,” he repeated once more. “There’s a right way to behave and a wrong way, black and white. I’ve always believed that. It’s the law by which I live.”
    Under his watchful gaze, she guided the knife into the pie and slid out a piece.
    “It won’t happen again,” he assured her.
    ****
    As night whispered about him and he watched the curtains billow before they were sucked out into the silver light of the moon, Dylan lay imagining what it would be like to hold Lacey in that nocturnal quiet. But women, he knew, weren’t keen on being courted by lawmen, and he hadn’t had much success in that quarter. The bright-eyed and lively schoolmarm back home had made her views known before he’d even gotten a toe in her door. And the shopkeeper at the mercantile had denied Dylan’s request to walk out with his daughter, spouting the words, “I won’t have my girl a widder with a babe.” Dylan sighed. He had a job to do, a job he knew he did well. But sometimes he just hankered for a home life as well.
    Somewhere an owl hooted, and a horse responded with a sleepy nicker, but that wasn’t keeping him awake. He recalled his happy home-life as a child, two parents who’d loved him, brothers and sisters to play with, a feeling of safety and comfort. He’d learned from the start to follow the straight and narrow, that there were good men and bad, and a clear line existed between the two. His parents weren’t particularly religious; they just made sure he understood right from wrong, and that nothing was to be gained from wrongdoing. And that was how he lived. What could it have been like for Lacey and her brother when her parents died? Who had been there to guide the young pair?
    His yearning to hold her wasn’t only lust, which he had no doubt he felt, but a desire to protect her and give her comfort she most definitely deserved. As if he had no control over his own actions, he rose from his bed, quickly pulled on his pants and slowly twisted the knob of his