MM02 - Until Morning Comes Read Free Page A

midsentence and looked at Colter. “Jezebel's jewels! It's Toronto! Jo Beth, hide in the closet. Sara, where's my gun?”
    Silas dropped the dessert plates to the floor, and then stared down at the broken dishes as if he couldn't figure out where they'd come from.
    Jo Beth turned to her mother. “Toronto?”
    Sarah shrugged. “Yesterday, Rooster Cogburn; today, the Lone Badger.”
    Hearing his name, Silas started around the table toward Colter.
    Jo Beth intercepted him. “Now, Dad, this man is not Toronto. He's our guest. Don't you remember? Dr. Colter Gray.”
    She caught his arm, but although he was seventy-six years old, Silas was still strong. He broke loose and launched himself at Colter.
    “I took you prisoner. How did you escape?”
    “Dad, I—”
    Colter shook his head at her. He stood up and held the old man's shoulders. “You were very brave to capture me like that. Most men don't have the courage you do.”
    “I'm brave, all right. You didn't think of that when you got out of the outhouse to mess with my daughter, did you?” He twisted his head to look at his wife. “Sara, help me get this prisoner back in the outhouse where he belongs.”
    “I'm begging you for mercy, Mr. McGill.” Colter spoke with the sincerity of a contrite prisoner. “You look like a just man. If you'll let me leave, I promise that I will disappear into the desert, and you'll never see me again.”
    “We could have made a good team, you and me, but I didn't count on you getting sweet on my daughter. She's just sixteen. I don't want some derned savage taking her captive.”
    “I promise I will not take your daughter captive.”
    “You won't touch her?”
    “No.”
    “Then you can go.”
    “Let's seal the bargain with a handshake.”
    Colter checked Silas's pulse under the guise of shaking his hand. It was a little fast, but not alarming. And his eyes didn't look so wild now. Cautiously, he released the man and stepped back.
    Jo Beth started toward him, but he shook his head and continued his walk toward the front door. He didn't even say, “Thank you for dinner,” for fear of setting Silas McGill off again.
    He didn't make a sound as he walked from the dining room and through the den. He moved so swiftly and quietly, they didn't even hear the squeaky screen door close behind him.
    Jo Beth stared after him for five seconds before turning her attention back to her father. He was sitting calmly at the table, cutting himself a huge hunk of cherry pie, his prisoner already forgotten now that he was out of sight.
    “Have some pie, Jo Beth. And whatever happened to your guest? Didn't he stay for dessert?”
    “No, Dad. He had to leave early.” She glanced toward her mother. “Mom?”
    “Go after him, darling.”
    Jo Beth ran toward the door, stopping in the den long enough to jerk the Jeep keys off the top of the sideboard. By the time she reached the front porch, she was breathless. Nerves, that's what it was.
    In order to regain her composure, she leaned against a rough-hewn porch post and stared into the darkness. She sensed rather than heard the movement, and suddenly Colter was standing in the path of feeble light cast by the naked bulb on the front porch.
    “I promised not to take you captive, but don't tempt me.”

 
     
    Chapter Two
    The sound of his voice caused her to lose her breath again.
    “I waited for you,” he said.
    “How did you know I'd come?”
    “I knew.”
    She gazed into his face and wished God hadn't put another perfect man in her path. Colter tempted her to try one more time, just once more, to see if there really was such a thing as sparks and to find out whether she could get them to fly. She sighed. Lord, she didn't have time for sparks anymore. She didn't have time for anything except her job and looking after her parents.
    “I'm here,” she said. “But don't get your hopes up.”
    “I had my heart set on a ride with you, Jo Beth.”
    A hundred images came to her mind, all of them