Wild Horses Read Free Page A

in the forest,” he said. “I need to get hold of Triple A and have them get my truck.” How the hell was he going to accomplish his arrest? Call his boss in Phoenix and tell him he’d screwed up again? Send a posse. Jake Breton was incapable of accomplishing the easiest task. This was his only chance to redeem himself, and he’d already messed up.
    “You’re in no condition to travel tonight. I’ll take you into town in the morning because I need to see the sheriff myself.” She studied him for a minute. “I don’t think you’re going to try anything. But, just so you know, there’s no silver to steal. And I’m not alone. Mar — my brother’s girlfriend is here.”
    Jake put a big spoonful of cold watermelon into his mouth to hide his surprise. Martin’s girlfriend? Why hadn’t he realized there might be a woman in Castillo’s life? Had the sun addled his brain? In all the reports he’d read there was very little mention of the Castillo women. Apparently, the women hadn’t joined in the family crimes. Was the sister a good enough actress she didn’t know her brother was wanted for shooting two BLM men? Or that when the local sheriff came to take Martin in for questioning, he went missing? “So, where’s your brother?”
    “Not a clue.” Her full lips trembled and she pinched them together. Jake’s cynical heart softened a fraction as he watched her obvious distress. “Someone — his girlfriend, I think — called and said Martin’s horses were going hungry. There’s no way he’d neglect his animals. He loves them more than anything. So I came running.”
    “What does this girlfriend say?”
    She frowned. “I don’t know. I can’t get anything out of her.”
    Jake set down his spoon, appetite gone. His free hand went to his shoulder like a ship to a beacon. She sounded so sincere Jake wanted to believe her. But he’d been fooled before. A pretty face and big, soft eyes could go a long ways toward tricking a man.
    He’d not make the mistake of trusting too easily ever again.

Chapter Two
    Jake came awake with a jolt. His mouth felt like he’d brushed his teeth with a branch from a palo verde tree, and his skin stretched too tight over his aching bones. There was no clock, but by the moonlight shining through the window, he gauged the time to be around midnight. He swung his feet to the floor, wincing when they hit the hardwood. Although sore and blistered, he felt a hell of a lot better than he had out in the forest.
    He staggered to his feet, swaying when he came upright.
    A skinny blonde girl with a big belly opened the door. “Do you need something?”
    His skin prickled. Martin’s girlfriend. Had she been standing guard on him? He searched his foggy brain for her name. Rosemary. No, Roseanne. That wasn’t it. Some oddball name. Briar Rose. Yeah, that was it. “A john. Water. Tylenol.”
    She slipped under his arm, and he leaned on her pretending to be unsteadier than he actually was. Maybe she’d open up to him if she thought him weak and sick. “The bathroom’s down here.” A faint flush colored her cheeks. “I’ll wait, then help you back to bed.”
    “I need a shower.”
    “Okay. Call me if you need me.” She darted away.
    As Jake downed what seemed like half of the Colorado River from the tap, then stripped out of his shorts and stepped into a shower, his thoughts turned to Briar Rose. Very young and fragile looking. Skinny to the point of anorexic, with long, pale hair hanging around her face she looked like a ghost. Had this angelic-looking young woman helped Martin Castillo murder the two BLM agents sent to check on the Apache-Sitgreave mustangs? Was she hiding Martin now? Jake hoped not, but he wouldn’t be surprised either. He rubbed his shoulder. Women sometimes did the strangest things for love — steal, lie, kill, for instance.
    He toweled off, found a bottle of Tylenol under the sink and swallowed a couple.
    Jake finished and opened the door. Briar Rose was