An Outlaw To Protect Her. Harper George St.

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ would’ve been paying more attention to his surroundings on the morning he was shot had Caroline not been with him. He might’ve noticed Derringer sooner. Instead, Derringer had gotten the best of him and left him with a bullet wound in his abdomen. Caroline, who was studying to be a physician, had stitched him up. Though Castillo seemed to be on the mend, they weren’t out of the woods yet as infection could seep in at any time. It just proved the point that men like them had no business with women. Well, not for more than a casual affair. Anything more intense would be too risky.

      “How are you feeling?” he asked, jarring the couple apart.

      “Like I got shot in the gut,” Castillo said in his slightly accented English. “But I’ll live thanks to the doc here.”

      Caroline grinned and brushed back a strand of black hair that had fallen across his forehead. “Not a doctor yet, but soon.”

      She was being too modest. She’d spent her childhood apprenticing under her father, and Zane had seen firsthand how efficiently she’d worked on Castillo. She knew what she was doing. “We’re thankful you were here,” Zane said, walking farther into the room to stand with a hip leaned against a bureau.

      Hunter sat in a chair beside the bed. “Caroline says he’ll be stable enough that we can move him to the town house in the morning.”

      Zane nodded his agreement. The town house was more secure, and they’d be able to post their men around it. So far it seemed that Derringer had been alone and no one would come to avenge his death, but they needed to take precautions just to be sure. Not to mention the fact that the clinic was essentially attached to the brothel. The Jameson name and wealth could only protect Caroline’s reputation for so long. If she had any hope of showing her face in polite society again, they needed to get her away from Victoria House soon.

      “Let’s move him before dawn then,” Zane said. “Less people around to worry about.”

      As they made plans for moving Castillo, Zane realized that this really would be his last night in Victoria House. His last night close to Glory. His last chance to explore the strange attraction between them. But she’d been so careful to never let him get close, he didn’t know how he was going to make that happen. She never let anyone get too close. As far as he could tell, Able was the only one she trusted. At first, he’d been able to respect that. He knew how it felt to keep others at a distance. He’d done it himself most of his life. But staying at Victoria House for the past week had made him want things with her that were better left unexplored.

      If only he could heed his own advice.

      Part of him knew that he should let it go, but another part, a stronger part, of him wondered if there was something holding her back. Some reason that she wouldn’t approach him even though she was clearly interested. Damn, he’d give anything to know her secrets. She kept herself so guarded they were impossible to figure out. One night wouldn’t be nearly enough time.

      “Glory?” Hunter’s voice made Zane jerk his head up. He found Glory standing in the doorway as if his thoughts had somehow conjured her. She wore the same emerald green gown from earlier. Her deep red hair was piled impeccably atop her head. She was easily the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. It was more than her looks though. It was the way she held herself, the way she ran the brothel with confidence and competency. She was like a queen.

      Only when he looked closer did he notice the tension lines around her mouth and the worry lines creasing her brow. She seemed pale. He pushed away from the bureau, ready to chase Harvey down for whatever he’d done to her, but her voice stopped him.

      “How are you feeling, Castillo?” she asked, doing her best to put on a calm facade.

      “Much better, thank you,” Castillo answered.

      “Thank you so much for opening your home to us.” Caroline came around the foot of the bed. To her credit, she extended her hand toward Glory as if she didn’t care the woman was a brothel madam. “I’ve never seen the hospital in town, but the stories make me fear what would’ve happened had we taken him there. Your setup here is one of the nicest I’ve seen. It rivals my father’s own practice back in Boston.”

      Glory smiled and shook her hand. “Please don’t thank me. It’s the least I could do. I’m happy everything’s turned out well.”

      Hunter added, “We’re indebted to you, as usual. If you ever need anything—”

      “Actually, I do need your help,” Glory said, turning her attention from Caroline to Hunter. Zane noted she managed not to look at him even though he stood close to Hunter. He couldn’t help but feel she did it purposefully.

      “Anything. What do you need?” Hunter asked as he came to his feet.

      “If you and Mr. Pierce could come to my study as soon as possible, I’d be grateful.”

      Mr. Pierce. She’d only called him by his given name once. It had happened last week when he and Castillo had captured a man who’d been following them and brought him to her storeroom to interrogate. She’d been so angry at them for daring to endanger her ladies, and she’d forgotten her resolve to only use his last name. It wasn’t much, but he’d decided to call it progress and he’d made it his mission to get her to call him Zane again.

      “Has something happened?” Zane asked.

      She finally looked at him, her eyes going slightly wider as she took a deep breath. He couldn’t be sure with the low lighting but he’d bet that he could see the pulse in her throat flickering. Her tongue came out to moisten her lips and something deep inside him clenched.

      But aside from the anger, he saw fear in the depths of her eyes and it raised the hair on the back of his neck. “Are you in danger, Glory?” he asked.

      “Please come to my study. I—I’ll tell you both everything.” She turned and left without giving him a chance to say anything more.

      Now there was an invitation he couldn’t refuse.

       Chapter Three

      Glory rushed across the courtyard toward the sanctity of her study as fast as she could without rousing suspicion. Only she couldn’t really think of it as her safe place anymore after someone had broken into it. As she fled she could still hear the echo of Zane’s deep voice reverberating within her. She didn’t just hear his voice, she felt it, bouncing off the hollows inside her and smoothing out their edges. He’d been wreaking havoc on her emotional state all week without even realizing it. She wanted him to leave so that she could stop thinking about him, but the thought of possibly never seeing him again made her feel bereft.

      It wasn’t his fault she couldn’t stop thinking about him. Glory couldn’t even figure out why he affected her so. It had simply always been that way and she couldn’t stop whatever he did to her as much as she wanted to. Instead of trying anymore, she simply ignored it.

      Grabbing the key from her pocket with more force than was strictly necessary, she shoved it into the lock of her study door and pushed it open, half expecting someone to pop out at her. It was as empty as it had been before, and that damned letter was still on her desk except this time it was open just as she’d left it. From across the room, her gaze caught on those five little words.

       I know who you are. СКАЧАТЬ