Gunslinger. Angi Morgan

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СКАЧАТЬ opened his palm, taking a step closer.

      Fred dug deep in his jeans pocket for the set of keys. He held them in a tight fist, not forking them over. “Maybe I should drive? That old motor gets kind of cranky.”

      “Thanks, but I think I’ll get there faster on my own.” Wherever there happened to be. “Pick it up at my place tomorrow.”

      Fred tossed. Bryce caught and hit the dirt running. Already tired, he should have been drinking a gallon of water to rehydrate. A slight headache had begun. Not to mention the idiot burn he had thanks to Jesse’s suggestion of taking his shirt off.

      He shifted the truck into High and skidded to a halt at the end of the long private driveway.

      “Which way?”

      His cell had no reception. No GPS. They might have counted on that. But he had the map he’d downloaded of the area. With details. Lots of details.

      Kylie was headed to the northeast portion of Richard’s property. Why would she go there? He enlarged the map and knew...there was no road that passed from US 281 on the west side of the Richard’s place to County Road 238 on the east.

      It would delay him to double back toward Hico and try to cut her off.

      “Where will I find her?”

      Had she made arrangements to be picked up on the country road? Was she just going to hoof it to the next town? It wasn’t an impossible idea. But a faster way to disappear would be to hitch a ride. And if she walked the county roads northwest, she’d hit Highway 67 with plenty of traffic.

      Everything rested with him making a logical guess.

      He turned right instead of left back to town and pushed the truck harder than it had been pushed in a while. It sputtered a bit, but got the job done. The cooler air of twilight passed through the open windows. When he turned again, he could smell hay and cattle.

      Working around Mrs. Mackey’s house for the past couple of weeks had brought back a lot of memories. The third time he’d called his mom, she’d asked him what was wrong and had kidded him about being homesick.

      Homesick? He couldn’t wait to leave his family’s acreage and pass on his riding lawn mower duties to his younger brothers. They’d all left the house and were spread out across the country now, settled with families or kids on the way. He rested his elbow on the door and tapped a drum solo on the old-fashioned vent window.

      Darkness was slowly growing. The moon wouldn’t rise for quite a while so it might be harder to see someone walking in the fields. He’d taken the most direct route to the next county road Kylie might be on. He turned right again and kept the truck in second gear.

      Reminiscing was fine, but his job was to find Kylie Scott. After he got her back to headquarters in Waco, he’d find out how Fred and Richard had known about his cover. The only person who supposedly knew was Mrs. Mackey. Why would she tell anyone?

      It was dark enough that unless Kylie had a flashlight, he wouldn’t be able to see her. He continued along the road at a normal pace for the truck. How would he explain this wild situation to Major Parker?

      If she disappeared again on his watch, he might not have to explain anything to anyone.

      * * *

      THE DAY HAD already been long and exhausting before Kylie had started traipsing through uneven fields in her tennis shoes. She couldn’t rush. There was no flashlight or even a penlight in her bag. And it was just her luck that tonight there wasn’t even a moon.

      Hours after leaving the horse, her legs were cramping and she was thirstier than she’d ever been. And hot. There was no breeze to cool the sweat that dripped in buckets down her back. She’d pulled her color contacts and stowed them in her bag.

      She’d avoided the roads, but kept them just to her left. No one had driven past her. Or at least she hadn’t heard any vehicles. The birds she’d come across had practically scared her senseless.

      Each time she’d carefully squeezed between the strands of wire fence from one field to the other, her fingers were crossed that there wouldn’t be a bull or something more dangerous in her path. She pulled herself through the last pieces of barbed wire fencing and picked up her bag, straightening and stretching her back.

      The hardest part of the hike was done. She could follow this road to the closest thing this area had to a highway—a two-lane blacktop. Then all she had to do was hitch a ride and she was...

      She was what?

      The word free kept trying to finish the sentence. But she wasn’t free. If she was free to choose where she wanted to live, it would be Hico. She’d never felt more at home in a community. They accepted that she didn’t talk about her time before living there. They really didn’t know anything about her.

      At least not the previous her. The Sissy Jorgenson her. Such a fake. It had taken a while, but Sissy had been laid to rest with all the cool kids she’d hung out with.

      Unfortunately, Sissy wouldn’t have had anything to do with Kylie Scott. And she wouldn’t have waited two weeks to have a fling with the guy across the street. One look at his body and Sissy would have been all over him.

      Bryce was nice looking. He was also a Texas Ranger ready to take her back to Austin whether she liked it or not. It didn’t matter if she knew about the Tenoreno family business. The attorneys five years ago had offered her protection in exchange for information.

      Did they really think she would have walked away so quickly if she’d known enough to put those men behind bars?

      Blinding headlights popped on in front of her.

      “I was just coming to look for you.” Bryce’s voice came from next to Fred’s truck. “You going to run again?”

      “Mind shutting off the floodlights?” Kylie saw his silhouette lean through the window and everything got dark again.

      With no place to go and no energy to run, she accepted the setback, but not defeat. Somehow, she’d get away from Bryce Johnson and get on with another new start.

      “Want a ride?” he asked with an air of innocence.

      “Yes, if you’re heading back to Hico.”

      “It’s on the way to Waco.” He casually leaned against Fred’s pickup.

      “How long have you been waiting?”

      “At least an hour.” Bryce tapped the old green truck. “Did the horse throw you or something during your evening ride? Get turned around finding your friend’s house or the way back? I know you weren’t attempting to run away. Right?”

      She didn’t need to answer. He was making fun of her so she glared at him, even though he couldn’t see the glare in the dark. She wrapped her arms around her bag, almost afraid he might arrest her on the spot.

      “Are you as starved as me? Or did Lisa give you something before you left?” Bryce continued, fingers tapping out an unknown rhythm against the old metal truck.

      “I’m actually starved. СКАЧАТЬ