Adam, Devils on Horseback: Generations, Book 1 Read Online Free Page A

was far too wise for her years. He worried about her more than any of his sisters. The world wasn’t kind to people, especially women, who were different. Adam should know that. His red hair was like a beacon for people to stare, point and treat him as an oddity.
    “We should go up to supper. Mama isn’t in a good mood, so it’s best we’re on time.”
    Rose scrambled off the rock and joined him as they walked back into the house. The smell of the meal surrounded them and his stomach growled. He hadn’t eaten since breakfast that morning, when he’d set off on the ill-fated trip to deliver the flour.
    His entire life had been flipped upside down and sideways since then. The accident had cost his family a lot of money. Plus Adam had no idea what would happen with Eve. If she chose to stay, he would help her find a job and a place to live. If she chose to leave, he would make sure she went on her way safely.
    In his heart, he didn’t think he’d ever be able to leave the mill, to follow his dream to start his own business; it would take him years to pay back the money he’d lost.
    As they entered the house, he heard a tinkling sound like bells.
    Or a woman’s laugh.
    Less than an hour after weeping from exhaustion and scaring the hell out of him, she was laughing? He glanced at Rose, whose dark brows were raised. She shook her head. “I don’t believe I’ve ever heard anyone laugh like that.”
    Adam jammed his hands into his pockets and his right hand clunked against the piece of quartz he’d found during the long walk back to Tanger. He’d always been fascinated by them, ever since he was a little boy. His mother used to despair of ever washing a pair of his trousers without rocks in the pockets.
    He had a box upstairs his uncle Gideon had made for him many years ago. It had an inlay with Adam’s initials. He’d made it into his treasure box of the most precious things in his life. In addition to other items, there were a dozen very special rocks he’d collected through his life. Not because they were valuable, but because of the memories associated with them.
    Adam wasn’t sure he’d be able to save the quartz in his pocket. There were going to be memories, which was for certain. But was it the kind of memory he wanted to relive over and over?
    He made a face just as Eve walked into the dining room with a stack of plates in her hands. One look at his expression and her radiant smile faded. He barely had a chance to take in how pretty she looked with no flour dusting her skin, before she set the plates down and went back into the kitchen.
    His mother had insisted on having a separate room to eat in. She didn’t want to look at the mess from cooking the meal and instead wanted to enjoy the company of her family while they ate. The dining room became the place where their extended family came, and his uncles had built a huge table to hold at least fifteen people, more if they got cozy.
    Now there were only five people left in the house, but his sisters Mary and Ann came over at least once a month, sometimes more during the fall and winter. Adam would sometimes avoid the nearly deafening sound of his family eating a meal together.
    What he wouldn’t give for all of them to be here now. Instead, it was quiet as a tomb, now that his presence had diffused Eve’s laughter. Adam picked up the plates and started setting them around the table.
    That was when his father came in.
    Jake Sheridan had been a soldier, in the Civil War, who had immigrated to Texas after the conflict ended. He’d traveled to Tanger with his closest friends and half brothers, who called themselves the Devils on Horseback. After falling in love with Gabrielle Rinaldi, the daughter of the mill owner, Jake married and settled down.
    He was everything Adam hoped to be as a man. However, judging by everything that had transpired that day, he still had a long way to go.
    Jake was an older, bigger version of Adam, with a lighter red hair marked