Broken Road Read Online Free

reached in and poked the baby’s cheek, marveling at how soft it was.
       Suddenly the baby stopped crying, stared at her for a moment, and started again, this time bawling fit to scare the ranch hands away.
       Devil panicked and picked her up in her arms. She thought back to Mama and what she used to do for Lily. She sighed as she thought of just the thing. Slowly swinging the baby in her arms she started humming one of her favorite songs from the tour music.
       Devil hummed “Don’t lie to me” and soon the baby started to coo. Her soft tender voice whispered the longing lullaby lovingly and she smiled as she sang to the tiny thing in her arms.
       Lilla’s eyes soon started to drift close and she softly snored sweet baby snores. Her little hand was still curled around a fistful of Devil’s long black hair.
       Devil finally smiled and it was the tenderest one she had ever given anyone.
       “I thank your mama for giving you to me. You are the greatest gift in the world. I have a feeling that I am going to miss you when she comes to take you back,” Devil whispered to the sleeping baby. Softly she pressed a kiss to the infant’s forehead. The baby sighed and settled against her.
       She continued to rock the baby and hummed softly. She sang to Lilla until she knew she asleep and put her into the crib. She watched Lilla for a moment as another rare smile crossed her lips. She now had a family, even if it was just her and the baby.
       However her smile faded as she thought of Lilla’s father. He wasn’t going to let Devil have the baby if his attitude was any indication. They both had rights to her as parents, but his was by blood and her’s was by paper, even if she was Lilla’s aunt.
       She would have to sit aside her fear of men and try to get along with the grumpy old man.
       How did he become so bitter? Now that she thought about it, it would seem that her sister left him before the baby was born and before she disappeared. Maybe Wylde leaving him made him into a women hater.
       Silently she slipped out of the room and down to the stairs to the main room of the lowest level of the ranch house. She wandered around the main room, staring at every single wall she could find in search of something that could make this place a home.
       They all turned up empty, bare of any kind of pictures or frames. No family portraits, or pictures, no singles either, just nothing. For such a big house you would think see people everywhere, but there was no one, but Lilla and Mr. Canter.
       Strange, Devil thought as she glided by. She shot a glance to the chair he had sat in before she had made him get up, from in front of the fire. It seemed to be the only personal area in site. And calling it a personal zone was going a bit far.
       The house felt like all other place she had been in her life. Empty, even if there were millions of people around. This house was not a home.

Chapter Seven
     
     
     
    Light footsteps rang dully on the polished oak stairs and Winthrop sighed. Apparently it was too much to hope she had gone to bed. He waited for her to come closer to him and speak.
       Before to long there she stood, in his old college sweats and one of his favorite t-shirts. Her long black hair was still a bit damp; she looked both small and frail with her arms hugged tightly around her chest that way. With her back to the fire Winthrop could see the gently curved outline of her body through the white shirt.
       Suddenly her distance from his and her pose made sense to him.
       Good God, she was afraid of him!
       He tried not to let his shock show. About to say something he opened his mouth, but she beat him to it.
       “Thank you,” she said quietly, watching him closely. “For letting us stay here for the night, I mean,” she added quickly.
       He frowned. “What do you mean for ‘tonight’?”
       She shifted under his gaze. “Um…well, I can’t imagine you want us