Heart of Texas Volume One Read Online Free

flash flood, they’d been swept away in a matter of moments and drowned. Never would he forget the day Sheriff Frank Hennessey had come to deliver the tragic news. So it wasn’t that Grady didn’t trust Savannah, but her disappearance that afternoon had brought back memories he wished he could forget.
    But it was more than the memory of his parents’ accident that had distressed him. For three or four months now his sister had been asking him about the ghost town. In the beginning he’d answered her questions and hadn’t given her curiosity much thought, but when she persisted, he’d asked her a few questions of his own. That was when she mentioned the old roses. Damn fool woman was willing to risk her neck over something as…as unimportant as flowers. If that didn’t beat all, he didn’t know what did.
    Grady had warned her plenty, not that it’d done any good. Hell, he couldn’t have found the abandoned frontier town again had he tried. The one and only time he’d ever stepped foot in Bitter End, he’d been about fifteen. Grady and the two Patterson brothers had overheard their parents talking about a ghost town somewhere up in the hills. Without their parents’ knowledge the boys had decided to go exploring, to find the place for themselves.
    Grady and his friends had set out, thinking it all a grand adventure. As he recalled, they’d spent weeks looking, and when they finally stumbled on the ghost town, it’d spooked them so badly they’d never discussed that day again.
    Grady didn’t believe in ghosts; he wasn’t a superstitious man. But the town was haunted by something he’d been too young to name or understand, something he didn’t full comprehend even now. An unfamiliar sensation had descended on him that day, and not only him, but the others, too. He remembered the silence that had come over them, how they’d whispered to each other as if they were afraid someone could hear. He remembered a feeling of deep sadness and an ambiguous kind of threat. It hadn’t made sense then and made even less sense now.
    What mattered was his sister, and Grady didn’t want her wandering around in the country alone in search of some half-dead flowers. Especially if it meant she was wandering around in Bitter End.
    â€œWould you care for another helping?” Savannah asked Laredo, breaking into Grady’s thoughts.
    Laredo planted his hands on his stomach and shook his head. “As delicious as it is, I don’t think I could manage another mouthful. As I said earlier, this is one of the best meals I’ve had in years. I hope your brother appreciates what a fine cook you are.”
    Even from across the table Grady could feel Savannah’s pleasure at the other man’s remark. It sounded genuine, but Grady suspected Laredo Smith was a consummate con man, who knew a good thing when he saw it. It was clear to Grady, if no one else, that Laredo Smith was out to take advantage of his sister. Not that he had a raindrop’s chance in hell of doing so as long as Grady lived and breathed. The drifter could sweet-talk some other rancher’s sister. He’d get nowhere with Savannah; Grady would personally see to that.
    â€œI’ll help with the dishes,” Laredo offered.
    Grady resisted suggesting that Laredo was laying it on a little thick, but he was already out of Savannah’s good graces and she wouldn’t appreciate his sarcasm.
    â€œI’ll do the dishes later,” Savannah said. “It’s more important that I take care of the roses.”
    â€œI could help you with that,” he suggested next, and then, as if qualifying his statement, he added, “My grandmother let me help her.”
    â€œThat…that would be lovely.”
    Grady couldn’t recall the last time he’d seen his sister this flustered.
    Like a schoolboy eager to please his teacher, Laredo stood and carried