Hope Read Online Free Page A

don’t want anywhere near you!” Boris laughed.
    Dan backed his horse away from the coach as a bronze-booted foot searched for the stage step.
    Dressed in a brown traveling dress with a straw hat perched atop her ebony hair, the young woman slowly exited the stage. For a moment, Dan couldn’t take his eyes off her. He’d seen his share of good-looking women in his day, but this one was a rare jewel. Safe on the ground, she brushed at her skirt, glancing from one gang member to another, her gaze finally fastening on him.
    Dan drew a resigned breath, looking away.
    There was only one problem: this woman wasn’t Anne Ferry.

Chapter Two
    The dark-haired beauty struggled against the burly outlaw who had slung her over his shoulder like a sack of feed. Dan watched the exchange, helpless to intervene. If he tipped his hand, he and the girl would both be shot.
    “Stop fighting me, girlie!” Big Joe dragged Hope toward his waiting horse. “Frog, tie up that driver and guard!”
    “Hold it a minute.” Joe whirled at the sound of Grunt’s voice. Dan met his eyes with a grave warning.
    “How do we know she’s Thomas Ferry’s daughter?”
    Dan had met Anne Ferry at a social event at the senator’s mansion in Lansing a couple of years back. While Anne was an attractive young woman, she couldn’t hold a candle to this dark-haired beauty pummeling Joe’s back.
    Slim and fine boned, she was a striking enchantress. A cloud of black hair framed her pretty heart-shaped face. Eyes—an unusual shade of violet—were wide beneath her flowered straw hat, but not with fear. Stubbornness. Dan could spot obstinacy a mile off. This woman was going to fight Joe Davidson every step of the way.
    “It is Miss Ferry—paper said so,” declared Joe.
    Dan met the girl’s headstrong gaze as Big Joe let her down off his shoulder. “Are you Anne Ferry?”
    “Certainly not!”
    “She is too!”
    Dan shot Boris a short glance. “She says she isn’t.”
    “Well, she’s lyin’ through her teeth. Look here.” Boris picked up the turquoise purse lying in the coach seat and rummaged through its contents. Holding up a gold locket, he asked smugly, “What’s this say?”
    Dan frowned when he read the initials: A. F. How did this young woman come to be in possession of Anne Ferry’s personal effects?
    The girl watched the spectacle, tapping her foot. “Anne was on the stage, but she had to leave when her chaperone fell ill and—”
    “She’s lyin’!”
    “I am not!”
    “Are too! You’d say anythin’ to save yore hide!”
    Dan’s sharp command broke up the spirited debate. “We can’t just take a woman hostage without knowing her identity.” That’s all Dan needed—a woman thrown into this insane mission to up the ante.
    The girl wasn’t Anne Ferry, but he had little choice but to play along and stay close enough to keep her from harm. Thomas Ferry wasn’t going to pay money for a daughter who wasn’t missing.
    “Well, well.” Big Joe rubbed his beefy hands together, studying his prize. “Yore a purty little dish. Papa’s gonna pay a handsome sum to get you back.”
    Crossing her arms, Hope glared at him. “I can’t imagine why. I’m not Anne Ferry. My name is Hope Kallahan.”
    Big Joe snickered. “Is not.”
    “Is too.”
    “Is not!”
    “I am not Thomas Ferry’s daughter!” Hope stamped her foot.
    “’Course you’d say that!”
    Dan shook his head, turning his horse. Now he had four of them on his hands.
    “Frog! Get Miss Ferry’s valise,” Big Joe ordered. “She’ll need duds.”
    The silent outlaw climbed atop the stage and started rifling through the baggage. Grinning in triumph, Frog lifted up a green carpetbag a moment later.
    Joe nodded. “Says A. F. That’s hers all right.”
    Dan watched the exchange. Where was Anne Ferry, and why was her bag still on the stage? Was foul play involved? He studied the young woman, who was engaged in another heated dispute with Joe. Exactly what was going on