Laying Down the Law Read Online Free

away when they reached the top.
    He waved his hat at his brothers who both stood in their stirrups, too far away for her to read their expressions. But Gabe lifted a hand, and Colt pulled the reins to the side, pointing the horse toward the ranch house.
    As he urged the horse into a canter, Zuri hoped she hadn’t made an even bigger mistake than running from the law and David Satterly. As cold as Colt was acting, he might be tempted to turn her in without hearing her out first.
    And that was something she couldn’t let happen. Not with some of the cash from the robbery stuffed into the glove compartment of her car, and a flimsy story about a stalker she’d never taken the time to properly report.
    Perhaps for now, she’d be better off keeping her secrets to herself. At least until she figured out whether she could trust Colt with the truth.

Chapter Four
    Once his bathroom door closed, Colt headed to the front porch to put as much space between himself and Zuri as possible. Riding all the way back to the ranch house with her warm, damp body pressed against his back did things to him he wasn’t ready to face.
    He gripped the porch rail and stared out over the yard, watching Eddie Sandoval in the far corral as he walked Diego until he cooled. He wished it could be so easy to cool down his own hot blood. Seeing her again after all this time, on this particular day when he’d been ready to move on and put the past to rest—it was too ironic. God had to be playing him.
    Closing his eyes, he could still see her sweet curves as she’d stood in the water facing that bull. Still tall, still reed-thin and supple. Her breasts, crowned with small cherry-red nipples—hell, he could feel the tight little points digging into his naked back.
    In the distance, the tattoo of hooves eating up the ground pulled his gaze. Gabe was riding hard for the house.
    Colt wondered what the hell had kept him. Knowing his brothers, they’d already figured out who she was and had drawn straws to see who would kick her butt to town.
    Gabe drew his horse to a halt in front of the house, threw a leg over the saddle horn, slid to the ground and flipped his reins around the porch rail.
    “How many times do I have to tell you that rail isn’t a hitchin’ post?” Colt said, keeping his voice even.
    Gabe shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe it’ll take a couple hundred more times for it to sink in. And don’t change the subject.” When he strode up the steps, he pulled a scrap of pink lace from his pocket.
    Colt groaned inwardly.
    “Not your color, bro,” Gabe said, tossing him the pink panties. “Wasn’t Old Mule’s either.”
    “Don’t start,” Colt growled, not liking the way his brother’s face was already wearing his bulldog expression. Not liking the fact that he understood Gabe’s animosity to the naked woman in his shower.
    “It’s her, ain’t it?”
    “If you mean Zuri, yeah,” Colt said slowly.
    Gabe’s cheeks were stained with ruddy color. “Couldn’t you wait to get her to the house to strip her raw?”
    “That’s not what happened.”
    “Then tell me how the girl who left you high and dry twelve years ago was ridin’ naked behind you.”
    “She wasn’t. I gave her my shirt.”
    Gabe’s chest rose around a deep breath. “Colt…”
    Colt’s cheeks billowed around his own exasperated breath. “I don’t know myself. I found her in the creek that way. Old Mule tromped all over her clothes.”
    “Blamin’ it on a bull?”
    “No, it’s what happened.”
    “Did you know she was comin’ back?”
    “Of course not.”
    Gabe’s expression lost some of its tension. His narrowed gaze relented, softening. “Damn, seein’ her again knocked you for a loop, didn’t it?”
    Colt’s glance slid back to the paddock. “Somethin’ like that.”
    Gabe leaned against the porch rail, folding his arms across his chest. “Maybe you should leave her to Tommy and me to handle,” he said, his tone deceptively even and soft.