Masked Cowboy (Men of the White Sandy) Read Online Free Page A

love to discover what he’s got in those pants.”
    Mary Beth whistled, more to keep from saying something that her mother would have said than anything. “But back to the mask. If he didn’t get messed up in a bar brawl, how did it happen?”
    “No one knows, except maybe that little albino.” Robin shrugged, getting up to fetch two more beers. “He was gone for a month or two, and one day he rides into town wearing the mask and leading her to school on that broken-down nag. No one had ever seen her before. Mrs. Browne said that he said she was his daughter.”
    “So she’s a girl?”
    “That’s Kip. She’s always wearing the same blue pants and a baggy T-shirt.” Robin twisted the caps off both bottles and handed one to Mary Beth. “It’s like he’s trying to hide her or something.”
    “How do you hide an albino in the middle of Indian country?” But the moment she said it, she realized it was just like what he was doing with the mask and the show—hiding in plain sight.
    Why would anyone do that?
    “I don’t know. He won’t tell anyone where she came from or who her mother is—not even Ronny.”
    “She just appeared out of thin air? How the hell does that make any sense?”
    “It doesn’t,” Robin agreed. “She seems pretty slow too. Mrs. Browne says she just sits in her chair all day long, staring at whatever is in front of her.”
    “Autistic?”
    Robin nodded. “Mrs. Browne is a nice lady,” Robin went on. “She really cares about Kip, but I don’t think she understands that girl at all. At least she keeps Kip in the schoolhouse until Buck goes by.”
    “Okay, that’s the next thing. What is up with Buck McGillis?”
    “Mr. Faith Ridge? He’s a bad man, Dr. Hofstetter. You stay clear of him.”
    Mary Beth looked at the suddenly gloomy young woman drinking her third beer far too fast. “How bad?”
    “You heard the man. No one says no to Buck McGillis.”
    “I can’t stay clear of him,” she moaned. “He’s the biggest client we have—he’s like three-fourths of our entire business.”
    “He owns everything. He doesn’t own the town proper, but Faith Ridge is like a bowl in the middle of a huge ranch. He owns most of the land around the town on this side of the White Sandy.”
    “Who owns the rest?”
    “The Lakota tribe.” The word Lakota came out strong and proud, the accent even thicker as she stressed the ko . “We used to own everything, a long time ago,” Robin patiently explained. “The McGillis family has been chipping away at the edges of the reservation for decades, maybe longer.”
    “So why does Jacob work for a slime like him?”
    “To keep a Lakota hand on the land. Did you know that Jacob is the grandson of a powerful chief?”
    Mary Beth shot her a smarmy look. “You didn’t tell me that until right now.”
    “Well, a Plenty Holes has been running this tribe for a long time. Jacob is the first to step away from the Council.”
    “Because of Buck? Why?”
    “It’s not a big secret, although I wouldn’t say it to Buck’s face if I were you.” She winked. “Jacob’s a smart fellow. Went to college, got one of them—oh, you know—masters in something business—”
    “An MBA? He’s got an MBA?” Indian perfection on a horse with an MBA. Almost too good to be true, she mused.
    “Yeah,” Robin slurred, the beer finally working on her tiny body. “An MBA. He probably figures if he can just outsmart ol’ Buck there, he can steal the land back. He cut his hair and got hired. Worked up to manager real quick like too.”
    Mary Beth wondered what was more dangerous—outsmarting Buck or working for him. “Okay, Robin, why aren’t you at college?”
    “I wanna go. I really do. But Ronny needs me at the café. Our parents died a while back, and Randy and Ricky went off and married white chicks.” Mary Beth winced, but Robin kept going. “They don’t come back around much anymore, so it’s like it’s just me and Ronny. I really worry