Reese Read Online Free

would all follow me, I'll take you to the hotel. It's not much, but it's all we've got."
    Mary walked off toward town, where the crowd awaited. Reese studied the people who studied him. She hadn't been lying when she'd told him Rock Creek held only old men, boys, and cripples. Besides women and a man dressed in black who must be the preacher, that was all Reese saw. Rock Creek did need them, no doubt about it.
    Still, Reese hesitated, admiring the sway of Mary's skirt and the curve of her rump. She must have sensed they weren't following, because she stopped and turned with a raised brow, then caught him admiring her backside and blushed like a virgin.
    Like? Hell, she was, and off limits to him as well as the rest.
    "Coming?" she asked.
    Another snort from the jokers behind him had Reese coloring too. Not trusting his voice, he merely nodded and took a step after her, committing himself and the others to saving Rock Creek.
    * * *
    Mary's heart felt ready to burst from her chest. What had she done by bringing such men to her home? And Rock Creek was home, or would be soon enough.
    The home she'd been dreaming of all her life.
    Would these men do more harm than good? She could only hope and pray that she'd made the right decision for everyone.
    Reese caught up and walked at her side. The breath she'd been holding brushed past her lips on a sigh. The man was something special to look at, and the way he looked at her...
    She faltered a step. No one else had ever looked at her like that. Mary wasn't sure the omission was a bad thing, either, if it made her mind go mushy. She had neither the time nor the patience for nonsense.
    Reverend Clancy, Jo's father and the closest thing Rock Creek had to a mayor these days, stepped out of the crowd. Personally, Mary thought he was a pompous ass, but he was all they had for a preacher too. The way he treated Jo, his only child, sometimes made Mary want to kick the man in the shins. She was no doubt courting hell with such thoughts, but sometimes she couldn't stop them.
    "Reverend," she began.
    "Present!" shouted the drunk. Nate, Reese had called him.
    Mary glanced over her shoulder. Jo was riding the man's horse astride, holding him in the saddle with her arms around him. With her skirt hiked up, her ankles were clearly visible, and as Mary watched, Nate laid his hand on her thigh.
    "Josephine Clancy!" The reverend's impressive belly heaved with the force of his outrage, and his shock of gray hair shook like a tiny tree in a big wind.
    "Hell," Mary muttered. "We're all going there."
    Jo glanced over at her father's bellow, but she did not blanch or shirk or even remove Nate's hand from her leg. Instead, she merely nodded to her father as if he'd been greeting her politely. "I'm taking Nate to his room. He should lie down." Then she turned the horse toward the Rock Creek Hotel.
    Reverend Clancy appeared as if he were about to have heart failure. Despite his constant harangues over her behavior, Jo pretty much did as she saw fit. Her creed was "do unto others," and a more Christian soul you'd never want to meet. If her father could see past his ideas of proper, ladylike behavior, he might even be proud of the daughter he'd raised in spite of himself.
    "Reverend." Mary stepped forward as Clancy stepped in the direction of the hotel. "These are the men I hired to help us."
    Obviously torn between going after his daughter and meeting the hired guns Mary had hunted down, Clancy wavered. The reverend hadn't wanted Mary to go to Dallas. But since he wasn't willing to do anything, when she'd gotten the rest of the town to agree, he'd had no choice but to accept her plan. As a result, he wasn't too happy with Mary, but then he never had been.
    Reese stepped forward and held out his hand. "Name's Reese, Reverend."
    Clancy stared at Reese's hand as if he expected to see a snake there. Instead of shaking the proffered hand, he nodded once and put his own behind his back, out of reach of the