The Renegades: Cole Read Online Free Page B

anger. Most of it stemmed from the fact that she had very little right to be angry at all, but she wasn’t about to admit that to him.
    He cocked his head to one side and looked her up and down again.
    “But you did follow me,” he said wryly. “Obviously, I can run but I can’t hide.”
    Slight chagrin tinged her anger, and she turned away so he wouldn’t see it. Honestly, he was being rather patient with her, since she was following him around town accosting him at every turn. Maybe women pursued him all the time, since he was handsome enough to stop a beating heart.
    “Tell me, Miss Benton,” he said, leaning close to her as the din grew louder, “why me
again?
I have refused your request. There must be fifty other men, at least, right here in this one place. Why don’t you take ‘no’ for an answer and simply go find yourself another bodyguard?”
    His breath felt warm on her ear. A thrill passed through her, made her shiver. She moved a bit away from him and lifted one hand to signal the bartender, as she’d just seen someone else do.
    “Lemonade, please.”
    “If you’re man enough to come into a saloon, you ought to be man enough to order whiskey,” he snapped.
    “I have to keep my wits about me.”
    She waited for her drink without looking athim, but she could feel his eyes assessing her profile.
    “Why not get someone else? Answer me, Aurora.”
    He had never called her by her given name before, but there was no thrill in it—the cold hardness in his voice could have cut wood.
    She spun around.
    “How many of these men in here are trustworthy, Cole? How many wouldn’t leave me and my men tied to a tree or dead in a coulee somewhere, run new brands onto my cattle and start their
own
ranch in Texas? How could I know which one to trust?”
    “You don’t know me. I might do the same.”
    “Never. You’re a Texas Ranger.”
    His full lips tightened, a sharp shadow passed through his eyes.
    “Not any more.”
    “You still have honor, though. I’ve asked a lot of people about you.”
    “You wasted your time. Nobody knows me.”
    He held her gaze with a long, hard look. His eyes turned black, filled with thoughts she couldn’t read, but she looked back at him steadily, not flinching, not giving an inch.
    “Many men have honor,” he said shortly. “You live around here. You know many who do.”
    The bartender brought a mug of lemonade. She sighed and leaned toward Cole, reaching for her glass with both hands, willing the few pieces of ice in it to cool the heat of rising anticipationbuilding in her blood. A person couldn’t make assumptions about Cole McCord, this much she had already learned about him, so the fact that he was actually testing her reasons for offering the job to him didn’t mean anything. But maybe it did.
    “Look, Mr. McCord, I know you think I’m crazy, I know you’re sick of my annoying you, but I’m desperate. We’re talking about my survival here. My only hope for a decent life is to try to get to Texas with twenty-two hundred head of cattle, five cowboys, and an old man and two youngsters, counting Skeeter, who’s all crippled up from a horse wreck. I can’t pay any more hands than that, so I have to ride scout myself, and I can’t do that and keep constant watch.”
    “Sell something and hire some more men.”
    “I’ve sold all I can. And what money I’ve saved would be much better spent on you, considering your abilities and your reputation.”
    He shrugged. “Maybe.”
    “No maybes. I know it. Who better to protect me than the most dangerous man in Colorado?”
    He gave a derisive snort.
    “My reputation won’t help you any—it’ll just attract every would-be outlaw like Kid Dolby who can beg, borrow, or steal a horse to ride out to meet your herd.”
    She gripped the mug hard to steady her hands. Dear Lord, please let this discussionmean he was seriously thinking of agreeing to come with her.
    “Your reputation will work the opposite way, too,