Thunderhead Trail Read Online Free Page B

laugh.”
    â€œDon’t do what? Like your tits?”
    Candice did more laughing, only softer, and leaned into him. “Damn, my face hurts like hell.”
    â€œMaybe you shouldn’t talk, then.”
    â€œNo, that’s all right.” She paused. “So why
are
you being so nice? No one else helped. The men in this town have as much backbone as oatmeal. And the others here for the bounty didn’t butt in, either.”
    â€œThere’s that word again,” Fargo said.
    â€œWhich?”
    â€œBounty.”
    Candice tilted her face to him. “Isn’t that why you’re here?”
    â€œI was just passing through.”
    â€œOh my. And you came to the aid of a poor, defenseless maiden. Just like that Ivanhoe in that book.”
    â€œI’m not a knight in shining armor,” Fargo said flatly.
    â€œWhat are you then?”
    â€œRandy,” Fargo said.
    Candice tried to stop herself from laughing but couldn’t. “Damn you. Will you cut that out?” She took a deep breath. “Take a right at the next corner. We’re almost there.”
    Fargo had glimpsed faces peering out at them from the windows of businesses and homes.
    Candice saw them, too. “Bunch of rabbits. Although I suppose I can’t blame them. Those Hollisters are as mean as anything.” She leaned against him even more, until he was supporting most of her weight.
    â€œDo you need me to carry you?” Fargo asked. He admired her grit almost as much as he admired her tits.
    â€œI’m tuckered out, is all,” Candice said. But that didn’t stop her from saying, “That bounty I mentioned is for a bull. There’s a man, Jim Tyler. He started up the first cattle ranch in these parts about, oh, a year or so ago. A couple of months back he brought in a stud bull all the way from Texas. He paid twenty thousand dollars for it, or so folks say.”
    Fargo whistled.
    â€œI know. That’s more than most folks make in a lifetime. But now the bull has gone missing and Tyler is beside himself. He thinks it wandered off into the mountains. If he can’t find it he’s out all that money, and from what I hear, he doesn’t have enough to buy another. So he’s doing the next best thing.”
    â€œWhich is?”
    â€œOffering a bounty to anyone who finds his bull and brings it back safe and sound. You should give it a try.”
    â€œIt would take a heap of money to get me to go after some bull,” Fargo said. “How much bounty are we talking about?”
    â€œFive thousand dollars.”
    Fargo whistled again.
    â€œIs that heap enough for you?”
    Fargo thought of the whiskey he could buy and the doves he could treat himself to and the poker games he could sit in on, and had to admit, “It just might be.”

8
    Her room was in a boardinghouse, at the rear. She asked him to take her in the back way so no one would see her face.
    Fargo obliged her. He knew how some women were about their looks. No one was in the hall and he slipped her into her room and over to her bed. He went to ease her down but the moment he loosened his hold, she collapsed onto her side.
    Candice groaned and uttered a slight sound, as if she might break into tears.
    â€œYou all right?”
    â€œBe back on my feet in no time,” Candice said with her good eye closed.
    â€œAnything I can fetch you?”
    â€œAll I want now is to sleep.”
    Fargo turned to leave but she suddenly showed some life and snatched his hand.
    â€œI want to thank you, again, for what you did. It was sweet.”
    â€œI’m many things,” Fargo said, “but not that.”
    â€œStill.” Candice mustered a lopsided smile. The half of her face that was swollen wouldn’t move. “When I’m up to it, and if you’re still around, I’ll treat you to a night you won’t forget.”
    â€œNight, hell,” Fargo said with a grin. “How