To Hell and Back Read Online Free Page B

come to her lips.
    “Whatever you say.” He turned away, rejoining the sheriff at the door.  
    Stunned, Amanda turned back to Jake, her face hardening, a grimness matching his etching itself deeply into her features.

 
    Chapter 3
     
    Hollander had tried to prepare her for the verdict, down to the fact that it would take the good citizens of the town no time at all to make a decision. Even so, the outcome had shocked Amanda. How could it have been such a pre-determined event as far as her cell-mate had predicted? Abrupt, and unalterable, the sentence was as Jake had foreseen. They were to hang with the sunrise.
    When she’d heard the sentence actually droned out loud, Amanda had endured a hard lump in her throat and a tightening in the pit of her stomach. Plainly the audience had expected her to break down and cry, but instead. she got mad. More furious than she’d ever been before in her life or, she reflected then with grim humor, was ever likely to be again in light of her fate. Like a bitter pill the injustice of it stuck in her throat right there alongside that lump, and she had wanted to swear and scream her rage in their pious faces. However, she’d managed to hold herself in check, not willing to give Berglund any more to gloat over than he had just witnessed.
    So, her face had stilled into an emotionless mask with the smooth coolness of fine polished marble, and she had chosen to look only to the man who shared her fate—Jake Hollander.
    Jake, touching her hand in a gesture of comfort, had stood close beside her, directing his insolent glare at the jury, the judge and John Berglund.
    He had seen the instantaneous look of shock on Amanda’s face, and then had come the change. And that expression had been one of cold fury. She proved she wasn’t going to go to pieces on him. A wry twist of his lips had become an encouraging smile when they’d been led from the make-shift courtroom in the closed saloon, past the gallows that were already under construction in front of the livery, and back to their respective jail cells.
    Once there the sheriff turned suddenly more human.
    “Reckon I ought to ask you if there’s anythin’ special you’d like to eat, seeing as how you two didn’t get any dinner and this would be your last meal.”
    The cell door clanged shut.
    “Are you crazy? I don’t believe this,” Amanda said tightly. “You’re going to murder us both in a few hours, but now you want to bring us a midnight snack.”
    “You’ve been found guilty of murder and robbery, and sentenced by the court,” the sheriff intoned, giving Amanda an unapologetic look. “I’ll do my duty and carry out that sentence.”
    “I’ll have a thick steak, potatoes, black coffee, and some canned peaches if you can rustle them up,” Hollander’s low, commanding tone cut across both of them. “And bring the lady the same.”
    “Have to get ol’ Marty out of bed . . .” Carson muttered.
    “He can sleep tomorrow,” Hollander quietly reminded him.
    “I’m not hungry,” Amanda remarked acidly as the sheriff departed on his errand easing the door quietly closed behind him.
    “Eat whatever he brings,” Jake advised. “If we get out of here it could be days before either of us gets a chance to eat again.”
    “How are we going to get out of here?”
    “I’ve got a few thoughts on the matter,” he confided from across the bars. “But you’re going to have to go along with me.”
    Amanda moved closer.
    “How?”
    “You’re already doing it.”
    “What?”
    “Sheriff sees us as a pair. Up ‘til now that hasn’t been good. But since he’s facing hanging a woman, we might be able to turn it our way. You let him know the only thing that’ll ease your last hours, is to eat your last meal here in this cell with me.”
    Jake watched Amanda’s face, and damned if she didn’t show some color in those alabaster cheeks.
    “I—I’m afraid I’m not very good at this sort of thing.”
    “You better get