Outlaw Cowboy Read Online Free Page A

people of Blue Valley to know about.
    She could also go to Rose. No doubt she’d need to let Rose know she was okay sometime soon. But Rose’s current location was a mystery. The Rogers women who stayed in Montana knew not to stay one place very long.
    Including her. She’d had to stick close until they were all free, but she popped from one town to another to keep Dad off the scent, but close enough to Blue Valley she could get there within an hour or so. Close enough she could keep tabs on the girls. One more. She only needed to get Steph out, and then she was free.
    Tears she’d never allow herself to shed started to gather and burn in the backs of her eyes. It was exhaustion, plain and simple, causing all this emotion and fear. She hadn’t slept last night as she planned how to sneak her way into the abandoned Shaw cabin. A nap would be the best course of action. Get some rest while waiting for nightfall and her planned prowling for firewood. Plus, if she could fall asleep, she could ignore her growling stomach.
    She’d wake up refreshed and ready to take on the next challenge. She sank onto the couch. It was old and squeaky. It smelled of age and dust.
    Delia flopped back onto the hard springs of the couch, staring at the cobweb-laden ceiling and trying not to think about her sisters. She didn’t want to remember the bruises on Billie’s arms, or imagine what other bruises might have been hiding under her clothing.
    One more. Only one.
    Delia closed her eyes, breathed deep, and started counting backward—the only way she ever shut her brain up enough to sleep. A harsh slam outside made her eyes fling open, her heart racing as fear clawed through her chest.
    Oh God, the police had found her already. They’d somehow tracked her here and she was going to jail and Steph was screwed.
    Calm. Down. She took a breath in and slid off the couch, hurrying to the window with purposeful strides. Carefully she pulled the tattered curtains far enough away from the window to glimpse outside.
    The window was obscured with grime, but it took her only a few seconds to realize it was Caleb. Relief whooshed through her, top to bottom, and she was suddenly shaky on her feet. Or was that the exhaustion and hunger? It hardly mattered.
    The door swung open. Jeez, did the guy understand stealth at all ? “I don’t know why you’re back, but I’m trying to take a—”
    He dropped a hefty box onto the floor with a loud thump. Her limbs seized up, and she was unable to move, unable to look.
    No. Please. Not kindness. Not now.
    â€œFood. Light. Blankets. Water.” He spat each word like a curse. “The pump in the back works if you really get it going, but I’m not sure it’s drinkable. What else do you need?”
    The sob was so sudden, so overwhelming, she didn’t have a chance to fight it off. She could only clap her hands over her eyes and hope to hide the overflow of tears.

Chapter 3
    Caleb wished he had brought his gun this time. If he had it, he could use it to threaten her to stop crying. It was just food, for chrissakes. The woman needed food.
    She hadn’t cried when her father had held a gun to her head when they’d been nineteen, but she was crying now. “You make zero sense, woman,” he muttered.
    She didn’t make any crying noises. The teardrops simply slid from underneath the palms slapped over her eyes, some landing in little dark dots on the grimy gray shirt she wore underneath her jacket.
    She took a deep, shuddery breath, slowly let it out, and even more slowly removed her hands from her eyes, wiping most of the tears as she went.
    Underneath the fringe of hair, her red-rimmed eyes held his gaze. “I’m exhausted and hungry. Your act of gallantry took me off guard.”
    â€œGallantry?” He raised an eyebrow at her.
    She didn’t waver. “You’ve always had it in you.”
    Only for her. Just another one