Arizona Gold Read Online Free PDF

in the not-too-distant hills.
    A white man might not be able to persuade her to tell all she knew… but an Apache would .
    It was another night when Opal could not fall asleep. Thinking about Wade kept her wide awake and staring into the darkness for long, miserable hours. She missed him terribly.
    Bothering, also, was how Wade’s niece was on her way West. She had sent a telegram advising approximately when she would arrive by stagecoach. She was bringing her half of the map, she said, in hopes that between the two of them they could figure out the location of the gold mine.
    A few weeks after the telegram, Opal received the letter Kitty had written earlier. In it, she told about her mother dying and how she had nowhere else to go except to join Wade and would be leaving soon.
    Opal felt bad for the girl and knew in a way how she felt. After all, Opal had no family except Nate, and he was a big pain in the butt, always getting drunk and causing trouble. Oh, he made like he was so devoted to her, because she was his sister, but the truth was, he only came around wanting money. They were not close and never had been.
    Wade hadn’t liked him, either. He said he was too possessive of her and didn’t like his mooching. They had not got along, and it had made Opal so happy when Wade promised that once he had enough ore dug he would marry her and take her to California to live. Nate wouldn’t have dared follow after them, and Opal hoped it would make him settle down and get married himself, maybe.
    But it was not going to happen, she cried to think. She would never get out of Tombstone, because where would she go and what did it matter, anyway, with Wade dead?
    Tossing and turning, she finally got out of bed and poured herself a stiff drink from the bottle of whiskey she kept hidden from Nate. There was a hole in the wall behind the stove he did not know about. Concealed there also was the telegram from Kitty. Opal was keeping it to remind her of the date she was expected. She planned to meet the stagecoach when it got in; the girl would not know a soul. But Opal did not want Nate to know about the girl’s coming, because she was uncertain as to what he might do. He had never approved of her being with Wade and probably wouldn’t like her having anything to do with his family.
    The whiskey took effect, and she curled beneath the covers once more, eyelids heavy. And, as she drifted away, she decided maybe it was not a bad thing that Kitty Parrish was coming, after all. She would love her because she was Wade’s kin. Perhaps they would be close, like mother and daughter, and having Kitty around would be like having a part of Wade, and…
    She slept.
    Then awakened with a start.
    Someone was in the room with her. She could make out a figure looming over her.
    Anger overrode fear as she surmised that it could only be her brother. “Nate, how dare you come sneaking in like this and scare me to death—”
    Terror was a ramrod up her spine as she felt something cold and sharp pressed against her neck and heard the husky, whispered warning, “Scream and you die.”
    The first light of dawn was creeping around the edges of the shuttered window above her bed. With eyes so wide she could feel the skin tearing at the corners, she saw the Indian holding the flint knife at her throat.
    His face was painted in streaks. She could not distinguish all the colors but saw red mostly, with a long black swath down his nose.
    He leaped, effortlessly, up on the bed to squat and straddle her. Leaning into her face and still pressing the knife, his breath was hot, harsh. “Tell me what I want to know, and I will let you live.”
    He relaxed the pressure of the blade to allow her to whisper in capitulation, “Yes. Anything. Just don’t hurt me, please…”
    The Indian sank back on his haunches. His hair was pulled back from his painted face by a rag across his forehead. He wore only knee-high moccasins and a breechclout. “You were Wade