Black Conley Read Online Free PDF

so did the girls, especially if you considered their pay, three good meals a day and a roof over their heads.
    "It was a right fine night, Miss Belle,” the driver said. “I hope these gents enjoyed themselves as much as I did. Next time, I'd like to try Miss Kate. I haven't had her in quite a spell. Nothing against the other girls, but I do enjoy variety."
    Janna sashayed up to the driver and allowed him to slide his hand down the front of her dress. “I understand, Jeb. I like variety as well. You just keep bringing all these handsome men here, and we'll all do our best to keep you happy."
    "I trust you've been with all the girls,” another man said with a British accent. “My evening with Miss Cara was far beyond my expectations. It's a shame that I won't be coming this way on my return to London, but my business will take me in the opposite direction."
    As soon as the men arrived, Black saw Kate leave the room. Within minutes, she reappeared, the fancy dress gone, replaced by work britches and shirt.
    While the passengers ate their breakfast, Black and Kate went out to hitch the team to the stage. “Does the stage come through here often?” he asked.
    "About once a week eastbound, and the same westbound. Later today, Belle will take the mail into town and stop at the bank to deposit the money the girls made last night."
    "You let her take care of your finances?"
    "Why not? She's fair about everything. Don't know if I'd trust a man as much as I do her. I just wish she didn't have the problems this ranch gives her."
    "Problems? You mean by not having men to run it?"
    Kate laughed at his statement. “Good heavens, no. Her problems come from Clayte Adamson. That son of a bitch wants this place. He has ever since her pa died ten years ago. Now that he's single again, he's been bird-dogging her with his empty proposals and offers to buy her out. Since she's not interested in either, he's been taking our cattle. I'd like to catch him in the act and unload a shotgun full of buckshot in his fat ass. Maybe that would keep him on his side of the property line."
    Black shook his head. “Can't picture you on the business end of a shotgun. Do you even know how to shoot one?"
    Kate looked absolutely indignant. “Of course I do. In my line of work, a gal needs to know how to protect herself from the scum that think they can beat her ... or even worse. Salina said she never had to learn how to use a gun until she left your ma. The first man who bought her for the night beat her senseless and left her for dead. She decided that would be the last time that a man—any man—would do something like that to her. Once she made her point by threatening one of her gentlemen, she never had to do it again."
    Black laughed heartily. He'd heard about men who liked to beat the whores they bought. Usually, they were upstanding citizens and didn't want it known that they beat women. When that was the case, they didn't dare do anything like that to their wives. He'd run into his share, and always wanted to do to them what they did to the girls they took to the rooms upstairs at the saloons.
    Of course, he never acted on his impulses. It wouldn't do for him to step on the wrong side of the law. No matter how many men he'd killed, there wasn't one of them who hadn't drawn on him first. Every lawman from here to Texas knew that about him. Black Conley was a gunslinger, but he'd never done anything outside the law—and he intended to keep it that way. The story of Black Conley was good enough to give him the perfect cover when he was investigating.
    "Are you just going to stand there watching the dust from the stage?” Kate asked.
    "Guess not. I'd like to get up to the boundary line between the two properties. Maybe I can catch a glimpse of this Adamson."
    "You don't know him. He'll have his men up there, but he keeps his fat ass at the ranch. He doesn't like to get his hands dirty."
    "What about moving the cattle from that area?"
    "We were