Blood Bond 3 Read Online Free PDF Page B

Lee.”
    â€œI been tryin’ to convince him of that for months,” Dodge said with a grunt. “Like talkin’ to fence post.”
    â€œI do know that feeling,” Sam said with a straight face.
    â€œI won’t start the war, Matt,” the rancher said. “I just can’t do it.”
    â€œSeems like to me it’s already started.”
    â€œI told him that, too,” the foreman said. He looked at Sparks. “Jeff, we’ve been through too much to see it all go down like this.”
    â€œI’ll not hire professional killers.” The rancher held on to his views.
    â€œWhat if he makes a hostile move against you?” Sam questioned. “What then?”
    â€œThen . . .” the rancher hesitated, “we’ll see.” He rode on ahead to take the point.
    â€œHe’s a good, decent, honorable man,” Dodge said. “Very high principled. And those are the very things that’s gonna get him killed.”
    â€œHas he tried to talk to John Lee?”
    â€œMany times. Jeff called John out last year. Said they could settle it this way without anybody gettin’ kilt. Took off his gunbelt and called him out in the street in Crossing for a fight. Stand-up, bare-knuckle, kick and gouge. John wouldn’t do it and he lost a lot of face that day. Lots of snickerin’ went on and still goin’ on behind his back.”
    â€œIs he insane?” Sam asked.
    â€œNo. I don’t think so. I think he’s just a low-down and mean-spirited man. Hell, boys, this ain’t nothin’ new on John Lee’s part. He’s always been thisaway to a degree. He’s just got worser over the years is all.”
    â€œI notice that no one rides alone,” Matt said.
    â€œBoss’s orders. Good orders. Couple of hands have been bushwhacked. One was roped and drug, busted him up bad. The whole shebang ain’t but days from comin’ to a head. I ’spect since John’s hired all them gunslicks it’ll pop anytime now.”
    â€œIs that the reason Jeff sent his son for supplies? For food and ammo?”
    â€œYep. The only other rancher standin’ up to John sent his boy with young Gene. Ed Carson owns the Flyin’ V. His property butts agin the Circle S on the east side. He’s down to three hands. They’re good boys, but they ain’t gunhawks. Just damned good punchers.”
    They pushed the cattle onto new graze and left them, then rode for the ranch, reaching home just as the shadows began to lengthen in purple hues.
    â€œYou boys come to supper at the house tonight,” Jeff told the brothers. “Gene’s back and I want you to meet him and Ed Carson and family. It’s a once a month doin’ for the ladies. Life’s hard on the women out here. See you shortly.”
    Both Matt and Sam took good-natured kidding from the other hands about the Sparks girls batting their eyes at them and swishing their skirts around. If there was any animosity about Sam’s being half Cheyenne, the brothers had not felt it. And that was probably because Sam did not look like an Indian.
    Sam’s eyes were black, but without the cold obsidian look of a full blood. He had the high cheekbones of an Indian, but they were softened by some of his mother’s features. Sam was just a handsome man by anybody’s standards.
    The brothers bathed and shaved and slicked up well by frontier standards. They blackened their boots and dabbed some sweet-smelling cologne on their faces.
    â€œYou boys cast your peepers on Cindy Carson,” Red told them. “We’ll tell you now that she’s sweet on Nick Lee. And we think she’s feedin’ him information about her daddy’s spread and to Circle S. Don’t say nothin’ to her that you don’t want repeated.”
    â€œDoes her father know this?” Sam asked.
    â€œNo,” Dodge told him. “She’s the apple of her