Caden's Vow Read Online Free PDF Page A

the woman who has become part of Hell’s Eight, not Maddie
who sees herself of no value. It is time for you to leave here.” She motioned
toward the gate. “Time for you to follow your heart.”
    “Why?”
    Bella’s expression softened. “Because if you want Caden,
Maddie, then you need to do whatever it takes to make him see you and what could
be. Something big. And no one can do it for you.”
    She turned on her heel.
    Maddie stood where she was anchored by her grip on the tree and
the weight of the preposterous idea Bella had put forth. “Wait.”
    Bella shook her head and raised her hand. “No. It is time for
you to make up your mind who you will be.”
    Maddie had the insane urge to chase after Bella, to have her
tell her what to do, but what was the point? Bella was right. She had decided
herself it was time she stopped being a child.
    Caden was leaving as if it was nothing to anyone. The man never
understood he was missed when he left. Or maybe he didn’t care. Sometimes it was
hard to know. Follow her heart, Bella had advised. Did she have the courage to
do something that big?
    Caden had told her that he wouldn’t leave without seeing her.
The anger that hit her was strong. The determination just as strong. She was
done being left behind. Every day when she got up, life happened to her.
Tomorrow, she was going to happen to her life.
    * * *
    M ADDIE ’ S TREASURES WERE packed into a saddlebag along with two changes of
clothes before dawn even touched the sky. Caden had left an hour earlier. She’d
heard the back-porch step creak as he’d slipped out. Saw the light in the barn.
It was time for her to go now, too. Sneaking down the back stairs, she ducked
out the same door as Caden, but she avoided the third board on the steps. While
no one would protest Caden’s departure, hers would be sure to cause a fuss. Her
redbone hound whined and lifted his head. She smiled and made a motion of her
hand. He came over immediately. She fed him a piece of meat left over from
supper. He wolfed it down and, when another wasn’t forthcoming, drooped his head
until the loose folds all but obscured his eyes. He had the look of his father,
Boone, but was the despair of Tucker’s pack. Worthless, he’d been named, because
while he could track like his father, he wouldn’t bay.
    The day Tucker had cut him from the litter, she’d cried for
him. When she’d heard his name, that had been the final straw. She’d taken the
dog as hers, expecting a protest. No one had said a word. He’d become her “porch
hound,” as Tucker called him. She’d tried to change the dog’s name, but he
refused to respond to anything else, which just went to prove everything had a
meaning to someone, and she had to respect his preference.
    It still made her nervous having a friend, even if it was a
dog, but there was no going back. Worthless had claimed her as much as she’d
claimed him. So far they’d been friends. Tonight, he was going to become her
partner. She hoped. Tapping her hip, she beckoned Worthless to her side.
    The note and IOU she’d written crinkled in her pocket. Flower
was a sweet little mare that Tucker had trained for her. She had a gentle way
about her and not a mean bone in her body. Maddie trusted her as she trusted no
human. No matter how valuable the horse was, Maddie couldn’t choose another. And
not only because her riding skills weren’t that good. She needed things around
her right now in which she had faith. She might have decided to happen to her
life, but that didn’t mean she had any confidence she could pull it off.
    Flower nickered as Maddie approached her stall. She opened the
door, her hands shaking. She patted the mare’s neck and took a breath. The only
other time she’d taken her destiny into her own hands was when she’d bolted
after Tracker out the door of that whorehouse. She still didn’t know what had
made her do it, but once done, there’d been no going back. She’d been prepared
to beg