Canyon Song Read Online Free PDF Page A

haze of bone-deep weakness, Quinn tried over and over to remind himself of what Annie Faith was, of what she’d done to him.
    She repositioned him with strong and gentle hands, then placed the stinking poultice on his shoulder . As dead set as he’d been against it, he felt the warmth of it radiating downward into his chest to ease the deep ache that accompanied his breathing. As she worked, she spoke in flowing Spanish, a prayer of some sort, he imagined, or perhaps some sort of chant.
    “Can’t forget,” he told himself, but his whispered words did nothing to ease the suspicion that a stranger now inhabited her body, a woman he had never known before.
    Her face and voice might be familiar, but her actions and her words conspired to compel him – him , of all people in the world – to trust.
    “ De las doce verdades del mundo, decidme nueve ,” she intoned as she lit candles arranged atop a wooden chest. “ Los nueve meses de María. ”
    Her voice continued, soft, melodic, as her fingers touched his forehead then massaged his scalp with something cool and wet . Stubbornly, he fought the spell, his mind lurching from the rhythm of her words, carrying him backward to another place and time.
    She’d thought him unconscious, then, too, and he’d been equally helpless against whatever she might do . That time, there had been no bullet to rob him of his strength. Then, she must have drugged him before the two of them made love. Unable to move, he’d peered through slitted eyes while she had fumbled hurriedly through his belongings. He’d wanted to throttle her for her betrayal, but instead, he could do no more than watch.
    With each item she yanked out of his pockets, she had whispered, “San Francisco,” her voice shaking over the two words like a sinner’s deathbed prayer . First she pulled out a deck of cards and riffled through them, running her fingertips along the edges he had shaved.
    He could tell that she’d detected the system he had used to mark the deck, for she turned her head to glare . The hostility that burned in her eyes had made him realize for the first time that she might prove to be a danger and not just a thief.
    “You cheating louse,” she’d muttered.
    Next she pulled out a pair of loaded dice and an ivory-handled derringer, which she tossed into the corner without comment. The last item from his pockets was a small, leather-bound book, worn from frequent use. Quinn gritted his teeth as he watched her flip through its onion skin pages. He breathed a prayer she would not tear any of them out.
    Instead, she glanced at him, her expression perplexed . “Shakespeare. Hunh, Ryan . . . you cheat somebody out of this or what?”
    He’d groaned quietly as he watched her push it into her reticule . But still, she wasn’t done.
    And the next thing she had stolen had changed his life forever . Or perhaps destroyed it would be the more accurate description.
    He’d thought he’d known her in the weeks before she’d robbed him, thought he’d understood the sad sweetness that lay behind her dazzling beauty and her dulcet songs . That time, he’d learned too late that Annie Faith was nothing but a scheming opportunist.
    He’d be damned if he let her steal her way into his heart again.
    “Can’t forget,” he once more told himself hoarsely.
    She leaned close to pull the blanket up to cover him completely and whispered to him, “No one is asking you to do that.”
    He felt the warmth of her breath, soft against his ear, and his mind held onto the memories.
    Including those most painful, of the last time they’d made love.
    *     *     *
    The moment Ned Hamby finished chuckling over the tale of Quinn Ryan’s shooting, the territorial judge erupted in a fury.
    “Idiot!” Ward Cameron spat the word as though it were the vilest of profanities. For him, it truly was. He could abide sons of bitches, bastards, perhaps even those who fornicated with their female forebears, but as for