Catch Me Read Online Free PDF Page B

woman should be.
    She scrubbed across the back of her neck, then ran her hands through her hair to loosen knots. She couldn’t wait to drop into bed and sleep.
    “Keep your hands in the air.” The ratchet of a pistol hammer accompanied the words. As the daughter of a lawman she’d recognize that sound anywhere.
    Maggie froze. Her hands remained where they were, a few locks of hair still caught between her fingers. The clock on the dresser ticked so loudly she thought it must be audible five rooms over. Her throat clicked as she tried to swallow past the desert that had sprung up in her mouth. Fear turned her into a loosely strung puppet.
    She turned as slowly as possible.
    Dean Collier stood next to the door. He must have hidden behind it as she entered. He leaned those broad shoulders against the wall, propping it up. Somewhere along the way he’d removed his wide-brimmed hat, and sweat dampened his hair, so he couldn’t have been waiting long. Plastered into a flat line, his mouth was almost too big for his face, but it was well matched by his long nose. Rock hard thighs led down to legs that were crossed at the ankle, the very picture of relaxation. His long black traveling coat was gone, revealing a finely cut suit of clothes she wouldn’t expect a bounty hunter to own.
    He held a long-barreled pistol in his hand, pointed straight at her. At her heart, as a matter of fact.
    “You,” she spit.
    He inclined his head, but the gun never wavered. “Me.”
    Her heart thumped in triple time under her breastbone, trying to scramble away from that awful gun. She’d never had one aimed at her before. “How did you know where I’d be? I didn’t even know which room I’d take until fifteen minutes ago.”
    “There’s only one hotel on the grounds,” he drawled. He leaned against the wall with an assurance that set Maggie’s skin to crawling. “After that, I had only to leave a copy of your wanted poster at the front desk, along with a five dollar bill, and I was well assured of you being assigned to this room.”
    “You underhanded, black-hearted—”
    He cocked his head to the side and a shock of dark blond hair dropped across his forehead. He didn’t look like he’d ever even touched a canister of pomade, much less ever applied it to his hair. “I’m sorry, did you think we were playing parlor games? It didn’t much feel like it when you had a gun pointed at me . You robbed a bank, Maggie. There’s no getting out of that.”
    She shook her head, but she didn’t see a way out. Collier stood too close to the door, and the room was on the third floor. Though there was a window, she had no idea what lay behind it and no self-sacrificing impulse that would encourage throwing herself out. “Can’t you please let me have a little time? I only want to spend a few days with my father. He could be dying.”
    His eyes were an implacable, ice cold blue. “No.”
    Her hands twisted into fists. “Don’t you have a heart?”
    “Not near as I can tell.” He twirled a hand in a let’s move on motion. “I don’t have time for this jaw jacking. You can come easily, or you can come hard. There’s no option beyond that.”
    “I won’t go willingly, you can lay odds on that.” She’d do anything for a few moments more with her father, and wouldn’t give them up to make some low-life bounty hunter happy.
    “I expected that.”
    He came away from the wall in a flash of wickedly elegant movement. He flipped his gun into the holster in a blur as he reached for her. Maggie scrambled back as fast as she could and ducked his outstretched hand. But he feinted, not grabbing her as she’d expected. Instead, he pushed her hard to the bed. She drew back a fist and tried to punch him, but it didn’t land. He gripped her wrist then yanked her arm around, forcing her to her belly.
    Terror spiked through her and turned her into a rabid animal. She kicked, threw elbows and tried to reach her free hand around to claw his