Devils on Horseback: Nate Read Online Free PDF Page B

leg with a smile. Lee stared at them intently while they took care of the horses, looking as if he wanted to shake the story out of them.
    Nate knew the morning would bring the first real day of their job and he wanted an evening of quiet. Lee probably wouldn’t let that happen. As Gideon and Zeke headed to the fire, Nate walked off toward the stream alone.
    “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
    He heard Lee curse and Gideon’s quiet murmur. No doubt Gid would be able to tell them the entire story without Nate’s help anyway. There wasn’t that much to tell. The Devils had to remove a young woman, her crippled father and younger brother from the land O’Shea claimed was his. The Taggerts only had about two hundred head of cattle left. O’Shea said they’d had to sell off most of it to survive.
    How hard could it be to remove them?
    * * * * *
    Elisa watched as the man walked toward the stream, knowing it was Nate without even seeing his face. He had a way about him that was recognizable in the moonlight. When he reached the stream, he sighed as he lay back on the grass with his knees up and his arms folded behind his head.
    She crept closer, careful not to disturb any of the foliage around her. If Elisa was good at anything, it was being stealthy. She’d had to become a hunter to feed her brother and mother while Da had been off to war. They’d had plenty of meat those two years.
    When she was within a few yards, she could see his face quite clearly in the light of the moon. His expression seemed contemplative, almost melancholy. She wondered what he was thinking about—probably how much money he’d make working for O’Shea. Dirty, rotten stinker.
    Before he could sense her nearby, she pounced. She pinned his elbows down with her knees, slapped a hand across his mouth as her knife rested comfortably on his throat. The scent of man and of Nate wafted up at her, tickling her nose and her sleeping arousal.
    “I see you had a nice visit with that bastard,” she hissed in a whisper. “Did you agree to work for him? Or should I even bother to ask judging from the fried chicken grease on your lips.”
    He shook his head, wiggling beneath her, but Elisa was no featherweight. She held him down securely.
    “If I lift my hand, will you promise not to yell for your friends?”
    Nate’s eyes narrowed but he nodded against her hand. When she lifted it, he growled at her. Growled!
    “What do you think you’re doing?”
    “Trying to figure out what you were doing at O’Shea’s.” No need to lie to the man. They both knew where he’d been that day.
    “None of your business. Now get off me and I’ll let you get away.”
    She laughed and pressed the knife into his skin a bit more. “I think I have the upper hand here, Johnny Reb.”
    “It’s Nate. Or if you prefer, Nathaniel. I’ll even answer to Lieutenant.”
    “Oh, I touched on a nerve, did I? I’ll have to remember that.” She pushed down on his elbows, digging them into the hard ground beneath them. “Are you going to tell me what you were doing today?”
    “Go to hell.”
    “Tsk, tsk. Such language and in front of a lady too.”
    Nate jerked his body, almost throwing her off, but Elisa held fast. She nicked his throat, allowing a small drop of blood to well.
    “I ain’t playing with you, fancy man. You tell me what I want to know or I cut you deeper.”
    Her blood rushed around so fast, it made her heady. The feeling of power over the big man was intoxicating. Arousing.
    “You don’t have the heart to do something like that.”
    “Don’t doubt it,” she snapped.
    Her euphoria pinched by his words, Elisa shifted her knees slightly. That must have been the opportunity he’d been waiting for, because within seconds, their positions were reversed and he pinned her to the ground. The knife landed useless on the ground somewhere behind him.
    A rock dug into her back just as his body flattened hers from top to bottom. It was an astounding, startling