Emma's Blaze (Fires of Cricket Bend Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

Carpenter, though all it had was a run-down shack of a saloon and a small hotel. Not Andrew’s kind of town. His fool brother could have ridden out for Dyson, though that’d be a three day ride at least and he must have known he’d be pursued if he were gone that long. Jess had said the night before he’d seen Andrew riding west, so Dyson seemed a logical choice. Bill would start there and see what he could find. He hoped it wouldn’t be a vulture-pecked body to add to the sorrows of the trail.
    Someday, when Bill took over the ranch, his first act would be to weed out the men whose hearts weren’t true and whose loyalty he didn’t trust. Pete and Jess and Saul were stalwart and steady men he could always count on. They’d marry and start families one day, but they’d work the ranch for the rest of their lives, god willing.
    Theo had been different, and Andrew was the same way—wandering, aimless, hard-hearted. There was never enough trouble to go around as far as those boys were concerned.
    And look where it had gotten Theo. He was buried a few hundred miles ahead.
    Bill hoped Andrew wouldn’t wind up the same, though he wondered how many more times he could trouble himself with coming to the rescue.
    Bill barely tasted the food as he ate and drank, lost in thought. He found himself loading his bedroll onto Orion’s saddle and mounting to ride before he fully realized what he was doing. A ways off, he saw his father looking at him. Bill nodded. His pa nodded back.
    He rode most of the morning and afternoon before he caught sight of something up ahead that made him pull back the reins on his horse.
    Riders, coming fast and hard toward him.
    Andrew was the first one, and it only took Bill a moment to realize Andrew wasn’t riding with the other two men, but away from them as fast as his horse could run.
    He drew his shotgun, and readied for a fight.
    Being the responsible eldest brother often meant doing the most difficult work.
    Bill positioned himself for a clear shot. When Andrew had moved out of range, Bill fired at the ground before the approaching horses. Two shots, well-aimed and fast, stopped the riders and caused their horses to rear. One fell off his saddle, and the other pulled his own gun.
    “I wouldn’t,” Andrew threatened. He turned and joined Bill again, gun drawn.
    The furious rider still on his horse shook his head. “We don’t take kindly to cheats.”
    “I did not cheat,” Andrew called to them. “I’m just better at poker than you.”
    Bill doubted that. In fact, when he glanced at Andrew and saw the smirk on his face, he knew it wasn’t true. Andrew had cheated at cards with these men, and it had nearly cost him his life.
    “Give them back their money,” he whispered.
    “Like hell I will,” Andrew replied. “If you’re dumb enough to play cards with a stranger, you deserve to be cheated.”
    “Give them back their money,” Bill repeated.
    “I will not.”
    “Then I’m going to put down my gun and ride away. They’ve no quarrel with me yet. It ain’t my fight, and I don’t aim to die so you can win at some damn cards.”
    “You two hens done clucking at each other?” The man on the ground had gotten back on his horse. “Listen, cowboy, ride out of here. Your friend, he’s the one we want.”
    “He’s not my friend,” Bill said. “He’s my brother. And he’s going to return your money, and we’re all going to ride back to where we came from, nice and peaceful-like. Ain’t that right, Andrew?”
    “Shoot, Bill, I thought we was both friends and brothers.”
    Bill kept his eyes and his gun focused on the angry riders, but he felt Andrew’s rage next to him, despite the stranger’s taunt. If Andrew thought Bill was going to play along with a dishonest heist, he was dead wrong. He repeated his question. “Ain’t that right, Andrew?”
    His brother sighed loudly, but reached into his pocket and pulled out a small roll of bills that he held up high, rode