Gunpowder Tea (The Brides Of Last Chance Ranch Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Taggert replaced.
    “That’s why you recruited me,” Taggert said. Several weeks of hanging around saloons and hinting that he was on friendly terms with some well-known outlaws got Grady’s attention.
    “Like I told you, we can keep the jewelry but the Phantom gets the cash.”

    Taggert shook his head. “I still don’t understand why we can’t just keep it all. What do we need the Phantom for?”
    Grady’s eyes rounded with greed. “He told me there was somethin’ bigger down the road. Something real big. And if I did what I was told, I’d be rich. We’d all be rich.”
    “How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Taggert’s gaze traveled between the two men. “I only have your word that we’re working for the Phantom. You can’t even describe him.”
    Grady glared at Taggert. “I told you, I only met him the one time. It was dark and the Phantom kept his head down.”
    Squint cursed beneath his breath. “Now what?”
    Grady lowered his voice. “I’ll tell you what I think. I think the boss leaked the train robbery to the marshal.”
    Squint frowned. “Why would he do such a thing?”
    Grady’s eyes glittered. “So the marshal would be occupied while the boss robbed the bank.”
    Squint looked flabbergasted, or at least his eyes opened the widest Taggert had ever seen. “Are you sayin’ we ain’t nothin’ but a bunch of de -coys?” Squint kicked the wall, his boot leaving a scuff mark. “Now ain’t that grand? He’s got the money and we’re in jail.”
    “The boss will get us out,” Grady said, though he didn’t sound all that certain.
    “If he doesn’t leave town first,” Taggert said, throwing another verbal log into the already heated discussion.
    “Oh, he ain’t gonna do that,” Grady said. “He’s got hisself a good safe hideout.”
    “In Cactus Patch?” Squint asked. He made a face. “It’s foolhardy to rob a bank in the town you call home.”
    Grady gave a mirthless laugh. “The Phantom don’t know it, but after I dropped off the loot one night, I hid and waited for himto retrieve it.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “And he headed straight for a ranch.”
    Taggert folded his arms. “Sure he did.” According to everything he’d heard, the Phantom didn’t leave enough tracks to trip an ant.
    “It’s true,” Grady insisted.
    Squint gave him a look of disdain. “You don’t know nothin’ ’bout nothin’.”
    “You got that right,” Taggert muttered. “Grady just likes us to think he knows.”
    It was a challenge Grady couldn’t pass up. He leaned forward. “I’m tellin’ you, the boss hides out at the Last Chance Ranch. That’s his headquarters.”
    Squint regarded Grady with disbelief but Taggert showed no emotion. “The Last Chance, eh?” That pretty much confirmed what Taggert already suspected but he was careful to hide his excitement behind a disinterested yawn. It was the second time Taggert heard the ranch mentioned that day and a vision of a dark-haired beauty came to mind. He had never seen eyes like hers, a mixture of caramel brown and dark green that reminded him of dense forests and deep waters.
    He recalled Miss Beckman handing something that looked like an envelope to Grady and that made her suspect. Perhaps the Phantom was finally feeling the heat. If so, he may have found another way to communicate with his men. That would certainly explain the envelope and the lady’s interest in the ranch.
    Taggert didn’t dare confront Grady with this theory as it would only arouse suspicion.
    So what had she given him? Directions as to where to leave the loot collected from the train passengers? Instructions for the nextheist? And what had he done with the envelope? His pockets had been empty when the sheriff checked.
    Just as important, what was Miss Beckman’s business at the Last Chance?
    The woman had secrets, no doubt, and uncovering secrets was what Jeremy Taggert, aka David Branch, did best.

    Bessie’s sister, Lula-Belle,