Keegan's Lady Read Online Free PDF Page B

thousand? You can't be serious."
    "Dead serious, and since I doubt you have that much money lying loose around the house, there isn't much point in our discussing it further, is there?" Inclining his head in a gesture of dismissal, he added, "Good night, Miss O'Shannessy. It's been a pleasure."
    Too late, she realized the man touching her wasn't Hank, but one of Keegan's men. Before she could react, he wrested the rifle from her grasp. She rounded on him. "You give that back this instant!"
    From over her shoulder, she heard Keegan say, "Get her out of here, Esa, and see to it she stays out until we've concluded our business with Mr. O'Shannessy."
    The sandy-haired cowboy tossed her rifle to another man. Caitlin whirled to evade his grasp, only to find herself trapped in the strong circle of his arms. Panic washed over her in great crashing waves. Struggling to get free, she forgot everything but Patrick and what would happen to him if she didn't convince Keegan to have mercy.
    "No, please!" Digging in with her heels, she fought desperately to hold her ground, her gaze fixed on Keegan. "I'll pay any price for the bull you name! I can't"—she twisted and swung sharply at her captor's midriff with an elbow—"immediately lay my hands on the three thousand! You're right about that. But I have plenty of collateral to put up as security—the cattle, the land, even the house. I'll draw up an IOU. Your men can act as witnesses! We'll make payments, if nothing else."
    "And meanwhile, I have no prime breeding bull to cover my cows? That equates to no crop of prime calves next spring, Miss O'Shannessy, which means thousands more in losses for me when I take my cattle to market next fall." Keegan gave another humorless huff of laughter. "I don't want your money. Or your IOU. I came here to teach your brother a lesson, and that's exactly what I'm going to do."
    "A lesson?" Caitlin's voice went shrill. "Dear God. You call hanging him a lesson? Please, Mr. Keegan. You can't do this. Please."
    She gave a violent twist of her body and somehow managed to jerk free of her captor's hold. Dashing across the earthen floor, she threw herself at Keegan's feet and curled her hands around his black boots, determined to hang on no matter what.
    "You have to listen to me! Please, don't do this terrible thing."
    The thought of trying to strike a bargain with this man with glittering eyes and a devil's sneer had her insides quaking. But if she meant to save Patrick, she couldn't see that she had a choice.
    Quivering at the indignity of being on her knees, she forced herself to lift her head. She was glad for the beam of lantern light that fell across her face; the unaccustomed brightness after standing in the shadows made it difficult to see and spared her the indignity of having to immediately meet Keegan's gaze.
    "Please," she pleaded. "Don't hurt my brother. Name your price. Anything. Absolutely anything. Just, please, don't hurt my brother."
    As her vision cleared, Caitlin noticed two things, the first that she could see the upper half of Keegan's chiseled face more clearly from this angle, the second that he could evidently see hers more clearly as well. Judging by his expression, he didn't like what he saw. No. That was putting it too mildly. Stunned, that was how he looked. Almost as if an invisible fist had just knocked all the wind out of him.
    For a second, Caitlin felt certain all the rumors she'd heard about him were false. But even as she gazed up at him in rising hope, the vulnerability she thought she glimpsed in his eyes gave way to frosty indifference. The slack, almost shocked expression on his face went granite hard, and his full, firm lips twisted into another mocking sneer.
    "Anything?" he asked softly. "All I have to do is name my price?"
    With slowly dawning terror, Caitlin realized what he was hinting at. When she'd made the offer of "anything," she'd been referring to money, that she would happily compensate him, not only for the