Make Mine a Bad Boy Read Online Free PDF Page B

knot that settled in the pit of her stomach, warning her of imminent danger.And as she stood in front of the city jail, she knew exactly what that danger was.
    Colt Lomax.
    Just the name made her want to scream out a very nasty cuss word. She glared at the light spilling out from the small barred window. Why couldn’t Shirlene just let her brother stop for a quick visit? Why did she have to have him arrested? The man was ornerier than a cornered jaguar, and prodding him only made him worse—something Hope knew from experience.
    No, the best thing to do for a caged wild animal was to set it free.
    Hope glanced around, then quickly headed down the path that led to the double-glassed doors of the jail. She didn’t expect them to be locked, and she wasn’t disappointed. No one in Bramble locked anything, probably because there wasn’t anything in Bramble worth stealing.
    Hurrying through the dark reception area, she made a quick stop in Sheriff Winslow’s office and then headed down the dark hallway to the only jail cell.
    Like any good Christian woman of Bramble, Hope knew the way. More than once, she’d come with her mama to deliver Bibles to the poor lost souls who found themselves behind bars. Not that Bramble had a lot of criminals. Most of the Bibles had gone to Elmer Tate, who slept it off in jail every time he got drunk rather than go home to his wife, who had a mean right hook. Despite his love of Jack Daniel’s, Elmer was a nice man who would always drop the Bibles back at First Baptist so the women could redistribute them.
    Being the town troublemaker, Colt had gotten his fair share of Bibles too. Though Lord only knew what he’d done with them.
    At the end of the hallway, Hope pushed through another unlocked door and into the room that housed the jail. But how anyone could call it that was beyond her. Except for the bars, the cell looked like a country bed and breakfast. Up against one wall was a brass bed with fluffy down pillows, a wedding-ring quilt, and crisp, flowered sheets that matched the curtains on the window. The white porcelain toilet was sparkling clean and had an air freshener on the back and a fuzzy blue cover for the lid. The sink had a Dixie cup dispenser and small mirror hanging above it, a mirror Colt was using as he cleaned the blood from his lip.
    The door clicked shut behind her, and he turned. And for a split second, Hope had the urge to run for her life. No wonder the folks of Bramble thought he’d been in prison. The man looked like he belonged behind bars—an unscrupulous outlaw who spent his days robbing trains and his nights stealing the hearts of loose women. Wind-tousled black hair fell almost to his shoulders, and the stubble on his square jaw looked even thicker than it had a few hours earlier. Those steely gray eyes stared back at her, the whites bloodshot from booze or lack of sleep, or possibly both.
    Suddenly, she didn’t feel cold anymore.
    “Deliverin’ Bibles, sweetheart?” The dark slashes of his eyebrows lifted. The sarcasm in his deep, smooth voice snapped her out of her outlaw fantasy and back to loser reality.
    “As if reading the Bible would do your black soul any good.” She pushed away from the door. “I’m here to get you out.”
    “A jailbreak? Funny, but I thought you were the reason I was here in the first place. Mean Colt Lomax beat up sweet little Hope Scroggs.”
    “Don’t blame me, Lomax. I wasn’t the one who got Sam after you. Not that you didn’t deserve it, after hitting me.” She felt only a second of remorse over the lie. She was well aware of what had hit her, but she just wasn’t about to let Colt get off so easily. Not when he had hurt her plenty in her lifetime.
    “A jailbreak, huh?” He took a few steps closer to the bars, and it was a challenge for her to keep from taking a step back. “So what’s your plan? Dynamite? A bulldozer? A file pulled from those silken locks?”
    “I was thinking more of a key.” She held up the