Promises Reveal Read Online Free PDF Page B

Fury flared. Evie kicked him in the shin. “You pompous ass, how dare you tell anyone to beat me?”
    Retaliation was swift. Carlson lunged for her, his anger mottling his face in florid patches. “You bitch!”
    She jumped back. Before her feet hit the ground, Brad had the judge facedown over the altar, his arm ratcheted up between his shoulder blades. “You crooked son of a bitch. Don’t you ever touch my wife.”
    “She’s not your wife yet!” the man howled as Brad jerked his arm higher.
    “She will be in a minute.”
    “You were right about one thing,” Cougar said as he came up beside Evie and folded his arms across his powerful chest. “The judge is a pompous ass.”
    Evie just blinked at the scene, the violence both horrifying and thrilling her. No one had ever stood up for her before.
    “Aren’t you going to do something?” she asked Cougar.
    “Why? Looks like the Rev has it under control.”
    Because ministers were peace-loving men, or so she’d always thought.
    The judge screamed as Brad wrenched his arm higher and whispered something in his ear. There was a potent pause. The judge nodded. Brad straightened and let the man go. The judge stumbled back, his face white and sweating. He glanced at Brad as he returned to her side, then at Cougar, Clint, and Asa. Residual red spots stood out on his face in vivid contrast to the pasty wash of fear.
    “I’m sorry, Miss Washington.”
    His gaze flicked over the attendees behind her. She couldn’t see, but from the angry murmur, she was reasonably sure they weren’t looking at him any more kindly than she was. The community around Cattle Crossing was a small one, and as Cattle Crossing had grown from hellhole to town, the people had become very protective of their own. She nodded. It was all the grace she could work up for a man who’d suggested to her fiancé that he beat her daily.
    “If you’ll allow, I’d like to finish the ceremony.”
    Here was her chance. She could say no, and let the chips fall where they may. She could let the Reverend move on, away from his home and the life he’d built. Away from the contentment in his eyes that had only recently replaced the torment he’d come to town bearing. There’d be embarrassment, but she’d eventually be forgiven by those who loved her. After all, women were the weaker sex, unable to be trusted with life’s decisions, incapable of comprehending a sense of honor as a man did.
    For Brad, it would be different though. The stain would haunt him forever. Could she do that to him? With every heartbeat that passed, she felt the almost invisible tension within him increase. He expected her to repudiate him, probably had expected it all along, yet he hadn’t hesitated to come to her defense. Rats. Why did he have to make her go and like him? Wasn’t being fascinating enough? She sighed. He stiffened, and she knew what she was going to do.
    Reaching out, she tucked her fingers into the callused roughness of Brad’s palm. Though he didn’t look down, she felt his twitch of surprise. She couldn’t blame him. She didn’t exactly have a reputation for doing the right thing, but then again, she owed him. Rather than reprimanding her for her disrespect toward the judge, he’d stood up for her, defending her when she wasn’t even sure her own mother would have. She owed him better than betrayal. Heart in her throat, nerves jangling like a dinner bell, she made a decision. “Finish the ceremony.”
    Behind her, her mother broke into sobs. Beside her, Brad’s fingers curled around hers. And squeezed.
     
“SO HOW DOES it feel to be a married man?”
    Brad flicked his smoke into the dirt and glared at Cougar and Clint as they joined him outside the livery, which had been cleaned and decorated for the event. Evie’s family had spared no expense celebrating Evie’s return to respectability.
    “Like the posse just caught up with me.”
    Strains of fiddle music drifted on the warm June air.
    “Hell,