Saving Cole Turner Read Online Free PDF Page B

her palms. Why couldn’t people see in Cole what she saw? “He could be a rancher. If you’d help him, he’d be a good one.” She wasn’t so sure Cole was inclined toward ranching, but he was working for Matt Tyler and doing a little ranch work.
    “If I help him? Cole Turner would never let me help him, Kate, and you know why.”
    “Because you sent the law after him when he left town, after he killed his pa. You used what he told me to help them find him.” Her father’s betrayal of Cole, of her, had never strayed far from her memory since the day he’d done it.
    “Do you know why I sent the law after him? Because I knew that no one in Three Bridges would ever convict Cole Turner for killing his father. But if he ran, he’d be hunted down and likely killed by some bounty hunter.” Her father’s voice grew louder, his hands waving like an orchestra conductor tangling with a difficult piece of music. “And if he wasn’t killed, but stood trial in another town, he’d likely have been convicted of murder. Even at his age, they’d still have considered him a man, and the fact that the bullet entered from the back wouldn’t have been taken as self-defense.”
    “You know Jed Turner was standing over Cole’s mother and beating her to death.” Kate’s throat felt like it was stuffed with cotton. “Cole wasn’t strong enough to stop him with his hands. He warned his father, but it did no good.” Kate fought back the tears as she remembered how shaken Cole had been when he came to find her and tell her what he’d done before he lit out.
    “I believe that. Because I knew Jed Turner and I knew Anna. And she died not six months later, likely from the damage her husband had caused. But people who didn’t know anything about the Turners wouldn’t be so understanding. I sent the law after him so he’d have to stand trial here and his name would be cleared. So he wouldn’t spend his life on the run. So he could have a fresh start. And he became a bounty hunter with that fresh start.” He nodded to punctuate the fact.
    Her father had never explained why he had sent the sheriff after Cole. She’d always assumed he’d put the law before the man. “Why didn’t you offer him a job so he didn’t have to turn to hunting men to make a living?”
    Her father rubbed his chin as if deciding what to tell her. “I knew you were infatuated with him. You were just fifteen when his mother died. He was eighteen and full of anger by the time the trial ended. I couldn’t risk what would have happened then. I’m not prepared to risk it now.”
    It wasn’t infatuation. She’d loved Cole then, and five years later, nothing had changed. If anything, her love was stronger now that she’d seen him again, knew he’d survived, and was still the Cole she had fallen in love with. He might be harder on the outside, but there was still that softer inside he’d protected all these years. There was still a man yearning for someone to love him, to understand him.
    “Does the fact that I love him mean nothing to you?”
    “It’s just seeing him again, Kate. One thing about Cole, he’s always attracted women. Always will, given that face of his. That’s not love, Kitten.” Her father’s tone softened as if to cushion the blow his words were delivering.
    “I’m not a little girl anymore. I know what love is and isn’t. I’ve loved him for five years, though you’ve refused to believe it.” Kate was determined to make him understand this point if nothing else. “And I’ll never marry anyone but him.”
    “Then you’ll never marry.” Her father’s jaw tensed and there was fire in his eyes. In the space of a second, the softness in him was gone, the anger back.
    “Are we done?” Kate had nothing more to say. She’d warned him. That was what she had come to do.
    “You’re not to see him. No more meetings,” her father commanded, pointing his finger at her as she got up to leave. He rose from his chair, towering