Shadow Walker Read Online Free PDF Page A

she could feel the hard ridge beneath his trousers.
    “Let me go!”
    “Not on your life.” His mouth jammed down hard on hers. When he tried to push his tongue into her mouth, she bit down hard on it. “Ow, you little bitch! Don’t play hard to get with me. Your man’s dead. You got no one to take care of you. You ain’t no beauty. It ain’t gonna be easy findin’ another man.
    “Look at you.” His gaze slid over her with barely concealed disgust. “Look at your face. You’re a mess. Why did Billy beat you? Be good to me and I’ll be good to you. Let’s go back inside. The ground’s a mite hard for what I got in mind.”
    Dawn resisted vigorously, finally pulling free. “If I’m no beauty, why do you even bother with me? There are plenty of willing women in Dodge. I thought you came for your money. You can’t find it doing what you have in mind.”
    “You can stop pretending. You know I want you. You’ve been teasing me for years, paradingaround in them baggy clothes, making me guess what you got underneath besides those sweet little titties. I’m gonna have you, lady. And I want you wild beneath me, just like you were with Billy. But you’re right, it will keep. After I find that train loot we’ll spread it out on the bed and roll around on it while we have us a good old time.”
    Dawn was too grateful for the reprieve to say anything. She needed time to think. No man was going to make a victim of her again, she thought fiercely. She’d kill Duke Riley before she’d let him use her. Billy Cobb was dead. She had earned her freedom. The shackles binding her to a life of pain and degradation had been severed forever. Something had snapped inside her during Billy’s last beating. If Cole Webster hadn’t killed Billy, she would have done it herself.
    “Go fix us some grub. I rode all night to get here. Had to make sure the law wasn’t following me. Billy always kept the loot until we could meet back here and divide it. Claimed he’d found a hiding place for it close to the cabin.” He glanced around him, saw the shed and smiled. “I’ll start with that shed over yonder. Call me when the grub’s ready.”
    Dawn knew with a certainty that Duke would not find the sack of money in the shed. She knew where Billy had hidden it, and it was where no one could find it.
    While Dawn sliced bacon, put beans on to cook and made biscuits with the last of the flour, she worried that the handsome lawman would return and, unsuspecting, walk into a dangerous situation. Unfortunately, there was no way to warn Cole. He could return at any time. Knowing Dukeas she did, he wouldn’t leave until he found the money, and that frightened Dawn. Cole could be walking right into a trap.
    Dawn was faced with a dilemma. Should she lead Duke to the money so he’d leave before Cole returned? Would telling him make any difference in what he intended where she was concerned? The answer to that was a resounding no. She’d recognized the look in Duke’s eyes. He meant to have her whether he found the money or not. And without the money, Dawn had nothing. She’d be forced to seek work in a brothel. Whenever Billy was displeased with her, he’d threatened to sell her to a madam he knew in Garden City.
    Suddenly the door crashed open and Duke stormed inside. “I tore that damn shed apart and didn’t find a thing. Is the grub ready? I’m starving.”
    Dawn nodded jerkily and started to turn away. Duke stopped her, grasping her roughly by the shoulders. He gave her a slow smile. “You look mighty fetching today, Dawn. Don’t recollect ever seeing you look so pretty.”
    Dawn flushed, sorry now that she’d bathed the dirt and grime away last night in the river. Her midnight black hair spilled straight and thick down her slender back and over her narrow shoulders. Her cornflower blue eyes were as large as saucers in her bruised face. But Duke’s gaze did not linger on her face. They fastened greedily on her breasts.
    Dawn