The Lawman Claims His Bride (Love Inspired Historical) Read Online Free PDF Page A

have been signs. But that didn’t mean Megan had escaped free of harm. In truth, she feared the consequences of her night with the outlaw were far worse than cuts and bruises.
    Exposed only indirectly to her mother’s sinful lifestyle, Megan had thought she understood the gift she’d been given as a resident at Charity House. The gift of escape. The gift of respectability.
    Now, as she faced Logan for the first time in five years, she could no longer dodge the one question she’d avoided since Sheriff Scott had locked her in this cell. Because of this single incident, would she end up like her mother, alone and desperate, with no one to love?
    * * *
    Logan followed Trey outside the jailhouse and onto the planked sidewalk lining the street. Night closed in around him like a menacing presence, taunting him. He hardly noticed. Anger still rode him hard, but he forced himself to focus on the facts first. No emotion. No giving in to despair. Just cold, hard logic.
    “All right, Trey.” He spun around to face the other man. “Tell me the rest, the part you couldn’t say in front of Megan.”
    Trey rubbed a weary hand down his face and then leaned back on one foot. “You’ve heard most of it.”
    Not by half. “The blood on her dress. Is it hers or Kincaid’s?”
    “Mostly Kincaid’s.”
    Logan’s breath caught in his chest. Megan had been attacked. By a very bad man. He wasn’t sorry the outlaw was dead, but there were too many details that needed explaining. And Megan couldn’t remember what had happened to her. That left them with very little to go on.
    At least one thing was clear in Logan’s mind. “She didn’t kill Kincaid.”
    “We don’t know that for sure.”
    “Yes, we do.” A lump rose in his throat. He shoved it down with a hard swallow. “From what you described—the knife’s angled position through bone and flesh, the direction of the blade’s entry from above not below—she’s obviously innocent. Even if Kincaid had been on his knees, she’s not strong enough to have stabbed him in that manner.”
    Trey looked out in the distance before answering. When he turned his head back to Logan, his gaze was filled with remorse. “Under ordinary circumstances, I would agree with you. But Megan was brutally attacked. The will to survive, the power of the moment, fear, any of those factors could have come into play and given her the strength to defend herself.”
    “With a knife to the man’s chest? Through bone? No. That doesn’t make sense.”
    “You know it’s possible. Not probable, but possible.”
    Logan recognized the unbending look in Trey’s eyes as he spoke. The other man wasn’t going to draw any conclusions about the murder until he had concrete information. That did not bode well for Megan’s immediate freedom. Unacceptable.
    “Release her into my custody.”
    “No.”
    “I have the perfect place to take her, a place where she’ll be safe.”
    “She’s safe enough here.”
    “Not as much as she would be with me.”
    “Look, Logan, I know the situation seems bleak right now, but all is not lost. God has not abandoned Megan. Or you. Have patience, my friend. Pray for guidance. The Lord will direct your way.”
    Right. He was supposed to stand around and wait for God to free Megan. The same God who’d allowed the attack to occur in the first place.
    Logan didn’t have that much faith.
    And now he was through taking the passive route. He was through shoving his emotions aside in the name of reason. To what end? To stand around and talk about a silent God who didn’t seem to care what was happening here?
    “Release Megan into my custody,” Logan demanded again.
    “I said, no.”
    Logan went for Trey’s throat. But this time the other man was ready. At the last moment, he shifted to his left. Logan stumbled into empty air. Before he caught his balance, Trey spun him around by the shoulder and slammed him back against the wall, securing him in place with the same choke