The Perfect Outsider Read Online Free PDF

clue her in to his identity. Apart from his watch. She removed it and studied it. It was high-tech, complete with altimeter, barometer and compass, the kind of equipment a serious outdoor enthusiast would wear. Her thoughts turned to his GPS and the route he’d save on it. She made a mental note to get it out of her pack and go through it thoroughly later.
    “Do you need anything else?”
    June spun round, startled by the male voice.
    It was Davis. The middle-aged man had entered the room, placed a pile of clean clothes on the chair next to the bed.
    June’s face felt hot. “Thanks, Davis. I think we should get someone out to stand guard at the canyon entrance for a while—I’m worried Samuel’s men might come looking for this guy, if he is actually one of them, and stumble upon our passageway. Can you do it?”
    Davis looked at her oddly. “Are you okay, June?”
    “I’m fine,” she said a little too crisply. Then she rubbed her brow. “I’m just really worried about Lacy and the twins. I should have found them by now. I—”
    “You will find them, June. If anyone can, it’s you and Eager.”
    Emotion surged into her eyes, and the burden of responsibility she’d undertaken, the amount of trust these people put in her, was suddenly overwhelming.
    “Thanks, Davis.”
    “I’ll take the first watch. Brad can replace me.”
    “Don’t forget to take a radio. And one of the shotguns.”
    He paused at the door. “You really think they’ll come?”
    She glanced at Jesse. “I hope not.”
    I hope I haven’t made the biggest mistake in my life by bringing him here.
    “Make sure Molly has a receiving radio tuned in to the right frequency. Tell her to keep it with her at all times and to pass it on to someone else if she wants to sleep.”
    Davis closed the door behind him as he left.
    * * *
    June busied herself cleaning and disinfecting the wounds on Jesse’s head and leg. She administered local anesthetic, stitched him up and applied dressing. He remained conscious but in a state of exhausted half sleep, which both puzzled and worried her.
    She put dry track pants on him and took a moment to study the tattoo on his hip again.
    With surprise she realized the D was fresh—maybe only seven to ten days old, the skin around the ink still pink and slightly inflamed.
    She frowned. This didn’t fit the picture for one of Samuel’s henchmen. The enforcers Samuel used tended to be solidly entrenched Devotees who’d proved themselves to him and demonstrated they were able and prepared to defend Samuel’s empire violently. Or, at least, those were the henchmen she knew of.
    June’s chest tightened with conflict as she covered the stranger with more blankets. She packed up her first-aid kit, and suddenly a wave of fatigue hit hard. She told herself it was just the adrenaline wearing off. She still had to go out and look for Lacy and the twins—she’d start along the west flank where she and Eager had found Jesse and his gun. There was no way she’d be able to put in even a cursory appearance with Fargo’s search party at this late stage of the morning, so she’d spend her time searching solo with her K9.
    Molly entered the room carrying a tray with a bowl of steaming vegetable soup. She eyed Jesse with hostility as she set the tray on the table next to the bed.
    June shook his shoulder, gently rousing him. “Jesse—Molly brought you some soup. I think you should get some warmth into you.”
    His thick lashes fluttered and he turned his head from side to side.
    * * *
    He could hear her voice—soft, sexy, feminine—as if it were coming from a faraway place with warm light. He felt her hand on his bare shoulder—her skin soft, cool. So feminine. He struggled to swim up to full consciousness—to her—and his eyes fluttered open. But everything was a hazy blur, bright. Then slowly, the room came into focus. And he saw her, sitting beside his bed.
    An angel. With flaming-red hair. Beautiful, fine-boned