Torched: A Thriller Read Online Free PDF Page A

quickly. Blaine refilled her
mug and Bo grinned while she wolfed her food down.
    “Got some place
to be, don’t you Ms. James?” he said.
    Terri flashed an
embarrassed smile, then dabbed a bit of egg from the corner of her mouth.
“Sorry. Yes, Bo—I’m anxious to get going. Sooner begun, sooner done.”
    “Fair enough,”
he replied. “I’ll go get the horses saddled. Just come on out to the barn when
you’re all set.”
    Terri nodded and
went to the sink to rinse her dish. Blaine eased his lanky frame down into a
chair at the kitchen table, and Penny followed suit.
    “You got that
look about you, Terri,” he said. He wore a wry smile—not an ounce of humor in
it. His eyes never blinked.
    “What look is
that?”
    Blaine just
shook his head, grinning. It was an unpleasant expression, and she felt the
skin on the back of her neck dimple. She raised her eyebrows.
    Penny sighed.
“He means you look like a killer, Terri.”
    Terri scoffed.
She looked away. “Oh yeah? With all due respect, Penny, just how do you know
that?”
    “Because I’ve
seen that look before. Used to see it quite often, as a matter of fact. Right
there on my husband’s face.”
    Terri studied
them. Blaine’s grin had vanished, but he held her eyes with his own. There was
a warning there, but she ignored it and looked right through him—right through
him and into a time when her little girl’s hand had been whole and her son
could sleep through the night without wetting the bed or shrieking in his
sleep.
    “Look, I
appreciate your hospitality, Mr. and Mrs. Pinkerton. I sincerely do. I would be
honored to repay it if you’re ever in Colorado.
    “But I’m going
to collect my things now. I’ll leave the money on the nightstand, and I’ll be
back for my car in six days—eight at the outside. If I’m not back by sunset on
the eighth day, you have every right to dispose of it. I understand.”
    She left them
there. The Pinkertons exchanged a glance, then Blaine stood and took his wife’s
coffee cup to the sink, where he ditched the dregs from both and rinsed them.
    He peered out
the window to the eastern horizon, where a thin band of orange was just
beginning to light the morning.
    ***
    Terri had
forgotten how comfortable she was in the saddle. Before they’d had children,
she and Sheldon had spent many weekends at the Westgate River Ranch in Lake
Wales. They’d spent their mornings exploring the area’s horse trails, and their
nights exploring each other.
    She banished the
memory, turning her gaze to the sky. Texas was made for the edges of the day;
the sunrises and sunsets were breathtaking. Pinks and blues and yellows brought
the sage to life, and their horses clopped steadily toward a dense thicket of
trees in the distance.
    The border fence
pulled back into view, looming a few miles off to the west.
    “You guys get
much immigrant traffic on your property?” she asked. Bo had been content to
ride in silence, occasionally spitting tobacco juice on the dusty ground.
    He shrugged.
“Some. This way I’m taking you—it’s definitely a two-way street.”
    “What do you do?
I mean…how do you respond if you run into somebody on your property?”
    “Well, we
usually let well enough alone. No cause to do anything otherwise. We’re so far
south that they’re all just passing through. Nobody takes up much around here.”
    Terri nodded.
“It’s got to be a strange dynamic, the way everyone lives so close to the edges
down here. Does it ever bother you?”
    Bo laughed.
“Naw. We spend our fair share of time down in Mexico as well.” He squinted at
Terri. “Benny didn’t tell you much about my dad, did he?”
    Terri shook her
head. “Why?”
    Bo’s lip curled
in a wry grin. “Let’s just say, people find their way to America in all sorts
of ways. I’ll leave it at that. I was born here, but my old man surely wasn’t.
    “Come on now,
Terri. Let’s let these fellows open it up some. I can feel ol’ Curtis here