WildOutlaws Read Online Free PDF Page A

afternoon stagecoach.”
    Tuff leapt to his feet. “I just saw her upstairs. She was supposed to meet us a little later.”
    The woman shrugged. “Whatever you want to say to Mary Margaret will probably have to wait indefinitely. She’s cleaning out her room now.”
    “Say she’s headed out on some sort of trip?” Tuff asked.
    “Not exactly. Mary Margaret is getting out of here for good. She plans to teach.” Annabelle struck a pose and arched her brows. “Maybe she got tired of the never-ending recess around here. This playground ain’t always as fun as it looks.”
    Tuff’s gaze skipped between the bar and the table. Buck and Creed, David and Jared wore expressions mirroring his concern.
    “When’s she leavin’?” Tuff asked.
    “Soon,” Annabelle replied.
    “You gotta stop her, Tuff,” Buck said, standing.
    “Me? Why me? Hell I don’t know the woman any more than you do!”
    “Yeah, but you’re more convincing than the rest of us,” Buck reminded him.
    Tuff thinned his lips. This wasn’t good. He’d thought of all outcomes and possibilities before they made the ride to Cripple Creek. He hadn’t considered arriving there just in time to see Mary Margaret flee. “Is she going anywhere in particular?”
    The fancy lady shrugged. “How would I know? Earlier today, she mentioned teaching but I got the impression she thought she was too old to switch horses now. Then out of nowhere she’s gonna fly the coop and she don’t mean maybe. She’s gotta do it now. I reckon she’ll head out to California. She has relatives in Stockton.”
    From the bar, David jerked and turned. He gave Tuff a hard glare as if he thought he’d been had.
    “Is she ill?” Tuff asked, thinking the whores he’d known in the past generally left the business due to medical reasons, particularly a pregnancy, or a marriage.
    “No,” Annabelle replied. “But recently she’s been talking about dying and how she can’t fathom leaving this world as a whore. Seems Mary Margaret is obsessed with aging as of late.”
    David scoffed. “Great.”
    “She ain’t ready for a rocking chair, David,” Tuff called out, thinking about the lovely woman he’d finally been able to meet. While the circumstances that led them to a formal introduction had been less than desirable, at the very least he could now claim to have greeted the infamous Mary Margaret, the most accommodating whore in the West.
    David muttered to himself as he motioned the bartender. Gaining a refill, he shot Tuff a sideways glance and from the corner of his mouth, he said, “If she’s an old hag, she may not be up for the trip.”
    The bartender jerked and suddenly acted a little too interested in their pending conversation. Snatching a rag from under the bar, he started polishing the same spot of wood right next to one of his customer’s elbows.
    “She looked like she could handle anything that happened to rise to the occasion,” Tuff said.
    David laughed. “Spoken like a man waiting on a whore.”
    Creed’s arm ornament swooned. She fell in his lap, playfully kicked up her heels, and peered up at him from under batting eyelashes. “Sounds like your friend plans to sweep my girl right up off her feet.”
    “Annabelle,” Creed said bitterly. “I don’t remember asking you to sit on my lap.”
    Tuff’s nose twitched. Creed was a strange one for sure. He enjoyed women as much as the next man but he had his own set of boundaries. Annabelle just crossed them.
    Giving the woman a gentle push, Creed helped Annabelle to her feet and then stood himself. “If she’s headed out of town, we’d best go have a word with her before she gets away.”
    “I reckon so,” Tuff agreed, pursuing the stairs. The others followed right behind him—Creed and Buck were right on his heels while Jared and David eased away from their barstools only after their respective final drinks were consumed.
    Halfway up the first flight of stairs, Annabelle called after them, “What