Free Tried and True (Wild at Heart Book #1) by Mary Connealy Page B

team of oxen. Bailey had ridden out on her own horse, and before they’d even built their cabins, she’d rounded up half a dozen wild mustangs, broken them to ride, and given her sisters their own mountain-bred ponies.
    Bailey had found the perfect life for herself. Too bad it was perfectly wrong for Kylie.

8
    A aron would have made up an excuse to ride out to Kylie’s claim if he’d needed to, but lucky for him—or unlucky, depending on how a man looked at it—a reason presented itself that made the visit necessary.
    He leaned lower on his horse and urged it to a gallop. There were stretches of the trail to Kylie’s that were fairly worn and safe, and other parts with branches sagging low over the trail and stones studding the ground.
    He needed to beat Coulter there and warn Kylie of what was coming, though she seemed like a bright little thing, so she probably already suspected.
    And maybe he was a fool to hurry. Maybe Kylie would grab up a proposal from a wealthy, powerful man and never look back.
    Of course, Kylie wanted to go back East. And Coulter wasn’t about to offer her that.
    He came to the clearing by Kylie’s house and saw a scruffy blue-roan farm horse tied to Kylie’s hitching post.Then his eyes went past the horse to a wiry gray-haired man, who was dragging Kylie up the porch steps, his grip tight on her arm.
    “No! No, I won’t do it!” She yanked against the viselike hand, but the man was relentless.
    “Let her go!” Aaron shouted.
    At the sound of his approaching horse, the man turned. Kylie slipped from his grasp and fell, landing on her backside on the top step. Aaron didn’t let up his horse’s speed as he closed the distance, racing toward the man assaulting Kylie.
    Aaron halted only steps from the ugly old-timer and leapt to the ground, placing himself in front of Kylie, who scrambled to her feet.
    “You’re under arrest.” Aaron had his gun drawn before he’d made a conscious decision to reach for it.
    “Don’t shoot!” Kylie clamped a hand on Aaron’s gun arm.
    “Why not?” Aaron looked at her, surprised. Aaron had heard of women who let men abuse them. Was she going to take the side of this low-down skunk?
    Kylie frowned. Even with a sad expression she was still so pretty. She had a bonnet hanging down her back. She wore a faded blue gingham housedress, covered by a white apron, and Aaron noticed a small trowel on the ground near some flowers. It looked like she’d been busy replanting her rock garden.
    She turned to glare at the old man. “Because he’s my pa.”
    “He’s your what?” Aaron said.
    The man nodded. “I do what I like with my own child, and no man will tell me different. Now, you ride out ofhere and don’t look back.” He spun around toward Kylie. “And you get inside and change back into your britches.”
    “Pa, this is Aaron Masterson.” Kylie sounded weary, like maybe she was used to her father dragging her around and not even all that upset about it. “He knows about the homestead exemption. He found out I enrolled as a man, and he’s refused to let it stand. In fact, I suspect he’s out here right now with the revised form, looking for me to sign it. Did you change my papers?”
    Aaron’s heart still hammered, and he was having a hard time letting go of the pleasure of arresting the man who’d been treating Kylie roughly. It might matter a bit that a pa grabbing hold of his daughter’s arm wasn’t exactly against the law.
    And it mattered some that Aaron wasn’t allowed to arrest anyone. Finding out someone wasn’t obeying the rules of homesteading and disallowing his claim wasn’t exactly the same as being a sworn-in sheriff. Still, father or not, this was no way to treat a lady.
    Shoving that to the back of his mind, he focused on Kylie’s question. He hadn’t yet made the changes to her papers. “Kylie, I have to. Coulter was in town, snooping through every scrap of paper. If he’d seen that you’d originally filed as a