Free TheSurrenderofLacyMorgan by Suzanne Ferrell Page B

finding something for our dinner.”
    “I don’t know why you bother feeding me. He plans to see me
hang for the bank robbery killings.”
    “We’re marshals. It’s our job to see justice is served.”
    “Tormenting me is serving justice? Taking me back as a
present to Devil is serving justice?” She pushed against his arms, and this
time he let her go. She sloshed through the water a few feet, then turned,
planting her hands on her hips. “If you want justice so badly, why don’t you
just hang me now?”
    “Punishment without truth isn’t justice, kitten.”
    A chill ran over her body. Whether from her nakedness or his
enigmatic statement, she wasn’t sure. Turning, she stumbled onto the riverbank
and scooped up the shirt they’d stripped from her earlier. Tears blinding her,
she struggled to slip her arms into the sleeves. Just as she managed to get the
buttons fastened, Dakota’s hands landed on her shoulder. She stilled her
frantic movements as he kneaded her shoulders.
    “Trust us. We’ll find the truth, and protect you too.”
    “The truth is, I helped in a robbery, and because of me
three people are dead. How are you going to protect me from that?”
    * * * * *
    “What do you mean you found the horse but not the girl?”
Devil Morgan slammed his hands onto the table, sloshing whiskey out of his
glass. “She don’t go nowhere without that nag.”
    Santos leaned back in his chair, lifting the two front legs
in the air, studying his fingernails nonchalantly. “She sold it.”
    “Why the hell would she do that?” Devil resisted the urge to
draw iron and pump his second-in-command full of lead.
    “Apparently she needed money.”
    “What the hell for? She took all of that last haul we made
when she high-tailed it out of here.” He lifted his glass and threw the last of
the cheap whiskey down his throat, feeling it burn all the way to his gut. When
he got his hand on that bitch again, he’d enjoy tearing the hide off her, one
whip stroke at a time. “Where was it you found the horse?”
    “A town on the Colorado side of the border. Her trail
disappeared from there. Probably took the stage down to Denver. It’s what I’d
do.”
    “But she ain’t you. She’s a woman and that means she don’t
think right. Her mama never did.” He reached down and adjusted his stiff cock.
Thinking how he’d punish the bitch when he got his hands on her always got him
hard. “You told me once she was in on the robbery, she’d be easy to handle.”
    Santos shrugged. “Like you said, she don’t think right.”
    “She should’ve been cowering, afraid the law would get her.
Her mama would’ve been. Instead she bolted.” Devil poured more whiskey into his
glass. “Took my money and rode out just before the pass froze over. Knew I
wouldn’t be able to track her until the thaw.”
    “She’s got guts. It was her most seductive quality.” A leer
spread over Santos’ lips just beneath the pencil-thin black moustache. “That and
her magnificent tits.”
    Jealous rage flooded Devil. He ought to kill the bastard.
Santos had sampled the bitch’s body to convince her to ride with the gang, and
he hated him for it. He’d craved taking her himself since she’d started growing
those tits. When her voodoo mama died on him, he should’ve just forced her to
take her place, but Santos said his plan would work better, and not trigger the
curse her mama put on him.
    He let out a growl of frustration. “Get the men together. I
want everyone scouring the countryside for her. I’ll give five twenty-dollar
gold pieces to the man who brings her back.”
    “Dead or alive?”
    He licked his lips and grinned at Santos. “Alive. Make sure
they know I want her very much alive.”
    * * * * *
    Huddled in her shirt and blanket, Lacy sat on the opposite
side of the fire, her hair a riotous mass of curls hanging down her back, still
damp from her bath. She hadn’t said much during their meal of quail and cooked
beans, and now