Free Krewe of Hunters The Unseen by Heather Graham

ever met. The ever-simmering energy within him added a vitality and heat that made him even more intriguing, more attractive.
    Seductive. She immediately tried to wipe that thought from her mind.
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    She didn’t speak but gazed at him solemnly. He’d known she was there. He hadn’t walked away when he saw her.
    Quite the opposite—he’d joined her.
    She was almost shocked when he smiled at her. “I’d like to apologize, Marshal O’Brien. I’ve been an ass.” She smiled in response. “Um, apology accepted. Except…
    you weren’t that bad,” she said with a laugh.
    “What made you come here?” he asked her.
    She shrugged. “It’s not that far from the Longhorn, where I’m staying. I wasn’t ready to go back and answer a bunch of questions about the meeting. I needed time.” He nodded, looking toward the chapel. “I wondered if you’d come here because this is where Chelsea Martin was last seen.”
    “It might’ve had something to do with that.”
    “You going to accept Jackson Crow’s offer?” he asked her.
    “I…don’t know. Maybe. You?”
    “This morning, I would’ve given him a definite no.
    Now…I’m not sure. Either way, I want to find out what there is to see at the morgue tomorrow.” She felt a tightening inside. Yes. The morgue.
    They were both silent for a minute. Then he began to speak, his tone relaxed.
    “The Alamo’s a shrine,” he said softly. “Of course, it’s different than it was at the time of the battle. The chapel and this area—including the long barracks—was just a small part of the original Alamo,” Logan explained. “The walls extended for a quarter of a mile. In fact, that was one of the problems for the defenders once Santa Anna’s men breeched IN PROCESS EDITION - JAN. 10, 2012
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    the walls—the place was too big to protect easily. The men who fought here fought hard, and they fought knowing they were likely to die.” He glanced at her. “Courage is being afraid—and going ahead, anyway.”
    Kelsey nodded in agreement.
    “Santa Anna had his men raise a red f lag in a nearby church tower, and that bloodred f lag indicated there’d be no quarter given. But, of course, the Alamo was part of a bigger story, and like most history, it depends on who is doing the telling. The Spanish had been in control. They’d signed a treaty ceding Florida to the U.S. and creating a boundary between the United States and Spanish America. But before that, men called impresarios, Stephen Austin among them, had been luring Americans into Texas with land grants that required no down payment. Then the Mexicans fought the Spanish for independence and won.
    Santa Anna become president, or more accurately, dictator. Texians or Anglo-Americans, and Tejanos, Mexican-Texans, had been living under the Constitution of 1824
    until Santa Anna rescinded it and pretty much pissed them all off.”
    “Which led to what happened here,” she said, absorbed in what he was telling her.
    “Right. But a lot of movies about the Alamo forgot to depict the Tejanos who were part of the effort— and part of the effort to create an independent Texas. Some of the early books and movies about the Alamo were downright racist. The good old Anglo-Americans were the heroes, while the Tejanos who fought just as hard were ignored.
    I’m glad to say we’re moving past that.” He smiled slightly.
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    “But it’s also true that regardless of background, these men weren’t on some idealistic mission for freedom and honor.
    They were like most of us—looking for a way to make a better life for themselves.”
    “And there would’ve been no Texas without both groups,” Kelsey remarked.
    His smile deepened. “Santa Anna miscalculated. He thought that his ‘no quarter given’ policy would