Free LaceysWay by Madeline Baker Page A

Two? Four? Ten?”
    “Have you killed ten men?” Lacey asked, awed by the thought.
    “No. Just four, counting the one tonight.”
    Numbers were a relative thing, Lacey mused. Four cents
didn’t seem like much, but four dead men seemed a high number.
    “Why did you kill them?” She had not meant to ask, but her
curiosity got the best of her.
    Matt shrugged. Sitting up, he stirred the ashes and placed
the coffee pot over the glowing coals. It was obvious he wasn’t going to get
any sleep until he told Lacey what she wanted to know.
    “I used to be a gambler,” Matt said, gazing into the
distance. “I’ve got a way with cards, I guess. Always been lucky. Too lucky.
When you win too often, most men can’t believe you’re not cheating. There’s
always a few who want to shoot it out. So far, I’ve been lucky there, too.”
    “Oh.” Lacey watched Matt’s hands as he lifted the blue
enamel coffee pot and poured himself a cup of coffee. His hands were large,
capable. The fingers were long, the nails short and square. It was easy to
imagine him in a dark suit and flashy brocade vest, sitting at a green baize
table in a noisy saloon. She remembered how at home he had looked back in the
saloon, how nimble his fingers had been when he shuffled the cards. So, he had been
a gambler. “Why did you quit?”
    “The last man I killed was just a kid. He lost every cent he
had in an all-night poker game. He accused me of cheating and demanded I return
his money. When I refused, he pulled a gun on me, and I killed him.” Matt shook
his head. “I didn’t find out until later that he was only seventeen, and that
he had stolen the money he’d lost from his mother.”
    “How awful for you.”
    “Yeah, awful. I haven’t picked up a deck of cards since,
until tonight.”
    Lacey felt a rush of sympathy for the man sitting beside
her. He had turned his back on gambling, determined never to play cards again.
But he had done it for her, because they needed food and supplies to go after
her father and gambling was the quickest way to get it.
    “Matt…” Her voice trailed off as she realized she didn’t
quite know how to put her feelings into words, nor was she sure just what those
feelings were. She knew only that Matthew Drago no longer seemed like a
stranger. She felt remorse because she had caused him to do something he had
turned his back on, and affection because he had done it for her.
    “Go to bed, Lacey,” Matt said wearily.
    Lacey placed her hand on his arm and gave it a squeeze,
wanting him to know how grateful she was. “Thank you, Matt.”
    He nodded, his eyes moving over her face, his skin growing
warm where her hand rested on his arm. She was so lovely in the moonlight, so
damn lovely.
    With a low groan, he pulled her into his arms and kissed
her, his mouth drinking in the sweetness of her lips, one arm holding her tight
while his hand caressed her back. Lord, she was sweet.
    For a moment Lacey was too stunned to move, too startled to
think. She was only aware of Matt’s lips on hers, of a sudden warmth rushing
through her, as if her blood had turned to fire. She knew she should be
outraged by Matt’s ungentlemanly conduct, and she fully intended to let him
know how she felt, but first she wanted him to kiss her just a little longer.
It was such a gloriously intoxicating feeling. Shivers of excitement shook her
body, making her feel weak and a little lightheaded. No one had ever kissed her
with such passion, such fierce intensity. Breathless, she kissed him back, her
arms stealing around his waist, her body pressing against his.
    It was only when she felt his hand begin to stroke her thigh
that reality came crashing down. With a cry, Lacey pulled out of Matt’s embrace
and jumped to her feet.
    “How dare you!” she said with what she hoped was the proper
amount of righteous indignation.
    “Lacey, I’m sorry.”
    “You should be,” she replied haughtily, although she knew
she was just as guilty as