Free Reese by Lori Handeland Page B

scared. So was Jo. I wondered if I'd made a mistake."
    "Smart."
    "But I feel better about everything today."
    "I'd think you'd feel worse after that display in Sutton's store."
    "No. As Mr. Cash said, 'Boys will be boys,' especially when they're men." He gave her a narrow glare that made her smile. "Tell me this, Reese. If you were planning to rape and pillage, wouldn't you have done it already? Why wait around, take a chance of getting killed by El Diablo and the rest? Strike and run would be your motto, I'm thinking."
    "Maybe we've decided to take whatever it is El Diablo wants—there must be something—so we need to get rid of him before we get rid of all of you. You must realize, Miss McKendrick, we don't usually work this cheap."
    He had a point, and suddenly the peace she'd felt since the six had taken up residence at the hotel frayed a bit about the edges. She had no idea what these men were like. None at all. And she shouldn't trust them. Especially Reese—a man who'd kissed her the first day he'd come to town. He had to be half-crazy to do a thing like that.
    Before she could get her thoughts in order for a better argument or more intelligent questions, the church bell tolled.
    This time, Reese didn't bother to ask if there was church on Tuesday. "Inside," he snapped, shoving her toward the building.
    "I can make it home." She whirled, but before she took two steps, Reese cursed, picked her up, and hoisted her over his back. All her arguments whooshed out of her mouth when her stomach hit his rock-solid shoulder.
    "Manage this," he muttered, and kicked open the door.
    The world whirled, and everything came at her upside down. She heard Reverend Clancy sputter helplessly as he ran toward them. One growl from Reese and Clancy's footsteps receded.
    Other, lighter footsteps approached, and when Reese dumped Mary onto her feet in the aisle, Jo caught her before she fell on her face. Mary swayed, and her eyes crossed.
    "Stay," he ordered.
    Thinking she might be ill, right there in front of God and everyone, Mary merely nodded.
    A bullet hit the open front door, smattering wood chips halfway into the sanctuary.
    "They're shooting at a church!" Reverend Clancy shouted. "What kind of heathens are they?"
    "The usual kind," Reese muttered, and ran past them then out the back of the building.

 
     
     
    Chapter 6

     
    Reese erupted from the church, ducked low, and raced between the lean-tos and sheds that composed the butt of Main Street. Whenever his men began a battle without him, he panicked. If they were going to die, he was too. He'd been left behind alive once before, and everything had pretty much gone to hell after that.
    Luckily, the invading bandits knew the six were in the hotel, and that was where they headed. They didn't, at first, spare a glance for the man in black who sped in that direction, albeit the back way.
    Three feet from the hotel garden, the dirt just ahead of his boot kicked up. The report of a pistol made Reese hit the ground, execute a quick roll, then come to his knees shooting. The straggler fell from his mount and lay still. The horse kept on going.
    So did Reese, stumbling through the rear door of the hotel. Sullivan nodded from the kitchen, where he watched their backs through an open window. As Reese ran up to the second level, windows shattered on every floor.
    "I hope they weren't planning to use this hotel for anything but target practice anymore," Reese murmured, and stepped into Nate's room.
    Nate threw him a quick glance from his position on the floor next to his own shattered window. He returned his attention to the street. "Sullivan and Rico are on the first floor. No one will sneak past them. Me here; Cash two doors down. Jed's on the third floor."
    "Me too," Reese said. They'd worked together so long and so well, Reese rarely had to ask any of his men what he wanted to know. They told him long before the question left his mouth.
    He'd forgotten, in dealing with Miss Mary, to grab