Free Between Love and Lies by Jacqui Nelson Page A

me. Tell me who hurt you.”
    His hand went limp in hers as he breathed one last word, “Gertie.”
    She’d made her vow to a silent room. “I swear I’ll make her pay…in whatever way I can. She won’t keep what she stole.”
    It’d taken all her willpower to release his hand, to leave the suicide note in its place and not rip it to shreds. Gertie couldn’t suspect that Edward had spoken to her. She couldn’t know the card Sadie meant to play, for Edward and herself.
    The moment she fulfilled her pledge to retrieve Edward’s most cherished possessions, she’d stowaway on a train for Chicago, sell them there and use the funds to run even farther. No one would catch her. She’d disappear. Far away and forever.
    She couldn’t let Noah Ballantyne interfere with her promise or her plans for the future. Not again.

CHAPTER 6
     
    “It’s a shame you won’t reconsider and keep me company on the trail home.” Lewis slapped Noah on the back. “Fully understand your reasons for staying now though.”
    Noah propped his shoulder against the jailhouse post and stared at the Northern Star. Standing around trying to figure out how to help Sadie was becoming a habit. A damned frustrating one. He needed that plan Bat mentioned. Now.
    Even though they were alone on the porch, Lewis leaned closer, his voice taking on a confidential tone. “If you hadn’t shot that worthless son of a sidewinder last night, I sure as hell would’ve. There wouldn’t have been a rock he could’ve hidden under. I’d have found him and brought your girl back to you.”
    Noah swallowed his retort that Sadie wasn’t “his girl.” Buried deep beneath Lewis happy-go-lucky temperament was a territorial streak as wide as it was long. The only times Noah had seen him angry was when someone threatened to take what belonged to him or someone he cared about.
    As quickly as Lewis’ ill humor surfaced, it vanished under an easy smile. He stepped down to the street where his horse stood at the hitching post. With sure movements gleaned from a lifetime on the range, he checked the ties on his bedroll and saddle bags. “Having said that…” He paused to tighten the cinch. “You’d best take good care of Miss Sullivan or, friend or not, I’ll come back, sweep her off her feet and make her mine.”
    “I told you before. I only want to—”
    “Help her. An honorable wish.” Lewis rested his elbows on his saddle. The worry etching his brow made the muscles along Noah’s shoulders bunch. “Fact is, if you don’t claim her, someone else will. If not you or me, then probably…Wardell.”
    The name struck Noah like a punch to the gut, making him suck in his breath. “I don’t think she’d take kindly to anyone claiming her,” he muttered, shooting another glance at the Star. “All she wants is her farm back.”
    “So give it to her.”
    “And then what?” He shook his head. “Watch her work herself to death trying to farm a strip of land that’ll be flattened every spring by the first cattle drive?”
    Lewis laughed. “A lot of things can change on the way to granting a lady her wish.”
    Anger coiled in his gut. “Friend or not, I’m gonna slug you if you suggest anything inappropriate. She may work in a saloon, but she doesn’t belong there.”
    “Ever thought of courting her?”
    The image of him standing beside Sadie before an altar rose in his mind again. He shook his head. “I can’t marry her.”
    Lewis raised one brow. “Because you don’t find her attractive?”
    “Because,” Noah hissed, “she won’t willingly spend a single minute with me.”
    “Use her farm as incentive.”
    His entire body went rigid in rejection. “You’re suggesting I bribe her?”
    “Entice her.”
    “Impossible,” Noah scoffed, but his muscles had lost their stiffness. He wasn’t leaning against the blasted porch post either. When had that happened?
    “How many acres are the farms ’round here?” Lewis asked.
    “Not sure…maybe a