Jackson Colster learns another young girl has been sold into prostitution and helps her to escape until he’s caught and beaten by the madam’s goons. Left to die on the prairie, he’s soon rescued by the one face he can’t forget, Hannah Williams. The girl he refused to help.
Can the preacher keep the girl from seeking the revenge she craves and heal her wounded past or will she help him get over his haunting nightmares?
Contents
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Copyright © 2015 by Sylvia McDaniel
All Rights Reserved
Published by Virtual Bookseller, LLC
Cover Art by Lyndsey Llewellen
Release date: September 3, 2015
This book and parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the author and publisher, except as provided by the United States of America copyright law. The only exception is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Chapter 1
Hannah Williams knew life was hard. This past year had shown her she could never let her guard down, or she’d suffer the consequences. That very guard was firmly in place as she watched a man beaten while she hid in the bushes on the outskirts of Hide Town, Texas.
In this town, the bad guys were in control, and she’d returned to get revenge on the people who’d changed her life forever—to reclaim her good name and kill the man responsible for her misfortune and the woman who’d helped him.
From the shadows, she watched the madam’s three goons beat the man who hung limply between them, no longer fighting. His face was bloodied, his eyes already swelling shut, his lip cracked and bleeding.
Oh, how she wanted to scurry away, leave him and the goons, and mind her own business. But what if Ruby hadn’t rescued her? What if six months ago she’d ridden away, leaving Hannah behind?
How could she walk away from someone in need?
“Enough,” one of the men said. “I think he’s damn near dead.”
“Let’s go,” the ringleader said. “It’s getting close to dark, and I’ve got things to do besides beat a stupid man.”
“What about the girl?”
Hannah sank back deeper into the shadows. What girl were they talking about? While she’d returned to town seeking retribution, she wasn’t ready to show herself just yet.
“She’s not here. He must have gotten her out of town.”
“Damn, she was a pretty one. I was looking forward to getting me a piece of that young’un.”
Alarm spiraled through Hannah, yet she wasn’t afraid. Her resolve strengthened, and she reached down and felt the gun at her side. Lovingly, she touched the revolver, knowing she didn’t fear using it on any man who would harm her.
“If you think she’s so gorgeous, you chase her into a town where the sheriff doesn’t look the other way. You’ll be looking down her father’s rifle in no time with a village full of people ready to string you up for hurting one of their own.”
Another young girl must have been captured, and they’d tried to force her into prostitution.
Dropping the man’s arms, they let him fall to the ground. “Let’s leave him for the coyotes.”
One of the men gave the senseless man a swift kick in the ribs. The body on the ground moved but didn’t make a sound. She wondered if he was dead.
The outlaws climbed on their horses. Hannah watched as they spurred them and rode off in the semi-darkness. Now what did she do?
Creeping out of the shadows, she hurried to the man on the ground and rolled him over. He groaned, letting her know he lived. There was little time in case the goons returned. The beaten man had one chance to get on her horse, or she was leaving him behind.
She shook him. Slowly, he opened his swollen eyelids and tried to gaze at her.
“Do you want to live?” she asked, knowing they needed to get out of here before the outlaws circled back to finish the job they’d started and found them both.
He groaned.
“If you want to live, you’ve got to help me get you on my horse. I can’t do this alone.”
There was no way she could get him in the saddle without his help, and there was no way he could walk. And there was no way she was staying here on the prairie tonight without a fire.
“Leave me. Let me die,” he groaned. “I’ll be in a better place.”
Shaking her head, she started to walk away and then went back, unable to do as he requested. “Better hope the coyotes don’t find you before you die. Because there are a lot of those critters around here, and they’re hungry. They like to play with their food for a while before they rip into the carcass. You’ll taste pretty yummy to them.”
“All right, you made your point.”
She watched as the man crawled to his knees, shaking his head. Rushing to his side, she helped him to his feet. Placing her arms beneath his armpits, she supported him as he hobbled to her horse. “What did you do that angered the madam’s goons?”
“You’re in danger,” he managed to mumble between swollen lips. “Leave me.”
“I live with danger,” she spat out. She had only one goal left worth living for. After that, she didn’t care what happened to her. But she wasn’t dying until her revenge was complete. If it took her fighting from the pit of hell, she’d settle the score for losing her innocence and the killing of her mother.
Helping him crawl up on her horse, she climbed up behind him. He leaned forward, hugging the animal’s neck, barely able to ride, and she feared he would fall before they could reach the abandoned shack she’d claimed as her own.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Jackson Colster,” he muttered through swollen lips.
At the name, anger rushed through her like a strong wind. This ugly man was the damn preacher who had turned his back on her when she’d tried to escape, the very man who her mother had gone to and told she feared her husband. His only response was to tell her that marriage was forever.
This preacher man? Hannah hadn’t cared whether he lived or died so why was she now helping him to live?
The urge to push him off her horse and leave him behind was strong, but Hannah was not going to be a hypocrite like the one she had riding on her horse. She’d give him shelter, doctor his wounds, and send him on his way.
While she prepared for the coming battle.
Jackson slipped in and out of consciousness as they rode through the darkness. He knew he was lucky to be alive, though at this second, he wished he would die. There wasn’t a spot on his body that didn’t throb, even his big toe felt like they’d taken a hammer to the digit. For a moment, he’d thought an angel had arrived to take him to heaven, but when she said she was leaving him for the coyotes, he knew he was still here on earth.
Someone had rescued him, and that didn’t feel right.
The horse stopped, and the girl slipped over the side. “Come on, we’re here.”
He had no idea where here was, but at least his sore body wouldn’t be bouncing on the back of a slow moving horse. Gingerly, he slid his leg over the side and let his torso slide down the animal. When his feet touched the ground, he would have fallen, except there were two small strong hands there steadying him.
“Where are we?”
“An abandoned shack,” she said. “I’m sorry, but there are no fires and no lights.”
“Why not?” he asked, not really caring, but wondering just the same.
“Don’t need any unwanted company,” she sa
id, vague in her response.
There was no way he could survive another beating, so he was fine hiding out.
They took a step toward the cabin, and he wanted to groan with the smallest movement, but he bit his lip to hold in his response.
“Just a little further, and then we’ll get you settled for the night.”
“Thank you,” he said softly, knowing he owed this woman for saving his life.
“Don’t thank me,” she said, her voice tense in the darkness. “I didn’t save you because I like you. I saved you because someone else rescued me. I’m just paying back the universe for sending someone who had the courage to get me out of that hellhole.”
Like a bolt of lightning striking the ground in front of him, he recognized the young woman.
The whore who had begged him to liberate her from the madam. At the time, he’d been new to town and believed she’d willingly chosen her lifestyle. Now, he knew different. Now, he knew the ugly truth surrounding the way the madam acquired her new girls.
Hannah Williams was the girl he’d refused to help, the one he’d always regretted turning his back on. “Hannah, why did you return?”
“Only one reason, preacher man. Revenge. You’re just lucky I’m not interested in killing you for your lack of compassion.”
Preacher man came out sounding like an insult, a slur to his profession. She had every right to be angry with him, but right now he just couldn’t feel any worse than he already did. And he’d stolen the last young girl from the madam.
“I didn’t save you, but you rescued me.”
“I damn sure did. Shows I have more compassion than you do.”
He sighed. Being a man of God was never easy, and Hannah had been one of his many failings. “I wish you hadn’t come back.”
“Why?”
“You should have ridden as far from this town as possible. I don’t know if it’s worth liberating.” How do you save a town filled with the worst of humanity? Yet, he’d done what he could to help the innocent lives that were forced to live in this Sodom and Gomorrah.
“Who says I want to save the town?”
He turned to gaze at the young, beautiful woman. Hate seemed to ooze from her body and he couldn’t blame her. “Why would you return?” he asked again.
“My destiny is to kill the people who harmed me. And I aim to do just that.”
Killing would not bring her the restitution she craved. Maybe not today, but sometime in the future she would regret her vengeful actions. He knew from experience that taking another man’s life haunted a person’s spirit. Eventually the realization of what she’d done would eat away at her soul like a cancer.
The next morning Hannah watched Jackson sleeping on the small bed in the center of the cabin. He really needed a doctor, but she didn’t know of one in town who wouldn’t rush to the sheriff and tell him of Jackson’s injuries. So instead, she would see if the stable boy would get her the supplies she needed to take care of Jackson’s wounds herself. Unless he was close to dying, they were on their own.
And if he died…not a great loss in her opinion. One less negligent person in a town of fools.
He stirred in the bed, moaning. “Melissa.”
Who’s Melissa? Rising from the hard floor where she’d spent the night, Hannah gazed over at him, and he opened his eyes. “Good morning.”
Last night, Jackson had passed out the moment she got him in the bed. Then she’d removed his clothes and bathed his injuries.
She watched as he lifted the sheet and realized he was naked as the day he’d been brought into this world. “You took my clothes.”
A smile flitted across her face at the memory. She’d seen the preacher naked and enjoyed the sight of his male body. “Yes, I did,” she said, scooping some water for him.
He drank greedily from the dipper. “You saw me naked.”
“Honey, you’re not the first man I’ve seen naked. Last I checked, parts are all the same.”
With a snort, he leaned back against the pillows. “But they’re my parts and I don’t let just anyone see them.”
“Too bad,” she said with a shrug. “They weren’t all that bad.”
A blush came over his cheeks, and she knew she’d gotten to him. Good. He deserved to be uncomfortable for as long as possible.
She moved around the cabin, putting the dipper back in the pail of water, before she found the hard tack biscuits she’d stored.
“You got away. Why did you come back?”
His memory from last night must be foggy because she was certain they’d discussed this on the ride to the lean-to. “Simple. Revenge.”
Vindication was what had got her through the long days and nights of having sex with faceless men. Retribution was what she had for breakfast every morning, and payback was what fed her at supper. Soon, she would wreck havoc on the people who’d harmed her.
“Revenge is the devil’s advocate,” he said with a sigh.
“Yes, preacher man, it is, and I fully expect to go to hell, but I’ll be following the people who ruined my life.” For a moment, she missed the fun-loving girl she’d once been before her mother had died and her stepfather had sold her to the madam for a gambling debt he owed. He would be the first bastard she shot.
With a sigh, Jackson gazed at her, his brown eyes shining through the slits of his swollen lids. “I’m not a preacher man anymore. My congregation deserted me. God has deserted me, and my faith is shattered. I’m nothing.”
She stared at him. While she could see the pain in his eyes and hear it in his voice, it was still hard to feel sympathy. She’d asked for his help, and he’d told her to return to the bordello where she belonged. “You’re a man of God, or you wouldn’t have become a preacher.”
Turning his head, he glanced out the window. “I think I made a mistake. I should never have taken up the ministry.”
If he was looking for sympathy, he wasn’t getting it from her. Her well had run dry a long time ago. She wasn’t certain what had pushed him to think he wasn’t a good minister, and frankly, she didn’t care.
Standing, she gazed at him. This morning the bruises were clearly visible, and his face was starting to turn black and blue. His lips were cracked, and she could tell it cost him a lot just to talk.
“Oh, you’ve made some mistakes. We all have. Welcome to the land of sinners.” For months, she’d hated this man. She’d wasted one of her opportunities to leave town on seeking his help, and he’d turned her away.
“I’m sorry, Hannah. I let you down.”
Oh no, he was not getting off this easy. In her darkest hour, he’d rebuffed her. Just saying I’m sorry was not going to make the shame go away.
“No, you weren’t there for me. But a girl I’d never seen before, she not only saved my life, she gave me purpose. Unlike you, she’s someone I can depend on. I’m forever in Ruby McKenzie’s debt.”
“And now I’m in your debt.”
She didn’t want him in arrears to her. It felt wrong, yet part of her couldn’t help but laugh at the way life had him beholden to her.
Taking another hardtack biscuit out, she handed it to him. “Eat up. This is breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
He shook his head. “I’m not hungry.”
“Eat it anyway,” she said coldly. “The sooner you get well, the sooner we go our separate ways.”
She sank down on the bed and ate her biscuit. The logical part of her mind said she needed to feel compassion for this broken man, but the girl who had lost everything felt no remorse. He’d turned his back on her, and she’d spent another month in that hellhole of a brothel servicing men.
A shudder rippled through her, almost gagging her at the ugliness in her past. That was behind her; she’d die before she went back into that whorehouse. Now she had a gun, she knew how to use it, and she wouldn’t think twice about killing anyone who tried to force her into that den of inequity. In fact, she almost relished the thought of the madam and her goons coming for he
r.
They’d be dead men walking.
“How do you plan on getting revenge?” he asked. “Don’t you think they’ll be waiting for you?”
Right now, she had no set plan, except to find her stepfather. Once she found and killed him, she would come back for the madam. Then she would release the girls from their servitude.
Sure, some of the women had chosen that lifestyle, but others had not, and those women, Hannah wanted to help escape. Somewhere, they could begin anew.
Funny, she didn’t see her life past this moment in time. This was her destiny. Maybe even her death.
“No. Who would suspect sweet little Hannah Williams would return and bring about vengeance?” she said bitterly. “I’m going to rescue the girls, give them their freedom, and put an end to Madam Hutchins’ reign of terror on this town.”
“What about the sheriff? How are you going to stop him?”
She smiled. “The same way I plan on stopping the madam. One bullet at a time.”
His face grimaced in pain, and she realized he was hurting. “Do you want another sip of water?”
“No,” he said, shifting in the bed. “I hurt all over. A good dose of whiskey would ease the pain.”
“Sorry, I don’t drink,” she said, remembering how her mother would not allow alcohol in their home. How she’d taught her to be a lady. A God-fearing woman who attended church each Sunday and read her Bible each night.
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