Native Cowboy Read Online Free Page A

the conclusion I would draw,” Mason stated, his dark eyes fierce. “The question is who.”
    Cara clenched her medical bag with a white-knuckled grip.
    “Tell me everything you know about her, Cara. She was your patient, did she mention that anyone was bothering her? Maybe she had a stalker?”
    Cara shook her head. Although she had felt like someone had been watching her lately. Not that she’d seen anyone; it was just an eerie feeling every now and then that someone was behind her. Or that someone had been in the clinic.
    She’d attributed it to the fact that her friend Sadie Whitefeather had had a couple of break-ins at the reservation clinic. Since the Winchester clinic wasn’t in the best part of town, it might be targeted if someone was looking for drugs, too.
    “Cara?”
    She jerked her attention back to Mason. “No, she didn’t mention anyone.”
    “Did she have a boyfriend? Lover?”
    Cara chewed her lower lip. This was sticky territory.
    But in light of Nellie’s mutilated body, she had to help Mason find the woman’s killer, no matter the cost.
    “A boyfriend.” She twisted her hands together. “But I don’t think he would do this.”
    Mason quirked his mouth to the side. “I’ll need to talk to him. Did she mention any other adversaries? Someone she might have upset lately? A coworker? Friend?”
    She shook her head no, although Nellie’s secret haunted her. What if it had something to do with her death?
    “Did she work?”
    “She was a waitress at a coffee shop, but she was taking classes to become a hairstylist.”
    “So no one in the class was bothering her? She didn’t have a stalker from the coffee shop?”
    She shifted, weighing the truth. “No. Not that I know of.”
    “Cara, please,” Mason said, obviously picking up on her nerves. “Tell me what you know.”
    She hated to broach the subject, especially in light of her own condition, but she had to do everything possible for Nellie. And that meant finding justice for the brutal way she’d died.
    “We need to talk in private,” she said quietly.
    His gaze shot to her stomach again, and she shook her head, warning him that her pregnancy wasn’t important right now. While he and the sheriff had examined the car, Kim had driven the kids back to the camp, so she gestured for him to follow her to the rocks where they’d been sitting. When she reached the boulder, she sat down, relieved to take the pressure off her lower back.
    Mason didn’t sit, though. He stood and folded his arms, waiting.
    God, he could be insufferable like that. Quiet, brooding and...dark. Intense.
    Almost scary.
    And sexy as hell.
    “Cara?”
    “Nellie recently had a baby,” she said in a low voice.
    He hissed between his teeth. “Dammit, I saw a rattle in the car. You think this man kidnapped the child?”
    “No, and the baby may not have anything to do with her murder, but...she gave the child up for adoption when it was born.”
    Mason’s frown deepened, carving grooves in his chiseled tanned jaw. “And the boyfriend? Did he know about the adoption?”
    Cara sighed. This hadn’t been her secret to tell. And it could open a can of worms between her and Mason.
    Still Nellie’s mangled body taunted her. “He knew,” she said in a low whisper. “But I...”
    “You what?” Mason asked harshly.
    “I think he changed his mind after the baby was taken away.”
    Miles released a curse. “Meaning he had motive.”
    * * *
    F ROM HIS PERCH on the hill, he watched the scene unfolding. That Indian cop uncovering the stones.
    The bastard knew what they meant.
    Did he know what the woman had done to deserve to die?
    Why he had to take it upon himself to rid the world of unclean women like her?
    Laughter bubbled in his throat as he spotted the sheriff with those crime guys. Let them look for evidence all they wanted.
    Hell, he’d been careful. They wouldn’t find anything he didn’t want them to find.
    He dug the toe of his boot into the dirt, wished it