Ropes and Revenge Read Online Free Page A

Harmless and kind. And he’d treated her like a trespasser, despite the fact that she’d been invited onto the ranch and told she could spend as much time communing with her spirits as she would like.
    And hell, if there were such a thing as ghosts, this would be a place for them. Dozens of Apache women and children had been slaughtered not far from here. The legend that this pool had run red with their blood was part of the reason the first Lonesome Point Lawson had gotten such a good deal on their ranch. Back then, all the locals had believed the spring and the land around it were cursed, and no white man who made his home here would ever find happiness.
    John had never believed in the curse before. He’d had no reason to. He’d had an idyllic childhood and, aside from his father’s death when he was in his early twenties, his adulthood had been even better. Until Lily had died, he’d been living in a slice of heaven here on earth, taking the everyday miracle of working a job he loved and coming home to a woman he adored and two healthy kids for granted.
    Now he took nothing for granted and questioned almost everything.
    Maybe there was a curse on this land. Maybe ghosts were real, and so were people who could communicate with them. Suddenly his black and white world was full of disturbing shades of gray and doubt frayed the edges of every previously held belief.
    Who was he to treat a perfectly nice woman like she was a nutcase, when half the time he had no idea what he stood for anymore?
    No one, that’s who. And if he were the man he’d been when Lily was alive, he would get back on his horse, ride after Percy, and apologize.
    Instead, he led Darcy to the pool to get a drink and stood watching the shadows deepen beneath the surface of the water, thinking about all the unanswered questions that shadowed his heart and wondering how much darker his world would get before he saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER TWO
    Percy
     
    All the way back to her hotel in downtown Lonesome Point, Percy stewed in a potent mixture of anger, disappointment, and frustration. She was usually a centered person, so in control of her emotions that she was often described as “chilly” by the kind of people who were quick to judge, but nothing upset her more than sensing a spirit close by and not being able to make contact.
    She was so worked up that once she parked her rental car in the Blue Saloon Hotel parking lot, she bypassed the entrance to the lobby and headed straight for the bar. Percy wasn’t much of a drinker, either, but right now a glass of white wine might be the only thing capable of cooling her heated blood.
    She pushed through the swinging doors to the saloon, pausing to soak in the Old West feel of the place. The long, polished bar was a heavy, ornamented thing from another century and across the room a small wooden stage shrouded with thick red curtains practically begged for an old time burlesque performance. Aside from the jukebox and the modern clothing on the patrons scattered throughout the tables and cozied up to the bar, she could have been transported back to another age.
    Immediately, her foul mood grew a few degrees fairer. Her passion for servicing the spiritually distressed was rivaled only by her passion for historical treasures. She’d been a history junkie since the day her father had taken her to the Metropolitan Museum’s Egyptian exhibit for her fifth birthday.
    She couldn’t resist trailing her fingers along the polished wood of the bar, tracing the hand carved vines that swirled along the edge. She was so drawn in she didn’t realize she had company until a bright voice sounded beside her.
    “Isn’t it gorgeous? I could fondle this baby all day long.”
    Percy turned to find the clerk who had checked her in early this morning sliding onto the stool beside her. The petite Asian woman had changed from her hotel uniform into a purple and green scarf dress with