Jared's Runaway Woman

Kinsey’s breath left her in a single huff. Her world tilted.

“I’m sure you recognize this. The Templeton family Bible.” He nodded toward her bedroom behind him. “I found it beside your bed.”

Kinsey dug deep, hoping to muster anger. “You have no right…”

Jared stepped closer and fanned the thin pages, stopping in the center of the Bible. “This is the section where the family records are kept. Births, marriages… deaths.”

Run. Run now. The thought flashed in Kinsey’s mind. Yet a chill claimed her, holding her in place.

Jared consulted the page, though it was obvious he didn’t need to. This was a show he reveled in.

“Beth Templeton married to Clark Mason,” he read. “Clark Mason, dead. Beth Templeton Mason, dead.”

Jared looked at Kinsey. “You want to explain to me how that’s possible? I mean, since you’re claiming to be Beth Templeton Mason, the woman I figured was using a different first name and her maiden name.”

He was toying with her. Enjoying the power he had over her. He already knew the answer so Kinsey didn’t respond.

“Funny thing,” Jared said, forcing a little laugh and shaking his head. “According to your family Bible, there really is a Kinsey Templeton. A whole separate person. Adopted by the Templeton family. Beth’s stepsister.”

The weight of the past bore down on Kinsey, crushing not only the moment, but her future as well.

“I—I can explain—”

“You were never married to Clark. You were only his sister-in-law. You didn’t give birth to Sam.” Jared’s expression turned hard and cold. “Or did you?”

Kinsey’s cheeks flamed and she found her anger now. “That’s a filthy thing to suggest. Clark and Beth were devoted to each other. Beth was Sam’s mother.”

“So you’ve got no blood tie to Sam at all, have you,” Jared said.

Kinsey gasped, realizing what he’d just maneuvered her into admitting.

Jared stepped closer. “In fact, you’ve got no family relation to Beth either, do you? You’re her stepsister. A stranger to the family. Somebody they took in.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Kinsey declared. “We were sisters—as close as any sisters could be. We—”

“You’re nothing but an outsider.” Jared moved in, his words cutting worse than a sword. “You’re nobody. You’ve got no standing in Sam’s life. You stole him.”

“I didn’t! Beth begged me to—”

“You stole him and you hid him. You kept him from his real family.”

Jared towered over her, battering her with his words, with his accusations…with the truth.

Kinsey blinked back tears. “You don’t understand! You weren’t there! You didn’t— ”

“I’m taking him.”

Kinsey gasped and shook her head frantically. “No!”

“I’ll get the sheriff if I have to,” Jared told her. He gave her one final hard look, and walked toward the door.

“No!”

Kinsey whipped the gun from his holster. Jared spun around. She pointed it square at his chest and pulled back the hammer.

“You’re not taking Sam anywhere.”

Surprise registered on Jared’s face. He shifted. His gaze bounced from her to the gun, around the room and back to Kinsey once more. She saw his mind working, berating himself for underestimating her, for letting her get the drop on him, for losing the upper hand.

“You’re not taking Sam anywhere,” Kinsey said again, hearing her cold, deliberate words. “You have no idea what I’ve been through. And you have no idea what I’ll do to keep Sam.”

“Look, I—”

“Leave town. Don’t come back,” she told him. “Don’t you ever—”

“Mama?”

The back door opened and Sam walked in.

Jared grabbed the gun from her hand.

A foolish move. It could have gone off, shot him or her, or some innocent bystander. But Jared wasn’t familiar with guns. Kinsey had realized that when she’d seen him fumbling with his holster in the hotel room and it suddenly made sense why he hadn’t joined in the shooting in front of the Wild Cat Saloon the night he’d kissed her in the alley.

That’s how she’d known she could get his gun from him just now.

But she let him have it. She wouldn’t struggle for it. Not with Sam in the room.

The boy looked back and forth between the two of them and alarm showed in his face.

“Mama?”

“It’s fine, honey. Everything’s fine.” Kinsey knelt in front of him and pulled him hard against her. Then she glanced up at Jared and put Sam away from her. “Run on outside again, sweetie. Play with the Gleason boys a while longer. Mama will come get you in a bit.”

Sam gave her a troubled look, but went outside anyway.

Kinsey rose from her feet and turned to Jared. He had the gun. He had the truth.

And now he’d have Sam.

“Make it easy on the boy,” Jared said. “Explain to him what’s happening. I’ll come by for him in the morning. Have him ready.”

Chapter Six

She could run.

The temptation, so deeply ingrained in Kinsey, sprang to her mind the instant Jared had left the kitchen of the boardinghouse. She’d watched from the back porch as he paused for a moment to look at Sam playing with her neighbor’s boys, then moved along. She’d fought the urge to rush into the bedroom, pack their things and head out.

Two things stopped her. One: the stage wouldn’t be through town for a few more days, the train not until the end of the week. She wouldn’t get very far on foot, or even on horseback, should she turn loose of her carefully hoarded money and buy one. Asking someone in town to hide her was unthinkable, given the explanations such a request would require.