Their Outlaw Bride
A Bridgewater Brides Novel
Delta James
Copyright © 2020 by Delta James
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author's imagination and used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover design: Bridger Media
Cover graphic: Hot Damn Stock; DepositPhotos: johnanderson
Welcome to Bridgewater, where one cowboy is never enough! Their Outlaw Bride is published as part of the Bridgewater Brides World, which includes books by numerous authors inspired by Vanessa Vale’s USA Today bestselling series. This is a steamy standalone read. Enjoy!
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Bridgewater Brides World
About Delta James
1
ELIZABETH
“The defendant, Elizabeth Morgan, is found guilty of the charges of cattle rustling, aiding and abetting cattle rustlers, and leading the outlaw gang known as Morgan’s Marauders. She is hereby sentenced to death by hanging…” Judge Warren Abernathy droned on.
His voice became a mere buzzing in her head as she heard him pronounce the judgment of the court. Elizabeth had expected to go to prison if caught, not die. Her lawyer stood next to her, with his hand around her waist as if he expected her knees to buckle. Elizabeth took a deep breath and steeled herself. She’d become an outlaw to escape the fate of someone forcing her to her knees as a prostitute. She wouldn’t go to her knees now.
“… And may God have mercy upon your soul. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
In a clear, calm, and cool voice she replied, “Fuck you.”
There was an audible gasp from the crowd. They, and the judge, hadn’t expected that.
Elizabeth smiled, although it was a struggle for, inside, she was quaking in fear. Still, she had a front that was expected, and she would not see it falter.
“Miss Morgan, a little decorum, please,” said the green-behind-the ears lawyer who had defended her.
“Why? What are they going to do, hang me twice?” she asked, pushing past the bailiff and onlookers to saunter past the standing-room only crowd as the sheriff caught up with her to escort her back to jail. Again. She’d been behind bars for three days; the trial rushed because the judge was leaving town to travel his summer circuit around the territory.
“You might try showing a little remorse,” said the sheriff as he shoved her through the door to her cell. She was the only female—in fact, currently, the only occupant. The place was dank, bare, and smelled of stale urine and sweat.
“Unlike the hypocrites in this town, I try to keep my lying to a minimum.”
“No, you’re just a thief,” he spat.
The older man had no liking for Elizabeth. The feeling was mutual.
“As opposed to the whore you wanted to make me?” she taunted.
He’d given her the option of sucking his cock instead of going to jail. Elizabeth had gagged at the idea of getting on her knees before the fat, tobacco-chewing asshole and told him she’d rather be behind bars. She began thieving out of honor, and she wore it about her like a mantle. She wouldn’t succumb to the sheriff, or any other man. She’d rather die. And it seemed she was destined to do so.
Her mind drifted back to the two men she seen in the crowd earlier during the trial. She’d paid them no mind at that point, but when she’d caught a peek of the duo, one fair, the other dark as night, she’d frozen in place. The bailiff had been forced to nudge her forward to her seat. That one quick peek had been all she needed to set her heart aflutter, just one quick peek. Now, they were men. Big, brawny, well-kept. Their eyes had been squarely on her and, in that split second, it felt as if they’d seen past all the false bravado, past every wall she’d raised to shield her true feelings. She felt as if they’d seen the real her.
“I’m going to enjoy watching you hang.” The sheriff’s words stirred her from her thoughts of the handsome men.
“You’d better pray I go to heaven because, if I don’t, I’m coming back to haunt you, the judge, and every old man on that jury. Maybe I’ll even whisper in your wife’s ear about all the nasty things you wanted to do to me or, rather, have me do to you. Tell me, Sheriff Gutherie, does your wife let you stick your cock in her mouth, or up her asshole?”
He turned a volatile shade of pink.
Elizabeth laughed as the sheriff sputtered and retreated behind the door into his office. She took a deep, cleansing breath. She’d put him in his place, but she was caught in hers. Behind bars and, tomorrow, with a noose around her neck. Now, how the hell was she going to get herself out of this?
GAVAN
Gavan MacLean watched as the sheriff led Lizzie, as he’d begun to think of her, away. His first glimpse of Elizabeth Morgan, the day the trial started, had knocked the wind out of him. Fuck, she was a stunningly beautiful woman; taller than average with a voluptuous figure, green eyes, and long, curly, auburn hair. The pants she wore allowed every male to see her form, which made him want to gouge their eyes out. He knew their thoughts, for they were the same as his own. Those men all wanted to fuck her, get her on her knees, make her beg. Gavan wanted all of that, and more, but he wanted his name on her lips as she came.
Fuck. He
