Read Dorothy Garlock - [Dolan Brothers] for Free Online Page A

was enjoying the male attention. Her mother’s lover’s words came back to Henry Ann.
The girl is trouble.
    Henry Ann went back to look in on her father. He was lying so still that her breath caught with fear. Then she saw the slight rise and fall of his chest, and his hand twitched. She eased down into the chair beside the bed, and after a while she began to pray.
    “Dear God, please make his passing peaceful. He’s been such a good man. He’s worked hard. Never cheated anyone, nor broke the law. He was kind—”
    Loud talk and boisterous laughter broke the silence. Henry Ann jumped to her feet and hurried to the kitchen. Johnny and Pete Perry were horsing around on the porch. Isabel, her arm around a porch post, watched with a broad smile.
    “I’ll have to learn ya how to Indian wrestle. You’d take to it like a duck to water considerin’ ya got that wild blood in ya.” Pete’s loud voice reached into every corner of the house.
    “Ya couldn’t learn me nothin’, ya . . . bunghead!”
    Johnny escaped into the kitchen, allowing the screen door to slam behind him. He looked around the kitchen and grinned at Henry Ann. He was a slim, handsome youth with the straight black hair and inky black eyes that suggested that the unknown man who had fathered him might have been an American Indian
    “That Isabel sure grew up. Didn’t know her till she told me who she was.”
    “Keep your voice down. Daddy’s sleeping.”
    “Isabel said old Ed was ’bout to kick the bucket. Is that right? He’s not been so full a piss and vinegar lately, but I never thought—”
    Henry Ann took two quick steps, drew back her arm, and slapped him across the face. An almost uncontrollable rage washed over her.
    “Don’t you dare be disrespectful of him!” she hissed, low-voiced. “My daddy put a roof over your head, fed you, gave you work so you’d have a little money, all because he thought it the decent thing to do. He had no obligation to take you in.”
    Johnny was stunned. He lifted his hand to his cheek and looked at her as if he’d never seen her before.
    “You ungrateful cur! He was sick!” Henry Ann continued heatedly and almost choked on the words. “He was . . . sick and you went off and left him to do the chores all by himself. You told me you’d help him drag deadwood in from the lower woods. You’re . . . you’re a sorry excuse for a human being, and I’m ashamed . . . totally ashamed that some of the same blood that flows in your veins flows in mine.”
    Johnny stood as still as a stone.. He had grown lately and stood two or three inches taller than Henry Ann but she was too angry to notice.
    “Where were you while he was lying there . . . sick?” Henry Ann demanded.
    “At Perry’s.”
    “Delivering bootleg whiskey?”
    Ignoring her question, the boy asked quietly, “Do you want me to leave?”
    “It’s up to you. But if you stay, you’ll do your share of the work and you’ll stop hanging out with thieves and bootleggers like Pete Perry. I don’t want him here.”
    “I guess you’re wishin’ you hadn’t brought me here.”
    “Daddy and I wanted to give you a chance for a decent life. If you want to go back to the city, go. If you want to go to the Perrys, go. But don’t come back.”
    Johnny walked quickly out the door, stepped off the porch, and headed for the corral. Pete, who had been standing at the door listening, followed.
    “What did you say to him?” Isabel demanded as she came into the kitchen.
    “That’s between me and Johnny and no business of yours.” Henry Ann wanted to cry. It seemed to her that the sky had opened and spilled grief all over her.
    “It is, too, my business. He’s my brother.”
    “Don’t give me any sass, Isabel,” Henry Ann said sharply. “Or I’ll slap your face, too.”
    “Well! Try it and you’ll get slapped back.” She placed her thumb on the end of her nose and wiggled her fingers in a defiant gesture, before she flounced out the