Tried and True (Wild at Heart Book #1) by Mary Connealy Page B

I’ve come to know.”
    Kylie looked to Aaron. “The only person we know who’s upset about me living on that land is—”
    “Gage Coulter.” Bailey said the word low. Her deep, raspy voice seethed. Where Kylie’s voice had a bit of the same roughness, Bailey’s was a deeper, darker version. “I haven’t had a run-in with him yet, but I’m sure my time is coming. I’ve heard he used to run cattle in my canyon.”
    “My canyon?” Aaron said. “Strange you’d think of it that way, Bailey. The land in that canyon is only yours because you homesteaded across the mouth of it. You have no ownership except you can stop a man from crossing your property, and no one knows another way in. You’re doing exactly what you hate Coulter for doing.”
    Bailey didn’t respond, as she was busy thinking. Aaron saw the signs and braced himself. A moment later, she pulled her gloves out of her back pocket and tugged them on. She turned to Kylie. “I think Masterson’s right. You need to stay here where it’s safe.”
    “Bailey, don’t you dare leave me in this cell.”
    “I’m going out to talk to Coulter and put a stop to this right now.”
    “Oh, no you’re not, Miss Wilde.”
    Bailey scowled at Aaron, and he could see mistaking her for a man. The woman had the right attitude and the right toughness. But Aaron hadn’t made that mistake, and he had a feeling Coulter wouldn’t either. Then Bailey would be in big trouble, because a woman shouldn’t stay out on a holding alone, and how was she going to keep her homestead claim if she couldn’t live on it?
    Her scowl deepened into a sneer. “I’d like to see someone try and stop me.”

    The jail door clanked shut with Bailey on the business side of it and Aaron on the free side. Kylie would have just as soon been locked up with a rabid wolverine.
    “You’re not going to get away with this. When I get out of here, I’m turning the law on you. I haven’t done a thing to deserve this!”
    Aaron had managed to drag Kylie all the way in from her cabin. He’d had a fight on his hands getting Bailey the five feet from outside the cell to inside it with the door shut and locked. And Kylie thought Aaron might have a black eye developing.
    “It’s too late to go out tonight,” Aaron said in a reasonable tone, completely wasted over Bailey’s furious threats. Then he raised his voice until the roof shook. “And you should both thank me.”
    That shut Bailey up, probably because she couldn’t imagine such a stupid statement. Kylie was wondering what Aaron could possibly mean by it.
    “I don’t know what kind of half-wits you two served with in the war, but I promise you, Bailey Wilde, GageCoulter will figure out you’re a woman ten seconds after you start talking.”
    Kylie didn’t believe it. Bailey played her role well.
    “Does that mean you’re not going to tell the whole world I’m a woman?” Bailey got the implications before Kylie did. Bailey had always been fast.
    “I think living like a man is a blamed fool idea. But no, I’m not going to tell. I don’t like the idea of any of you living alone, but you seem like a mighty tough cowpoke, Bailey. Maybe you can convince folks.” Aaron paused, then shook his head. “I doubt it, but maybe. And definitely not Coulter. He’ll see through those britches in a few minutes.”
    Aaron quit talking all sudden-like.
    Kylie realized what he’d said and blushed.
    Bailey might’ve blushed a bit too, and she never did much blushing.
    “I mean he’ll know you’re a woman,” Aaron forged on, clearly wanting to leave his last statement far behind. “Some might be fooled by you just because you’ve got a tough way about you, not because of how you look. You’re a mighty pretty woman, but you’ve got the act right. Kylie doesn’t. She would never fool anyone for long. Look at her. She got away with her masquerade in the Army, because folks thought she was a real young boy and some of them have a look like