Blackthorne's woman [antikvár]

ONEThe diner filled him with the sense of being a rare and unexpected visitor to civilization's last outpost, in a land too raw and rugged to encourage exploration, much less tolerate setdement. It stood by itself alongside the two-lane highway that pierced the sparsely inhabited wilds of central Colorado. Its neon lights and grimy, gravel-pitted linoleum were a welcome change to the snow-blanketed nothingness Micah Blackthorne had traveled through to reach it.Not that he had anything against wide-open spaces, but after three days of tracking the woman and kid, he found it a relief to be under the same roof with his quarryeven if it was the middle of the night. He'd caught up with her a few hours earlier at a truck stop, but had been forced to watch as she filled up with gas and bought coffee. The place had been too crowded for what he had to do.Closing his hand around the ceramic mug, he brought it to his mouth for a swallow of the scalding, burnt-flavored coffee and stole another look across the room.----1