A pair of dark gloves.
The sting of his cane.
That evil smirk.
Emmaline grumbles in her sleep, and I realize I’m holding her much too tightly. Almost as tightly as Warren’s arm suddenly is around me.
But I can’t help it.
Because the man with the mark matching hers is coming to Hope’s Stand in less than two weeks, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
CHAPTER 24
WARREN
“It’s gonna be okay.”
Maybe if I tell her enough, we’ll both believe it. But it’s not so much Blackwood coming into town that has me worried as it is the way Mara retreated into herself after hearing his name. She didn’t say anything on the way home. Not even when we saw our family waiting for us, just like she’d predicted. Didn’t even cry. Just tightened her lips, hunched her shoulders, and stared at Emmaline’s left hand with an expression so haunting that my gut damn near gnawed itself in half.
I push my own worries aside and hold my stoic wife and sleeping child as we sit on the sofa, surrounded by family and an alert Patches. “She’s gonna be okay,” I tell the dog as he rests a worried head on Mara’s thigh and looks between the two of us for reassurance.
She has to be.
Whatever it takes, I’m going to make sure of it.
I held her through the first time she saw the red birthmark then, although I didn’t know that was what troubled her so. Held her before that as she fought tobring Emmaline into this world, and I held her afterwards as the shield around her heart began to crumble and she fell in love with her baby. I’ll hold her through this and whatever else life throws our way.
I attempt to quell the fluttering vein in Mara’s temple—the only outward sign that her eery calmness isn’t as it seems—with a kiss as Dove gently rubs her back. “We’re gonna get through this, you hear me? He’s not gonna touch either one of you.”
“Damn right he’s not getting near my daughter or grandbaby.” Ever confident and matter of fact, Pop glances meaningfully between me and my brother. “Way I see it, there’s only one choice to make—do we kill him before or after he gets to town?”
A coarse bit of laughter slips from Mara before it turns into a choked sob. And with the dam of her emotions finally breached, twin streaks of pain slide down her cheeks. Emmaline wakes with an unhappy cry, adding chaos to the tension. “If he ever sees her, he’ll know.” Mara presses her lips into our baby’s hair as if she’ll never get to kiss the soft strands again. “He’ll know she’s his and he’ll find a way to take her from me and I’ll never see her again.”
My jaw hardens at the rawness in her voice. “She’s never been anyone’s but ours in any way that matters, and she never will be.”
Mara grinds the heel of one palm in a useless attempt to stem the tears. Seeing both my girls cry doesn’t feel good, but I don’t dare pull Emmaline from her mama right now. I offer my finger for our Little Bit to chew on, and that satisfies her for the moment.
“Now now, dear.” Momma dabs at Mara’s cheeks with a handkerchief before folding it into her hands. “Don’t fret about things that haven’t come to pass yet. With the goodLord and your family looking out for you, things are going to be just fine. You’ll see. You’re one of us now. Both of you. And family always takes care of family.”
I wince on Mara’s behalf at the mention of God. Momma doesn’t know how much of a sore point the topic is.
“There’s merit to both options,” Jed muses, eyes glued to his own wife and her growing belly. “If he dies before the tournament, there’s no chance he ever learns about Mara or Emmaline. But then that might stir up all kinds of questions when he doesn’t show up.”
He’s right. “If we wait…” The thought kills me to think about. “If we wait, then there’s the possibility he could find out about them. All it takes is one person in town saying something, whether it be innocent or intentional. And then he might get curious. Then again”—I form my words slowly as the idea comes to me—“who’s to say he doesn’t run into trouble on his way out of town? Especially if it’s known that he’s carrying his winnings with him.”
Jed’s eyes cut to Dove before meeting mine. “Sure is dangerous for a man to be traveling by himself. Between coyotes and highwaymen, one or the other is bound to meet him.”
“May the good Lord send both,” Momma says with disdain.
No one’s appetite is anywhere near what it was before, but we help Momma pull a meal together because it’s clear by the way she eyes a miserable Mara and an expecting Dove that no one’s leaving until they get something in their stomachs. Mara just picks at her food, fork clinking against the plate, but at least by the end of the somber meal, it’s about a third lighter.
When everyone makes to leave, I pull my brother aside at the door. “You have your own responsibilities,” I say,nodding towards Dove as she hugs Mara. “I can’t ask you to take this risk. Not now.” Even though I think we have a pretty damn near perfect idea of taking Montgomery out, there’s always a chance of something going wrong. I’ll be damned if my sister-in-law is left with an injured husband to care for on top of her expecting a little one.
Or, God forbid, if she’s left a widow and my niece or nephew without a father.
Jed punches my shoulder, snatching me from the dark turn of my thoughts. “The hell is wrong with you?”
I scowl and punch him back, satisfied with his quick grimace. “I’m just trying to make sure nothing happens to you for Dove’s sake.”
