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reins so that he would be free to go to Nicole.
That was when Nicole broke down.
She dropped her rifle as tears blinded her. She had truly thought that she was living the last moments of her life.
The moment was ripe. Jeremiah saw this as the perfect opportunity to reach out for Nicole and hold her.
He could sense her distress over what she had suffered these past days. And wanting her so badly, he could not pass up this opportunity to try to ease some of Nicole’s pain.
He reached for Nicole and drew her into his warm embrace.
He enjoyed the way she clung to him as her body was racked with sobs.
He smiled over his shoulder at Jacob. He was pleased that the others were witness to this woman accepting Jeremiah as a true, trusted friend, and perhaps…even more than that.
Nicole was suddenly aware of where she was, in whose arms. She had grown to dislike this man while traveling on the stagecoach with him.
She suddenly remembered how he had looked at her then, with lust in his eyes. She had felt it in the way he had just held her. His embrace had been possessive, not tender.
She stepped away from him and smiled awkwardly as she wiped the final tears from her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “For a moment there I forgot myself. I was so afraid when I heard the horses, that it would be men out to harm me.”
She swallowed hard, looked deeply into Jeremiah’s eyes, then, almost timidly, asked, “I don’t have a reason to be afraid, do I?”
She glanced around her, at the other men, who were now standing beside their horses, their eyes directly on her.
“How can you ask such a thing?” Jeremiah said, his eyes widening. “Have I ever given you reason to be afraid of me? Nicole, a man came to Hope, inquiring about you. I got the sense that he was up to no good and decided it was best that I find you first.”
“What was his name?” Nicole blurted out. “By chance, was he…an…Indian?”
“No, he wasn’t an Indian.” Jeremiah looked at her through squinting eyes, wondering why she would ask about an Indian.
Had one accosted her on the trail?
Nicole sighed heavily, cold fear gripping her at the thought of who this man surely was.
Sam Partain!
He had been close to finding her, for she was sure that Jeremiah and his men had not come far to find her.
“Did he have long, dirty blond hair?” Nicole blurted out, afraid to hear the answer.
“Yes, and eyes that made a chill ride my spine. His eyes reflected the devil in them,” Jeremiah said, visibly shuddering. “Do you know of him? Do you know his name?”
“Yes, I believe Sam Partain paid you a visit,” Nicole said grimly. Her eyes widened. “But if he was alone, perhaps I am wrong. This gutless man rides with a group of murdering, heartless outlaws.”
“He came to Hope alone, pretending to be someone of decent breeding, and asked about you. When I told him, or should I say convinced him, that you were not there, he rode off,” Jeremiah said tightly. “I watched him for a while longer and then I saw several men on horseback come from the shadows of the forest and join him. They rode off together.”
“Then that was Sam Partain for certain,” Nicole said, so glad that tonight she had been discovered by a group of Mormon men, not murdering outlaws.
“How do you know this man?” Jeremiah prodded.
“Sam Partain and his gang are responsible for the deaths of my parents and everyone else who joined my father in his new town of Tyler City,” Nicole said, tears rushing to her eyes again at the thought of her parents lying there, hand in hand, bullet holes in their brows.
“Why would he kill everyone so heartlessly?” Jeremiah asked. “I witnessed the devastation this man and his followers left behind.”
“You did?” Nicole asked, her eyes wide.
“Word was brought to me about what had happened in Tyler City,” Jeremiah answered. “I immediately thought of you since I knew that was your destination. Several of my friends and I rode there to see if, by chance, you had survived. I did not see you anywhere, so I hoped that you had somehow escaped the massacre. Before we left, we took the time to bury those who had died.”
