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He doubted, though, that he would find a schoolmarm as talented as Nicole, especially one whom the children loved at once as they had loved Nicole.
“So I was right, huh?” Sam said. He grabbed Jeremiah quickly by his collar and yanked him closer so that their faces were only inches apart. “She was here all along, wasn’t she? I knew it. I don’t know why I let you bamboozle me when I was here the last time. Well, this time you’d best give ’er up to me, do you hear? Don’t try any pranks on me. Take me to that woman now, or I swear, I’ll plug a hole in your belly so quick you won’t know what happened.”
“Promise me first that you won’t harm anyone else in Hope,” Jeremiah choked out.
Jeremiah’s face was hot and he was having a hard time breathing because of Sam’s stranglehold on his throat. He breathed much more easily when Sam’s hand slipped away.
“I won’t promise you nothin’,” Sam growled out. “Jist take me to her. Then I’ll let you know what my plans are for you and the rest of these Mormons.”
“For God’s Sake, have mercy on the rest of these innocent people,” Jeremiah pleaded as Sam released him.
Jeremiah stumbled backward, yet his eyes were still locked in a silent war with Sam.
“If you must kill someone, let it be only me,” Jeremiah then said. “Leave everyone else alive. These people deserve to live. They are God’s chosen!”
“Hogwash,” Sam said, chuckling. He nodded to his men. “Stay here and keep an eye on things, but only shoot if you are threatened.”
He laughed mockingly. “Leave anyone who doesn’t cause you trouble,” he said. “We can’t harm God’s chosen, now, can we?”
Fear and anger overwhelmed Jeremiah as Sam gave him a hard shove, then followed along as Jeremiah headed for the house that had been assigned to Nicole.
When they reached Nicole’s house, Jeremiah stopped and gave Sam a pleading look in a last effort to change the evil man’s mind.
Nicole did not deserve what this man surely had planned for her. Jeremiah did not even want to think about it.
He felt responsible for the woman’s plight, and he did not see how even he could get out of this situation without dying.
“Go on in and be sure not to alert her that I’m here, comin’ in behind you,” Sam said. He motioned with his rifle toward the closed door. “If you try anything at all, just remember that I have my finger on the trigger, and believe me, it loves pullin’ triggers.”
“Please, please don’t do this,” Jeremiah pleaded one last time with the madman.
“You are one inch away from suckin’ in your last gulp of air,” Sam growled out. “Open that door. Step inside. I’ll be right behind you.”
Jeremiah swallowed hard, grabbed hold of the doorknob, then slowly turned it.
When he finally got the door open, he gasped when he saw that Nicole’s bed had not been slept in. Wit
h a quick look around him, he saw that all of Nicole’s belongings were gone.
“She’s gone,” he said, turning and gazing in terror at Sam as he came into the house. “Everything she had with her is gone. She must’ve left in the middle of the night. She must’ve not liked teaching the children.”
Sam shoved him aside so hard, Jeremiah fell to his knees on the floor. He crawled away from Sam as the gunman stood there, looking slowly around the room.
“Well, she is certainly gone,” Sam said, idly scratching his brow with his free hand.
He swung around and glared at Jeremiah.
He took a step closer and kicked him so that Jeremiah fell clumsily on his back, his eyes wild as he stared up at Sam.
“You’re skilled at lying, ain’t cha?” Sam growled out. “She wasn’t here at all, was she? What’s your game, Mormon? Are you really ready to die?”
“No, please don’t kill me,” Jeremiah begged. “She must have fled in the night. I guess she didn’t like what I offered her here at our community…a safe haven!”
“If she was here at all, I’d say it was probably you that she fled from,” Sam said, laughing mockingly. “What’d you do? Tell her that she was going to make one of your men another wife? Or…did you tell her that you wanted her all to yoreself?”
Jeremiah struggled to understand how Nicole could have left. There were sentries standing guard everywhere.
Surely someone had seen her leave…and allowed it. But if all the sentries had been killed, he might never know.
