AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The man knocked into a few chairs and drew enough looks, especially when Adam came racing out of the hallway, that they now had the patrons’ full attention. Reggie came out from behind the bar, wielding a broomstick, but the stranger had already elbowed his way out the door.
Adam and Reggie jostled their way out after him, but by the time they got to the street, the man had already mounted and was running out of town.
Reggie nodded at his retreating back. “Friend of yours?”
Adam shook his head, frowning deeply. “Never seen him before. Something just seemed off about him.”
He was hesitant to share his true fear—that while he hadn’t known the man, the man had known exactly who he was. But Reggie didn’t press him. Adam gave him a nod of thanks that Reggie returned, and then he went back to his bar.
Adam glanced down at the piece of paper in his hands. It could be anything. It looked to be an advertisement of some sort. Or the corner of a wanted poster.
He swallowed hard, trying to push down the panic that threatened to rise. It was just his own fears tricking his eyes. The shred of paper he held didn’t have anything useful on it. No words, no information at all. Just the hint of a border that he’d seen on a poster once. But that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Even if it was a wanted poster, it didn’t mean it was one of Adam’s. Hell, this town was full of outlaws. It could be for anyone.
But if it was for him, if the man had been there to find him, it could mean Adam’s respite was over. If that man knew who Adam was and told anyone he was here…it could bring Spurlock to his door.
To Nora’s door.
Damn it!
Thiswas why he should have never gotten involved with her. He should have fought her harder when she’d insisted they were married. He should have climbed on his grumpy pain of a horse and put Desolation behind him the moment he’d set eyes on her. Though the thought of doing that now made his heart ache. For a brief moment, he’d tasted a bit of happiness. He’d even dared to dream of the possibility that maybe they could have a future together. Maybe even a family.
But there was a reason he kept himself free from entanglements. A reason he hadn’t been to visit his own mother in years. A reason he tried never to get close to anyone. He was nothing but a curse to anyone he touched. He should have known better. Hehadknown better.
But she’d been too damn hard to resist. And now his weakness had put her in danger.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to get a grip on the anxiety and dread that slithered through him. That man could have been nobody. Did it look bad? Sure. But for all Adam knew, the man had been heading for one of the outhouses out back and it had just seemed like he was following Adam.
There had always been the possibility that his past would catch up to him at some point. That hadn’t changed. But he also didn’t have any surefire evidence that things had gotten any worse. There was no point in worrying everyone else until there was actually something to worry about.
He should probably pack up and leave. If he was gone, there wouldn’t be anyone for Spurlock to find if he did come around. Then again, if he did come and Adam wasn’t there, Nora could still be in danger. The thought of her confronting Spurlock, of the man even being in the same town as her, filled Adam with a fury—and a fear—so great, it made him shake.
So he’d stay. Though leaving was probably the better choice, he just couldn’t make himself leave her yet. And he needed to be there to make sure she stayed safe. Because he didn’t think he could survive this time if she was the one who ended up hurt.
…
Nora pulled another weed from the bed of thyme, her hand still tingling from the kiss Adam had given it before they’d gone their own ways. What was that man doing to her? She’d never pictured herself as the romantic type, and yet there she was, daydreaming in her garden with what she was sure was a besotted grin on her lips. Thankfully there was no one to see her but her chickens and the goats in the pasture.
Her happiness faded quickly when she saw her father’s horse wander into the paddock and begin grazing. He must have just arrived. And she’d been too busy with her head in the clouds to notice.
She got to her feet and brushed off the dirt that clung to her clothes. That familiar feeling of dread sank like lead in her stomach. She hadn’t realized how horrible that feeling was until she’d gone a while without feeling it. You could get used to anything, she supposed.
The last month, and the last several days especially, when her father had been gone more than usual and she’d either been alone or with Adam, she pictured a lifetime of that, and a longing hit her so intensely it took her breath away. She’d miss her father. But then, she already missed him now, even when he was there. Because the man he was now was not the man who’d raised her. But she couldn’t avoid him forever.
She took a deep breath, straightened her spine, and then went into the house.
The moment she stepped inside, she knew it was going to be bad. Adam’s things were strewn about the house, most at the bottom of the staircase where her father must have thrown them after finding them in her room. She tamped down the anger that flooded her at the thought of her father going through her room, her private things. In his mind, he was still the head of the household. He was her father. Even if she’d been the one taking care of him and everything else since the day her mother had died.
She found him rummaging about in the study, and her heart sank. “There isn’t any more,” she said.
His head jerked up, and his bloodshot eyes focused on her. “Isn’t any more what?”
“Money,” she said, weary to the bone with this scene. It had played out a dozen different ways over the years. “The money is gone. You took it all.”
His eyes narrowed into slits. “I haven’t taken anything.”
She opened her mouth to argue. Normally, she’d give him an earful. But the sight of the man she’d once looked up to brought to such a state by his grief broke her heart. She hadn’t thought it could break anymore. So instead, she just said, “All right, Papa,” and turned to leave.
“You…you must have something put away. You sell your plants. You’ve got dresses in your sewing room. Someone must have paid you to make them.”
