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His mouth opened and closed a few times, like he was trying to say something but kept discarding whatever was coming out. Finally, he gripped the back of the chair hard enough his knuckles turned white and shook his head.
“Absolutely not. The only reason we met in the first place is because you were fighting so hard to save your home. I’m not going to ask you to leave it now.”
“You aren’t asking me. I’m informing you.”
“No, Nora. I can’t let you do that.”
“You don’t get to decide what I do and don’t do.”
“I could use the same argument against you. I’ve made my decision. It has to be this way.”
She slammed her hands on the table. “No, it doesn’t! Stop trying to be a martyr!”
“Stop trying to be a saint!”
Mrs. DuVere leaned in, saying, “Why don’t we all take a minute—”
But they both turned to her, glaring until she backed up. “Or not.”
Nora swung back to Adam. “Why? Why is giving yourself up the only way?”
He sighed, sounding like it was being pulled from the bottom of his weary bones. “Because if I don’t, Spurlock will just keep hunting. I told you, he doesn’t give up. And if I just leave, he won’t move on until he’s searched every corner of this town. That didn’t matter in the other towns I was in. Itdoesmatter here.” He looked at the sheriff, who was watching him with a steady gaze. “He won’t stop until he’s got someone in custody. And I won’t let anyone else suffer my consequences. It’s gotta be me.”
Nora stepped back and then dropped into her chair, the fight draining out of her. Everyone else started talking again, offering up a few suggestions that wouldn’t work. She just watched Adam. And he watched her.
The thing she hated the most was that he wasn’t wrong. What he was suggestingwasthe best course of action. Well, actually, she thought killing Spurlock was the most efficient thing to do. But a bit morally gray and definitely illegal. Not that the whole legal thing had ever given anyone in this town pause.
“All right, all right!” the sheriff said, rubbing at his temples again. “I don’t think anyone needs to run off half-cocked, fully loaded, or any other which way. As far as we know, Spurlock doesn’t know for sure that Brady is in town. He hasn’t seen him, and while it’s possible someone gave him up, it’s unlikely. And as far as we know, he has no idea I still exist. And I see no reason to remedy that. So as long as we both lay low, chances are pretty good he’ll just move along and go search some other town.”
Everyone nodded, murmuring their agreement. Well, almost everyone. Adam still sat, stone-faced but calm. Like he’d already made his decision.
The sheriff seemed to think the same thing, because he pinned Adam with his impressively terrifying stare. “If you simply cannot help yourself and insist on takin’ some form of action, I’d highly recommend you just leave town. Turnin’ yourself over to this man would be suicide. I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors as well as I have, but the vast majority of Spurlock’s captures are on the dead side of ‘dead or alive.’ He seems to pride himself on it. So don’t be a damn fool and sacrifice your life just to make yourself feel better.”
Adam’s lips pulled into a half grin, and he nodded. But Nora didn’t think he was actually agreeing.
A small, miserable part of her wondered why he was so insistent on turning himself in. Because the sheriff was right. There was no reason to assume this man had any certain knowledge of Adam’s whereabouts. And even less chance he knew of the sheriff’s. He had no authority to go searching through houses—and there were more than a few hidey-holes spread across the town if it came to that. And this was Desolation. No one in this town would be traitorous enough to betray them.
So why? Was this some last-resort effort to escape their marriage? Did he want to get away from her so badly?
She tried to push the thought away. After all the moments they’d shared recently, she couldn’t reconcile the man who held her so tenderly, came to her with such passion, with one who wanted to quit her presence so desperately that he’d turn himself over to his enemy.
Or just say he was going to…when he really meant to simply disappear.
If he really thought the best course of action was to leave, then why wouldn’t he want her with him? She’d offered to go, and she’d meant it. Yes, she loved her home. But she lovedhimmore.
She froze, not blinking, not even breathing until her lungs burned so badly she had to suck in a breath. Shelovedhim. When it had happened, she didn’t know. Didn’t need to know. The when wouldn’t change the fact of it. That he’d burrowed his way into her heart, and nothing short of her death, and probably not even that, would dislodge him.
She loved the stubborn, aggravating, wickedly wonderful pain in the ass.
And it didn’t matter a lick. He’d rejected her offer. His reasons seemed selfless, but it still felt like a rejection ofher.
She shoved the thoughts away. Adam had done nothing to warrant them. Still, a lifetime of others treating her so made it more difficult than she would have liked.
Always the friend, never the lover. That was her.
And she’d been fine with that. Not content but…accepting. Until Adam had come along and changed everything. The thought that none of it had been real was too painful to contemplate.
But the nagging thought wouldn’t leave her mind.
