Page 68 of A Dangerous Heart
Drew jerked. His horse sidestepped, reading his agitation.
“If we go after him now, we could catch him,” Clare pressed.
Isaac’s nerves stretched tighter with every word. She sent a beseeching look at Ed.
“We should make a stand from the house.” Drew addressed the words to Ed. “Wait for Nick to bring the marshal.” His worry centered on Kaitlyn and the kids.
“Clare’s right,” Ed said. “It will be dark soon. We know the land better than Victor does. We can catch him. The fewer men involved, the better.”
“We could be riding into an ambush,” Drew said.
Isaac listened while his brothers spoke as if he wasn’t there. Clare stared into the woods, looking small and lost. He couldn’t stand here and listen to their plans. Not when every plan was a bad one.
He strode to the wagon and finished unhitching Bullet, slipped on the bridle, and was in the saddle before his brothersrealized what he was doing. Behind every movement were images of Cody’s blood pouring out in the dusty streets.
“You riding with us?” Ed asked.
“I want no part of this,” he said, his voice as icy as his heart felt.
He rode off into the growing darkness. He didn’t know where he was going—only knew he couldn’t stay. Clare was determined to go after Eli. And Isaac couldn’t erase the scene that was playing over in his mind. This time it was Clare lying in the street, blood flowing from her chest, emptying the life from her.
He closed his eyes against the thought of a world without Clare.
He’d tried to keep his heart guarded, but she’d snuck inside anyway.
He’d lost Eli. And now he was going to lose Clare too.
Clare watched Ben’s chest rise and fall under the quilt. He’d only just fallen asleep, and his eyelashes were clumped together from the tears he’d shed.
“What’s Pa gonna do to Eli?” he’d asked tearfully.
She didn’t have an answer.
Agitated, she rose from the side of his bed and slipped from his room, past the two brothers conferring over the map spread on the table, and into the kitchen.
Drew and Kaitlyn’s children had been sent to bed. It seemed wrong somehow for the household to still be going on with routine tasks without Eli here.
Everything felt wrong.
She needed something to do with her hands while she figured out the next plan for herself and Ben.
Run.
She’d felt the word with every heartbeat since Isaac had ridden off alone earlier.
Victor knew where she was.
Victor wanted his son back.
Victor would cut down anyone who stood in his way.
And Isaac wasn’t coming back.
Kaitlyn was at the counter, her back turned to the door. Rebekah stood at her side, neither of them paying a lick of attention to the detritus from the supper preparation that remained out on the counter and needed to be cleaned up.
Neither of them seemed to have registered that Clare had entered the room.
“—never seen Jo so frightened,” Kaitlyn murmured. “She was crying.”
