Page 39 of A Dangerous Heart
He turned his back to her and stalked up the path to the lean-to. Halfway up the narrow path, he glanced back. Clare stood, eyes fixed upriver, bleak, her fingers tracing the scar on her arm.
Chapter 10
It was fully dark when Isaac stormed into the bunkhouse back at the main house. He couldn’t stay at the cabin, not with the anger and frustration gnawing at him over Clare keeping secrets. So he’d saddled up Bullet and ridden home. Someone—Nick—stirred in the bottom bunk on the right side of the sparsely furnished room. Isaac stomped into the room and promptly banged his knee on the corner of a chest. He bit down on the howl that threatened to escape, then stalked to the empty bunk across from his brother and tossed his bedroll onto the bare mattress. He lowered himself onto the bunk across from Nick, his agitation coming out in steamy breaths. He yanked a boot off. It slipped out of his hand and clunked to the floor.
Nick propped himself on his elbows and squinted in his direction. “Wha…” His voice was slow and sleepy in the darkness. Isaac heard a chalky scrape and saw a match flare as his brother lit the lantern on the bedside table. “Land sakes, Isaac! What are you doing here, stomping around like a bear at a barn dance?”
“Nothing.” Isaac untied his bedroll, batted at the thing so it rolled off the end of the bunk. He jerked it up a few feet and lay down on it.
He wished Nick hadn’t lit the lantern. He felt the weight of his brother’s stare. Isaac kept his eyes on the crisscrossed ropes that held the top straw tick mattress in place. He just wanted to sleep. And forget.
He felt ache of betrayal and a weariness that had nothing to do with the lateness of the night.
“What’s the matter?” came his brother’s sleep-laden voice.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Nick ignored the coldness in his voice. “Clare and the boys all right?”
Were they all right? He closed his eyes, but a picture flashed across his mind. Clare, standing on the clearing near the path to the river, her eyes filled with tears she was too proud to shed. He should have never trusted her.
Nick let out a resigned breath. “What’d you do?”
“I said I don’t want to talk about it.”
There was a rustling from Nick’s bunk. Isaac opened his eyes to find his brother sitting on the edge of his bunk, hands clamped on the mattress at his sides, staring at him. “Last time I saw you, you were actually smiling.”
Isaac recalled the boisterous family dinner. Clare’s compassion when he’d told her about Cody. He punched those thoughts down. “I smile.”
Lie. He couldn’t produce a smile if he tried.
Nick scoffed. “How’d you mess things up with Clare?”
“Leave it alone,” he ground out as he rolled so his feet hit the floor while he reached for his bedroll. He shouldn’t have come in here. Maybe he could find some peace in the barn.
But by the time Isaac stood, Nick was already on his feet, facing him like a banty rooster spoiling for a fight, his expression grim. “Tell me,” Nick challenged.
When had his brother gotten so tall? Matched him for height. Nick had grown into a man while he’d been away.
“I said. leave. it. alone.”
Nick braced himself for a punch.
The action jarred Isaac, and he edged back so his calves hit the bunk. What was he doing? “I’m not going to hit you.”
“You want to hit something.”
He was right. Isaac turned his back, grabbed the rail of the top bunk, and leaned his face into his bent arms. He had to control his boiling emotions or risk doing something he’d regret.
Nick hovered behind him. “Isaac?—”
“Clare lied,” he blurted, the words muffled against his forearm. “About her name. Her identity.”
He closed his eyes, but the image of Clare at the moment he’d told her he was done with her kept replaying. He clenched his fist. Couldn’t take it anymore. Turning to face Nick, Isaac ran a hand through his hair and stared at the wide-plank floor, his throat constricting as the weight of betrayal settled in.
“I knew she was running from something, but—her father and brother are notorious outlaws. Bank thefts, stagecoach robberies, and they’ve left plenty of dead bodies along the way.”
Nick paused, letting the information settle. “How did she manage to escape? It takes more than luck to survive over two decades as outlaws. And she managed to outfox them. Downright courageous if you ask me.”
