Page 54 of A Dangerous Heart
Isaac followed her into the marshal’s office. She hesitated in the doorway, not wanting to look past the desk to the three jail cells beyond. The single room with a wide desk and a few chairs seemed even tinier knowing that an outlaw from her past was in one of those cells.
“We need to know if anyone else is in town,” Isaac whispered from behind.
Lyle Mueller sat on a metal cot behind bars, his hands that were tied with a rope balanced on his knees, his expression tight-lipped and mulish.
“Is this him?” Danna asked.
Clare didn’t have time to answer before recognition dawned on the man’s face. His wiry brows shot up, and his lips turned down in an angry sneer.
“What are you doing here?” he spat.
The man seemed smaller, almost impotent, absent the shotgun and pistol he always carried. Lyle’s sinister glare settled on Clare. The air in the room thickened. All eyes shifted to Lyle.An uneasy silence followed, then Clare took a step forward and raised her chin defiantly.
“Did Victor send you after me?” Inwardly, she winced at the uncertain note in her voice.
Lyle clamped his mouth shut, eyes glittering. But he couldn’t hide the genuine shock that played on his face. His eyes darted around the room, bouncing from the marshal, back to Clare, and onto Isaac. Clare crossed her arms, staring at him.
One of the deputies spoke up. “Could be scouting for some kind of robbery?”
The thought of Victor and his gang here, in Calvin, for nefarious purposes made her feel sick inside. Imagining the shop boy on the other end of Victor’s gun was terrifying, and she blinked away the awful thought.
Danna mulled this over. “Found him loitering near the train station. Go ask the business owners nearby if he came inside.”
Isaac’s silent presence behind Clare’s shoulder reminded her of the information they needed from Lyle. She had to push to get the words past the knot in her throat.
“Who else is here?”
Lyle smirked. “No one else here but yours truly. Victor wants his boys back—that’s all he cares about.” His tone held the annoying singsong tone that meant he was lying. “He’s gonna kill you when he finds you,” he taunted, a malevolent gleam in his eyes.
She turned away quickly, heart hammering like a fist against her ribs. Isaac was right there, escorting her outside onto the boardwalk, a comforting hand at her elbow.
She couldn’t breathe.
He took her hand in his.
“I want to go home,” she whispered, her throat closing around the wordhome. For the first time in her life, she had a home where she truly felt safe.
But if Victor’s men had tracked her to Calvin, they could find her on the homestead.
He squeezed her fingers. “You’re not alone, Clare. Not anymore.”
Chapter 14
“Almost there,” Isaac called over his shoulder to Clare and Ben. His hat was pulled low over his brow, shadows obscuring his eyes and accenting the tension in his shoulders.
The wagon crested the top of the hill, and the homestead came into view. But the once comforting sight of the house, barn, and squatty bunkhouse didn’t bring a sense of peace and safety. Instead, as the last light faded, the shadows deepened, turning the familiar buildings into looming shapes, and a sense of dread clung to her.
Sitting with Ben in the back of the wagon bed, on a pile of blankets to cushion their ride, Clare had struggled to keep Ben’s leg from being jostled about while scanning the landscape for any sign of Victor or one of his men.
Ed had ridden Bullet alongside the wagon for most of the trip, leaving Rebekah with their cousin Merritt in town. They’d been about an hour into the journey when Clare had overheard Isaac disclose her true identity in hushed tones to Ed.
“She’s a Barlow, then?”
Clare had felt Ed’s penetrating glance but hadn’t been able to look up, afraid of the censure she would see in his face.
“She’s a McGraw now.” Isaac’s gruff reply reminded her of the promises he’d made at the parsonage.
The fresh start she’d hoped to find with a new name was a pipe dream.
