she’d felt when she’d seen Robert in California that morning a few weeks ago washed over her again. In her mind, she saw the agitation in his stride, the anger in his tight features as he questioned the attendant at the corner store where she’d used one of her credit cards. He’d been desperate enough to follow them all the way across the country. If he found them here…
“He won’t.” She spoke the forceful assertion out loud, needing to hear the words as she concentrated on taking deep breaths to curtail the panic that threatened to take over. Besides the few pages Joel had read, no one else knew about the letter her mom had given to her that last day. It had been sealed, passed directly from her mom’s hand to hers. No one knew about Joel. She focused on that fact, letting the thought calm her.
When she’d smoothed the edges of her raw nerves, she went to talk to Noah. She wouldn’t yell at him for talking to Colton’s mother, but she did want to make sure he knew she’d take care of everything, including him. Especially him.
Even if it meant they had to leave again.
She knocked softly on her brother’s door before opening it. He sat on his bed, reading.
“Good book?”
He nodded with enthusiasm. “It’s a Hardy Boys Mystery Cody lent me. Joe and Frank are searching for lost treasure in…”
She sat on the edge of the mattress and listened with half an ear as she pondered how to broach the subject. Colton’s direct approach might be best.
When Noah paused for a breath of air, she asked, “Noah, you know we’re safe here, right?”
He marked his page and set the book down. “I feel safe. With Joel and Colton here, I’m not scared of anything.”
She nodded. “Good.”
Joel and Colton. For someone who hadn’t seemed to like the guy at first, Noah sure had done a complete one-eighty. Much as she wanted to resent the man for that, she couldn’t begrudge Noah his security.
“I don’t want you to worry about anything. After my birthday I’ll be your legal guardian. Robert will have to leave us alone and we can go home.”
It dawned on her that New York wasn’t the first place that came to mind with the word home. Noah made a face. “Do we have to?”
She shook away the strange thoughts in her head. “Of course we do—it’s where we live. And you have school at the academy.”
“We can live here. You like it here, don’t you? I can go to school with Cody, and you can keep working for Colton.”
Funny he looked at it that way, instead of her working for the ranch—for Joel. “Sorry, bud, but New York is where we belong.”
“Says who?” he challenged in a surprise burst of defiance.
Kendra blinked. She bit her tongue to keep from admonishing him for his tone of voice. “I don’t want to talk about this right now. I just want you to let me handle things, and for you to enjoy the rest of your summer, okay?”
He nodded solemnly, and then brightened. “I almost forgot, can we go camping with Joel and Britt and Cody and Dustin this weekend?”
“We?”
“Aww, come on Ken, it’ll be fun, it’s just three days.”
She’d enjoyed the hike, but wasn’t so sure she wanted to spend two whole nights out in mountain lion country. Just yesterday there’d been a program on a local station about victims who’d been attacked in the mountains. Yeah, okay, so even the program said the odds of an attack were slim, and most people could live their whole lives in mountain areas without ever spotting a cougar, but it didn’t mean she wanted to test those odds.
Noah seemed to have no such reservations. He’d come out of his shell so much since they’d arrived at the ranch, pretty much since that first day. Who was she to deny him the experience of camping with his big brother and his nephew? A smile tugged her lips at that last bit. Besides, she knew them well enough already to know Joel and Britt wouldn’t take their own boys unless it was safe.
“Three days in the great outdoors, Noah? I’m not quite ready for that, but I don’t mind if you go.”
“Maybe someday you’ll come?” he asked.
She smiled and leaned over to kiss his forehead. “Yeah, maybe someday.”
Chapter Thirteen
Darkness pricked her skin. Cold seeped into her bones. A stumble in the malice-drenched shadows shoved her heart into her throat. Something hard and unyielding barred the way and she fumbled her way past, one desperate objective consuming her entire being.
Escape.