How was he here?
Memories of the night they ran raced through her mind. The sound of Robert choking, the sickly pallor of his face and the sickening thud of his body hitting the floor slammed into her all at once. She'd been sure she'd killed him. She'd only meant to put him to sleep, to immobilize him long enough so they could get away, but something had gone wrong. She'd known it the moment his lips turned blue. The moment he looked at her, his eyes bulging in his head before he slumped over and fell at her feet.
She held back a sob at the memory and tucked Aaron and Sophie Ann closer to her body. Fear stole her voice, her gaze following Robert around the room as she wondered what he was going to do. Would he take what he found and leave? Or would he get his revenge first? Was that why he was here?
He kicked the trunk that sat at the foot of the bed, the noise the lid made as it slammed down echoing in the stillness. "Where the hell does he keep his money, Keri?"
She opened her mouth three times before finally getting the words, "He doesn't have any," out.
"You're lying!" He braced both hands on his hips and glared at her. "There's enough food in the kitchen to feed a small army and those coats hanging by the door are made of good wool and fur. A poor man don't buy expensive things like that unless he has money enough to do it with so I'll ask you one more time, and by God you better answer me. Where does he keep his money?"
She blinked, forcing the tears away. "If I knew I would tell you, Robert. I've never seen any money or anything of value. What you see is all there is."
He sneered at her and gritted his teeth, his jaw clenching several times before he searched the room again. He stopped in front of the fireplace and reached up, grabbing Noah's journal and thumbing through the pages. His back went stiff moments before he shook his head. "Well, would you look at that," he said before turning and looking at her. The sneer on his face told her he'd seen the drawings of her and the kids.
Robert grabbed one of the pages and ripped it from the book. She flinched at the sound of ripping paper and stared at the drawing of Aaron and Duke before he crumpled the page and tossed it behind him into the fire.
Her heart broke watching that drawing burn. "Please, Robert, just take what you want and go."
He kept thumbing through the drawings and paused at the one of her. "Look at you," he said. "He turned you into a real fancy lady." He stared at the drawing for long minutes before closing the book with a loud snap and looking up at her. The expression in his eyes was cold and distant and she pulled Aaron and Sophie Ann closer. "You like posing for pictures?" he asked, his voice deceptively calm. She didn't answer him. He shook his head again, ran his gaze over her from head to toe before smiling so cruelly, her skin crawled. "You like being married to him more than me?"
The words, "we were never married," hung on the tip of her tongue but she knew better than to voice them. When she didn't reply to his question, he narrowed his eyes, hatred burning brightly. "I want everything that isn't nailed down put into the back of the wagon. Take the food stuff first. Pack it in tight so we can get it all." His gaze ran the length of her from head to toe before he sneered. "You're still a sniveling, pathetic woman, Keri. I can't for the life of me figure out what my brother ever saw in you." He glanced down at Noah's journal. "Nor this man." He looked back up and smiled, the curve of his lips making the gesture look cruel. "We both know you ain't worth nothin'." With a simple flick of his wrist, Robert tossed Noah's journal into the fire behind him and walked off.
"No!" Keri made a move to retrieve the book. Flames caught on the leather cover and the pages inside within seconds. She stood stunned, tears filling her eyes as she watched the book burn, and tried to swallow past the lump in her throat. Sophie Ann sniffled at her side. She pulled her tight against her again and hoped she didn't say anything.
When they just stood there staring into the fire, Robert bellowed, "Get moving! I want this place cleaned out before he gets back."
Keri knew she had no choice but do as he demanded. She'd not been completely honest with Noah when he asked about Robert. She'd lied and said Robert only slapped her when he felt the need, but the beatings she'd taken from him in order to protect her children were still fresh in her mind. She knew he'd use her kids to get what he wanted and right now, he wanted everything Noah had.
She ushered Aaron and Sophie into the kitchen, her heart slamming against her ribcage so hard, she could barely breathe. She reached up to the first shelf, grabbed a few of the smaller bags and handed them down.
The fear on her children's faces would be etched inside her brain for years to come. The shock at seeing Robert at the door instead of Peter had taken her longer to recover from than it should have. She still regretted not being able to tell Percy that the man he'd brought to their front door wasn't who he said he was, but fear had stolen her breath and taken her ability to speak.
She'd not made a sound as she stood there staring at what she thought was a dead man. She'd killed him. Poisoned him on purpose but killed him by accident. She'd watched his body fall, heard his breath ease past his lips and left him on the floor without a single drop of remorse.
Another crash echoed in the main room. They all jumped, Sophie Ann's eyes filling with tears again. "Don't cry, love," she whispered. "I'll not let him hurt you."
Aaron shook his head. "Then he'll just hurt you instead."
Keri smiled at him. "If I can handle Noah bellowing the way he did when he first found us, then I'm strong enough now to handle Robert." She glanced into the other room where he stood, her lip curling in distaste. "You just do as he says and don't say a word. Got it?"
When they both nodded, she filled her arms with Noah's dry goods and ushered the kids outside, stowing the bags in the back of Robert's wagon. Every trip they made tore a chunk out of Keri's heart. When Noah returned to find his things gone, he would think the worst of her. She could live with a lot of things, and had, but knowing Noah would think she cared so little for him that she'd take everything he had burned in her soul.
She'd spent months scared Robert would lash out and hurt one of them and she'd let him terrorize them until she'd done something drastic. She knew in her heart she'd let her children down. It was her job to protect them, and she realized in the many trips in and out of Noah's small cabin, that she had a chance to rectify that mistake.
When the house was cleaned to Robert's satisfaction, she pushed the kids back into the kitchen and stepped into the main room to face him. "That's everything," she said. "And I covered it all like you said."
Robert reached up and took Noah's gun from the hooks above the fireplace. "Then grab your things and wait for me outside."
Keri swallowed back the fear she felt, her eyes on the gun, and hoped he didn't shoot her. "We're not going with you."
He was slow to turn and look at her but when he did, her heart skipped a beat. His steps were slow, his eyes locking on hers as he crossed the room. "You are going with me," he said, his voice pitched low and harsh. "I didn't spend the last seven months wandering around the territory looking for you to leave you here. Now get what you want to take with you or you'll go home with nothing but the clothes on your back. Your choice."
His black eyes had never looked so dead. Keri swallowed the lump in her throat while looking at the barrel of the gun. She didn't have a doubt in her mind that he'd shoot her.
Robert had changed since that night all those months ago. His dark hair hung limply to his shoulders, the stubble on his face at least a few weeks long. He was unkempt, stank to high heaven and something in his eyes chilled her to the bone. As hateful and mean spirited as he'd been, something told her she was staring into the eyes of the devil himself. Something wasn't right about him and she didn't know what it was. Nor did she want to ask. Her confidence waned and the old fear she'd thought she'd let go of began creeping back in until she wasn't sure what to do.
She needed time to think. She turned to the bed and bundled what few items of clothing
they had, then helped Aaron and Sophie slip on their coats. She fastened the last of the buttons on her own coat when Duke started barking. Robert lifted his head, then darted into the kitchen. He muttered a few curses and came back into the main room. "Someone's coming down the road."
The glee Keri felt was short lived. Robert grabbed her by the arm and pulled her close. "If you make so much as a twitch to alert whoever it is out there that I'm not really your brother, they'll be dead before they hit the ground." He looked to Aaron and Sophie Ann. "The same goes for you two. Not a word. I'll put a bullet between your mamma's eyes if you do."
Sophie Ann started crying the moment Robert shoved them toward the door. Keri pulled her close and tried to shush her and nearly succeeded. When they reached the wagon, Robert laid the gun under the seat but kept his hand on the wooden stock.
"Remember what I said," he told them, then grabbed Keri's arm in a grip so tight, she knew her skin would be bruised.
She looked toward Aaron and Sophie Ann. "Don't utter a sound. Do you hear?" They nodded but she wasn't sure they even heard her. "No matter who it is, don't say anything." Her attention shifted back to the person riding down the long drive toward them. As much as she wanted it to be Noah, she hoped wherever he'd gone, he was still there.
The closer the horse and rider drew near, the quicker her pulse raced. It was Noah, she could tell by the set of his shoulders. By how tall he sat his horse. When he was close enough to see his face clearly, tears once again filled her eyes. How would she ever get through the next few moments and manage to stay sane?
She was too afraid to let Noah know who Robert was but too terrified not to. They couldn't leave with him. They'd never escape again.
Noah slowed when he reached the house, his gaze locking on hers as he pulled the horses reins and brought the animal to a stop. He stared at her for long moments before dismounting, letting the reins dangle as the horse roamed, and crossed the yard to where they all stood by the wagon.
When he stopped, Keri's heart lodged in her throat when Robert draped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. "You're just in time. We were about to leave."
She looked at Noah and willed him to see that something was wrong. When he tilted his head to one side and stared at Robert, his eyes narrowing, she prayed the look on his face meant she was about to get her wish.
* * * *
Percy was right. Peter Hilam looked nothing like Keri. Where she was blonde with fair skin and bright-blue eyes, Peter was dark, his hair black as night, the same as his eyes. He also looked much older than her.
Noah stopped at the back of the wagon, glanced at it briefly, then turned his attention to Keri and the kids, noticing their coats were buttoned up tight and no one would look him in the eye.
He'd been right. They were leaving.
The plans he'd made for them were for nothing now. Keri had done the one thing he always suspected she'd do regardless of what they shared. She was leaving with her brother and would forget he even existed.
Since the day he'd found them, he'd known their time together was only temporary and he'd been foolish enough to think she cared about him. He realized now how wrong he'd been and anger settled into his bones quicker than he could control it. He narrowed his eyes, looked at Keri and said, "Were you not even going to tell me you were leaving?"
She flinched moments before Peter smiled again and said, "I tried to get her to wait but you know how Keri is. Impatient as any woman can be." He laughed and shook his head. "Besides, little Sophie Ann don't like the dark much. The sooner we get going, the sooner we can get settled in before the sun goes down."
Noah glanced at Sophie Ann. Her eyes were glassy. He'd almost say tears lingered in her blue eyes but he knew she'd been feeling poorly the past couple of days. It was probably fever set in again regardless of what his heart wanted to believe.
A thousand memories assaulted him, every second of every day he'd spent with this rag-tag little family beating against his heart until the anger he felt was washed away, replaced with bone deep grief he knew he'd never get over. The pain he'd lived with the last twelve years was nothing compared to the aching hole widening inside his chest as he looked at Keri and those kids.
And he knew the pain was his own fault.
He'd vowed to never let anyone get close enough to make him care again and Keri's shy smiles made him forget. They made him forget what he was, what he looked like, and he let the attention of a woman who was probably just doing what she had to do to keep a roof over her kids’ heads fill his heart with something that just wasn't there.
Noah stared at Aaron and Sophie Ann, trying unsuccessfully to catch their eye but neither one of them would look at him. Keri did, though. Her gaze bore into him as if there wasn't anything else in the world for her to look at. It tore that hole in his heart open just a little bit more to see her looking at him so intently.
He looked away and saw Duke sitting near the side of the house. He'd brought that old hound home for them. To keep the kids company and to alert him if anyone was on his property and now the reason that old dog was there was leaving. He tried to harden his heart again and looked Keri in the eye. "Once the sun hits the top of that mountain, it'll get dark pretty quick so I guess you better get a move on." Turning, he walked back to the horse, grabbed the dangling reins and started off toward the barn.
And with each step, it took every ounce of courage he had to not beg Keri to stay.
His steps were sure, each booted foot hitting the frozen ground just a little bit harder than necessary and once he'd yanked the barn door open and ushered the horse inside, then closed the door behind him, it was all he could do to keep standing. His legs felt weak, as if he'd run all the way home from town.
Unsaddling the horse and getting him bedded in for the night was done in a daze. Sounds from outside broke through the silence every once in a while and he tuned them out and tried not to imagine them getting into that wagon and leaving.
When the animals were seen to, he sighed, looked toward the small loft on the far end of the barn and laughed, the sound bitter to his own ears. The Christmas gifts he'd bought for Aaron, Sophie Ann and Keri the night of the Christmas recital were stacked in one corner, an old horse blanket covering the heap to help hide them from the family he'd thought to keep forever. What was he supposed to do with all that stuff now?
The sounds from outside grew and the pain he'd felt after the fire paled in comparison to the agony ripping through his body. His entire future was being ripped from him and he didn't say a word. He couldn't. His throat felt tight, his chest aching when he heard the squeak of the wagon wheels as it started to move.
As the sounds grew distant, he heard Sophie Ann start calling his name, her sobs loud and anguished, and he suddenly couldn't breathe. He bent at the waist, propped his hands on his knees, and tried to tune her out, to not care, but failed miserably.
The happiness he'd lived with for the past two months slowly drained away to leave him hollow. His family left him and he hadn't even tried to stop them.
Chapter Thirty Four
The desire to turn and look back was great but Keri couldn't make herself do it. She was too afraid of what she'd see. Her heart was ripping in two and Sophie Ann screaming Noah's name only made the pain worse. She'd not wanted to cry in front of Robert, but she wasn't able to hold back the pain as her children cried for a man who made them fall in love with him regardless of his surly ways.
A man who apparently didn't want them in return.
"Shut her up, Keri!"
Keri wiped her face dry and turned in the seat, looking at Aaron and Sophie Ann where they sat near the back of the wagon. "Hush, love." Sophie Ann's tear-streaked face was red and puffy but she stopped yelling for Noah. Her snuffles lasted for long minutes but she quieted enough that Robert didn't say anything else.
She looked over at him as they neared the main road. "Where are you taking us?"
"Home."
Imag
es of the farm she'd shared with John flashed in her memory. "Why?" she asked. "It's yours if you want it. You don't want or need us."
Robert laughed. "That's where you're wrong." He glanced her way. "That no good brother of mine went and done somethin' stupid." He looked back at the road. "He had some fancy lawyer draw up papers saying everything he owned belonged to you and you alone if he died." They rounded the curve and neared the fork in the road that would lead into town. Robert went right, and headed toward the Avery Ranch instead. "I need you to sign those property deeds over to me, Keri. That farm belonged to my pa's family for generations and I ain't letting some piss-poor dirt farmer's daughter take it from me."
"Fine. We don't need to go back with you for that."
"Yes, you do." He scowled and shook his head. "That lawyer won't do it unless you're there and he sees you sign the papers himself."
A bit of hope made her sit up straight. All Robert wanted was the farm? She swallowed to moisten her throat and hoped she didn't sound too eager. "Does that mean once I've signed everything over to you, that we're free to go?"
Robert turned his head to look at her and started laughing, throwing his head back and howling with unrestrained glee. When he finally quieted, he shook his head. "You're a dumb-ass woman, Keri." He chuckled again. "You poisoned me! Left me to choke on my own vomit and I'm gonna make you pay for that until the day you die."
Keri's heart lodged itself in her throat. "What do you mean?"
The look in his eye chilled her to the bone. She didn't want to think about how he'd make them pay but knew whatever he had in mind would be painful and last until she wished he'd just kill them to end their misery.
She saw Aaron out of the corner of her eye and turned her head to look back at him when she saw him moving. Her eyes widened when he stood and jumped from the back of the wagon. "Aaron!"
Everything happened so fast then. The moment Aaron hit the ground, Sophie Ann jumped, her small body rolling as Aaron ran to grab her. They both stood and started running back down the road toward Noah's. Tears clogged her throat but she managed to turn, leaning across the back of the seat as she yelled for them both.
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