by Katy Lee
* * *
“She’s snooping,” Anna said from behind Sawyer in the dark kitchen. “You should not have brought her here. She can’t be trusted.”
Sawyer sighed because he had no reply to justify why Naomi would be in his workshop. The faint light of a lantern through the barn window showed where she was inside, looking for who knew what.
“There’s nothing in there of interest for her. Nothing to snoop,” he reasoned aloud, a bit irritated he had to vouch for Naomi to his sister so soon after he brought her here. Naomi couldn’t even wait one night before putting him in such a predicament. Sawyer remembered another time she’d left him to make the excuses.
With answers he didn’t have.
“I’ll go find out what’s going on,” he said and opened the back door.
“Gut. We need to know why she chose Rogues Ridge.”
Sawyer looked over his shoulder at Anna. “She chose it for safety.”
“Don’t be so naive, brudder. She could have gone anywhere in the world. She’s here for other, more personal reasons.”
Sawyer didn’t respond. He only shut the door behind him and made fast work in reaching the barn. But just as he reached the double doors standing ajar, a crash resonated from inside, followed by a piercing scream.
Naomi.
Sawyer grasped both doors and yanked them wide at the same time. His first thought was something had fallen on her, but when she screamed again, he heard pure fear in her voice. His feet ran and stumbled a bit in the darkness, not moving as fast as he willed them to.
Another scream brought tears to his eyes when he couldn’t reach her fast enough to make whatever was happening to her stop.
“I’m coming, Naomi,” he yelled as he reached his workshop door. But a twist of the doorknob didn’t work. He shook it in a panic, but quickly stepped back and gave the thin door two hard kicks before it splintered and cracked enough for him to push himself through.
“Naomi!” he yelled in the shadowy room. Lantern light flickered at the back, and he noticed a dark figure head for the back door. Before he could make out who it was, the person lifted the lantern and threw it into the workshop.
Contact with various chemicals instantly ignited flames on a whoosh. Sawyer shrank back, his hands raised to protect his face. Had Naomi started the fire?
He glanced at the rear doorway, left open to the pasture beyond.
The thought of such malice pounded in his head. Had Anna been right? Had Naomi returned for her own personal vendetta? But no, she had been shot at. He’d witnessed it.
Or she’d set the whole scene up.
The idea sickened his stomach.
“Why, Naomi?” he yelled as he ran to the back to save his work and his sister’s barn. He grabbed a covering draped over a dining room table that was recently finished. Racing to the growing flames, he threw it over the fire and tamped it down with his boots. “Come back here!” he shouted. “And explain yourself! Do you hate me this much?”
No response came, and the doorway remained empty.
Two more stomps, and the fire was snuffed out enough for him to run to see where she went. But as he ran past where his desk lay turned upside down, something in the wall by his head caught his eye. With no time to figure it out, he ran past it for the door. But at the opening, nothing but a still night lay before him. With the moonlight, he scanned the fields beyond the fence, but with no sight of Naomi, he turned back to survey his smoking workshop. With the moon behind him, he could see things more clearly in the room. And the first thing he noticed was the piece of metal protruding from the wall.
A saw blade had been impaled into the wall.
Had Naomi thrown it?
Or had someone thrown it at her?
“Naomi!” he yelled. Pure terror threaded his voice. He turned in a circle, searching the workshop in a panic. Was she still in here somewhere? Hurt by the person he’d seen throw the lantern? A race around the room came up empty, and he scanned the pasture beyond the door. A sinking feeling overcame him. It reminded him of the last time he realized she was gone. Eight years ago, he had been left to realize he wasn’t enough to keep her.
Now he realized he wasn’t enough to keep her safe.
SEVEN
Naomi didn’t dare stop running or look over her shoulder for even one second. Her bare feet hit the hard dirt path at a rapid rate, and her heartbeat kept up with them. All she could think about was escaping from the man who just tried to kill her...again. She had to thank her self-defense coach for the techniques he had drilled into her and her support group. The training was part of their sessions. It empowered the women to take back their lives and feel safe again. But part of Naomi had always doubted she would remember enough to actually save herself.
Tonight proved otherwise.
The moves came from deep within her muscle memory and quickly took the man by surprise. One moment, she couldn’t breathe with his hand over her mouth, and the next, she had him on the ground. It gave her enough time to put distance between them, so she could get away. Maybe if she had known how to break free from a hold eight years ago, she wouldn’t have had to run away from Rogues Ridge in the first place. And yet, even after breaking free this time, here she was running again.
It didn’t matter that she could be leading this man to an isolated place to finish the job. If it meant she led him away from Chloe, then she would keep running for as long as she needed to.
Or until she ran out of path.
Naomi knew somewhere around here was a stream that flowed into the river. She knew she would reach the banks of that water soon, and depending on the place she came to, it could be impassable or wadable. Either way, it was going to slow her down and she could be caught.
Unless she wasn’t being chased at all, because the man didn’t come for her, but Chloe.
Naomi’s feet stumbled at the thought. Had she just left the baby unprotected and alone? The man would know she wasn’t with the baby. He would now have access to her with no one to stop him.
The whole house was asleep. He could slip in with no one noticing.
Instant concern had Naomi slowing her steps and turning an ear to any sounds behind her. No other footsteps but hers made a sound. He must have stayed behind. He could already be in the house.
Naomi prayed for God to wake Sawyer up. She’d never make it back in time. Even so, Naomi had to try. She had to get to the baby and protect her with every breath she had in her. She had to protect her with her life.
Naomi picked up her steps and rushed back to the farm. The moon lit her path and kept her from stumbling, but up ahead she could see tree branches hanging over a shadowed portion. She’d run through this path already, but now running toward danger stirred up fear as her feet closed in on the darkness. Naomi envisioned Chloe, alone in the bedroom, and pressed on at full force. She picked up her speed with determination to reach the child before this killer. With the child’s safety at the forefront of her mind, a tunnel vision formed before her with only Chloe’s face to lead the way.
Naomi ran forward blindly. Strength and power grew in every footfall. It was as though her muscles multiplied instantly and her feet carried her farther and faster than ever before in her life. Something in her switched over, and nothing would stop her from protecting her child.
But no, not her child. Debby’s baby.
Her mind attempted to straighten that fact out, even though all internal intuition said otherwise. All that mattered was that there was a child in danger.
Darkness descended as she entered the tree covering. Now she ran blindly, her feet falling in unknown places. She raised her hands before her for protection if she fell. Her feet stumbled over rocks and tree roots. Then she smacked straight into a tree.
No, not a tree.
Her hands fumbled frantically as her mind registered that a formidable
man stood before her. Her mouth opened and a scream struggled out.
“Naomi!”
Her name was yelled, but the voice was muffled in her ears. Then strong hands gripped her upper arms and squeezed.
Words were shouted in her face, and she realized it was Sawyer before her. It had been him she had plowed into. It was Sawyer who held her firmly now, trying to calm her screams.
He pressed her close into his chest as her fingers grasped hold of his cotton nightshirt. “What happened?” he demanded.
As Naomi realized she was safe with Sawyer, she also registered the fact that Chloe was left even more vulnerable without Sawyer’s protection back at the house.
“Chloe!” she cried and pulled away. “I have to get to Chloe before he does.”
Naomi took off in a run again, but this time she had Sawyer beating a path beside her. “Who is he?” he shouted. “I want the truth from you.”
“You don’t want the truth,” she said through pants of breath. “The truth comes with responsibility, and it means walking alone.”
“You’re wrong. I want to help you! Why did you leave the safety of the house? Were you looking for this man? Were you looking for Chloe’s father? The man who left you to raise his child alone. Tell me! Were you looking for Chloe’s father?”
“I was, but it’s not what you think,” Naomi cried as the silhouette of the house came into view. Gaslights, blurred through her tears, shone from the baby’s room and propelled Naomi’s feet faster.
Then she was halted to a stop. Sawyer had grabbed her arm and pulled her back, jarring her teeth. “The truth, Naomi!” He angrily loomed above her, demanding what she could never give him.
Stunned, she searched his stern face. Moments ticked by. Critical moments. Her gaze shot beyond his shoulder at the dark shadows of the farm behind him. In any of the hidden places, the man could be lying in wait to take a shot at them.
Or he could already be in the house.
She yanked her arm from his grasp and stepped away. “If you can’t help me without knowing the truth, then I will do this alone.”
She turned her back and took off in a run, doing just that.
* * *
The cool of the night brushed over Sawyer as he stood in the middle of his sister’s farm and stared up at her home.
Not his.
Never his.
No matter if he lived out his days here, this place would always be hers and her family’s. He would do his part in the everyday workings of the home and farm.
But it would never be his.
As Sawyer watched Naomi race ahead in a determined step, he stood at an impasse. Whether she realized it or not, he too was alone. A forever guest in Anna’s home with no change on the horizon. As much as his sister tried to play matchmaker, she would never find him a match. There was nothing wrong with all the girls. He was the problem.
Naomi reached the house and took the first porch step. She dived to the top of the porch and scuttled toward the door. He got his feet to engage and moved fast to reach her, needing to stand in the way of any more danger aimed for her. As he ran blindly, the image of the saw blade protruding from his workshop walls flashed in his mind. Naomi hadn’t thrown that. Whoever was after her thought he could do it silently without waking the house.
Lights flickered on as his sister’s family awoke to Naomi’s burst through the door.
Sawyer ran blindly toward a threat he knew nothing about. All he knew was Naomi was involved in something deadly, and whether she trusted him enough to share or not, he couldn’t stand by and let her be killed.
His feet pounded on the hard dirt. His breath shortened and labored as he pushed on faster, and when his boots hit the first step of the porch, he made the decision to stand by her even if she kept him in the dark. Naomi and Chloe were in trouble, and that was all that mattered.
He flung open the screen and rushed inside. He immediately heard Anna’s angered tone from the back of the house. He looked up at Esau, who stood at the top of the stairs and shouted, “Barricade the doors!”
The two men worked to secure the front of the house, and when Sawyer entered the kitchen, he stopped short.
Naomi faced Anna, who held Chloe away from her.
“Please, give her to me,” Naomi begged.
“Not until you come clean of what is going on. What kind of life have you been living that you would put yourself and this child in harm’s way? That you would put us in danger!”
“I have told you all I know. Believe me, I have.”
“Then what were you doing out in the barn? Who were you meeting?”
“No one,” Naomi stated forcefully and lifted her chin. “Now, give me the baby.”
Sawyer squinted at her choice of words. The baby. Not my baby.
Something about the words felt off. He shook the thought away for now.
“Anna, give her the child. Right now we need to make sure the house is secured and safe. Someone is out there with a gun and means harm. We don’t need to know the details to help Naomi and Chloe.”
Naomi turned her face toward him with a questioning gaze in the lantern light. “Do you mean that?”
“I saw the blade in the wall. And I just heard the gun shoot at you. I don’t care why. I just want you safe.”
Anna held Chloe firmly. “Well, this is my home, and I do care who we are housing.”
“Give Naomi her child,” Sawyer instructed his sister again.
“I want to know why she was sneaking around here late at night when we are all supposed to be asleep. If not to meet someone, then why?” Anna looked to him. “I have every right to an answer.”
“Give Chloe to her mother.”
Suddenly, Naomi began to cry. “You can’t give her to her mother.” She backed away from Anna and Chloe and dropped her arms to cover her face as she sobbed.
Sawyer took a step closer but stopped short of reaching for her. “What is it, Naomi?”
Naomi sniffed as she visibly pulled herself under control. She dropped her hands and wrapped her arms around her midriff. Lifting her tearstained face to him, she whispered, “You can’t give Chloe to her mother.”
Sawyer glanced Anna’s way. His sister wore the same confused look he figured he did. Anna shrugged at him, and he looked back at Naomi for further explanation. “We don’t understand.”
Naomi swallowed hard. She sniffed deep and blurted out, “She’s dead. Chloe’s mother is dead.”
With that she turned and walked to the back door. Moonlight streamed in on her through the large window beside the door. The room stilled in a heavy silence.
Sawyer opened his mouth to demand more answers but closed it when he didn’t even know where to start. His mind ran through all the scenes that had transpired since the moment Naomi stepped back into his life. He opened his mouth again to ask who Chloe’s mother was, but all that came out was, “You lied to me.”
Naomi shook her head and faced him. “No. I never said Chloe was my child. You assumed it and—”
“You let me assume it,” Sawyer cut her off, hearing the anger in his voice. “That is a lie by omission.”
“I didn’t know who I could trust. I promised Debby I would keep her baby safe.”
“Debby is Chloe’s mother,” Sawyer said as he put the puzzle together. “Debby is dead.”
“I promised her I would protect Chloe.”
“From whom?”
“I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to figure out. That’s why I went into the barn.”
Sawyer glanced out through the window. “Outside you told me you were looking for Chloe’s father. You thought he was out in the barn?”
Naomi looked to Anna and dropped her gaze. “I wanted to use your laptop to do some searching. I knew it wouldn’t be allowed, so that’s why I sneaked out.” She li
fted an imploring gaze to Sawyer. “You have to understand. If I can figure out who he is, I may find Debby’s killer.” She took a step toward him, saying, “Please underst—”
At that moment, the window behind Naomi blasted in, spraying glass shards inward and sending Naomi facedown to the floor at his feet. Sawyer dropped immediately beside her.
“Get down!” he yelled to his sister, but Anna had already turned and run with the baby back toward the hall and out of the line of fire. Esau could be heard pounding down the stairs from where he had stood guard above. Sawyer could hear his sister and brother-in-law hollering out, but no words computed in his mind. All Sawyer could focus on was the woman lying facedown beside him and not moving.
Blood seeped through the back of her white nightgown. Shards of glass penetrated her skin, and the bright red blotches grew with each second.
“Naomi,” Sawyer called to her as he bent close to her head and carefully felt for a pulse against the soft skin of her neck. His fingers brushed over the strong beat, and he breathed a prayer of thanksgiving to God. “Stay with me, Naomi,” he pleaded, remembering they were the same words he said to her when she’d left to go to an English party eight years ago. The night she chose the English way of life over him. “Please, stay with me,” he begged just as he had the night of the party. The last time he saw her before she left town.
But he couldn’t hold her then. Could he now?
Sawyer brushed her loose curls behind her ear to get a better view of her face. She moaned, slow at first as she came out of unconsciousness. A pained whimper followed, and her body jerked.
“Shh...don’t move,” he instructed.
“Sawyer,” she cried and tried to lift her head. “It hurts. Oh, Sawyer, help me.”
“I’m right here. Where does it hurt?”
“My side.” She moved one hand to reach for her right side. She winced and inhaled sharply. Her hand came away bloody, stirring Sawyer into action.