by Barb Han
Caleb guided her to her feet where the little dog followed. “Let’s get Noah.”
His hand closed on hers as he led her outside.
Matt stood, still weak, and Caleb took some of his weight.
Another bolt of lightning cut across the sky as a droplet of rain fell.
An SUV was gone. Only the man who’d been shot remained, lifeless on the ground.
By the time they reached Noah, his face was pale. Katherine picked him up and hugged him. He let out a yelp.
Katherine embraced him tighter. “Oh, baby. You’re safe.”
His brown eyes were wide and tearful.
Caleb stood next to her. “Okay, little man. We’re going to get you to the hospital.”
Noah nodded. His bottom lip quivered as tears welled. He was too tired to cry. Not a good sign.
“Did the men bring your medicine, baby?”
He shook his head.
His breathing was shallow, and Katherine realized it was probably the reason he wasn’t bawling. He didn’t have the energy, which meant he needed medicine right away.
“You’re safe,” she repeated over and over again, hugging him tightly into her chest. He was fading, and she knew it. “Can you check the car for his medicine, Caleb?”
They searched the vehicle, pulling out the contents of the console and glove box, looking for the life-saving drugs.
Rain starting coming down in a steady rhythm as Katherine held on to her nephew, whispering quiet reassurances that he would be okay.
He had to be fine.
She glanced at Caleb and tensed at his worried expression. Noah’s eyes rolled back in their sockets; he was losing his grip on consciousness.
“An ambulance is on its way. So is Coleman,” Caleb said.
Katherine’s tears mixed with rain, sending streaks down her face. “Come on, baby. Stay with me.”
Her shoulders rocked as she released the tears she’d been holding far too long. They came out full force now. “When will that damn ambulance be here?”
She kissed Noah’s forehead. His face was paler than before. His skin was cool and moist to the touch. Her heart thudded in her chest. “Caleb. Oh, God. Nothing can happen to him. Not now.”
“The keys are still in the ignition.” He hopped in the driver’s side and motioned for her to climb in the passenger seat.
The SUV started on the first try. He glanced back at Matt. “Wait here for the sheriff?”
“Yes. Now go,” Matt said.
Caleb glanced at his friend again.
“I’m fine. Get out of here.”
The engine roared as Caleb gunned it.
Sirens and lights brought the first spark of hope.
Caleb flashed the headlamps as they cut off the ambulance at the top of the drive.
He hopped out of the driver’s seat and crossed his arms over his head to signal they needed help. A paramedic scrambled out of the passenger seat as Katherine ran toward him with Noah in her arms. “Help him, please. He’s not breathing. He has asthma and may not have had medicine in a few days.”
A paramedic took him from her arms and ran to the back of the ambulance as she followed. His hands worked quickly and efficiently.
“Has the patient been to the emergency room or used EMS in the past twenty-four to forty-eight hours?” he asked, not looking up.
“No. He was kidnapped. His skin was pale and his breathing shallow when I found him.” A flood of tears spilled out of Katherine’s eyes and into the rain.
Caleb’s arm came around her, reassuring her. Protecting her.
The paramedic shot a sympathetic look toward her. “I’m going to administer a dose of epinephrine.”
Another ambulance whirred past. Matt.
She turned to Caleb. “Go. Be with your friend. I have this covered. I know how worried you are about him.”
Caleb’s head shook emphatically. “I won’t leave you to deal with this all by yourself.”
There was that cowboy code again. “He’s your best friend. And I need to know if he’s going to be okay. I want you to check on him for both of us.”
She could almost see the arguments clicking through his mind. How torn he had to be. “I’m serious. Go. I’m safe and Noah’s getting the help he needs.”
The paramedic started an IV and bagged him. “We’ve got to get the boy to the hospital. You can ride in the front,” he said to Katherine before turning to Caleb. “You can follow behind in your vehicle.”
“I’ll go with Noah. You stay with Matt. I’ll meet you at the hospital,” Katherine said, determined. She was fine with Noah and he needed to make sure his friend was okay.
“I know that stubborn look. I’d rather stay with you but I won’t argue,” Caleb agreed, looking more than reluctant.
She gave him a quick kiss as he helped her into the passenger seat.
* * *
CALEB DROVE LIKE a bat out of hell down the drive. He parked the SUV and went to his friend.
Matt had an oxygen tube under his nose, and his forehead had been cleaned up from all the blood. His cut wasn’t as bad as it had first looked.
Matt blinked up at Caleb. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Checking on you.”
Matt issued a grunt. “I’m not the one who needs you.”
“Try telling her that,” Caleb quipped.
Sheriff Coleman roared up and jogged toward them. “Sorry I’m late. I got called away to another county on an emergency. Got there and they said they never made the call.”
“I’m sure you’ll need a statement, but I have to get to the hospital and check on the little boy,” Caleb said.
Coleman took Caleb’s outstretched hand and shook it. “I can always drop by tomorrow if you’d like. Sounds like you guys have had one hell of a night already.”
He nodded.
“I spoke to Dallas PD to make sure you were no longer a person of interest in their murder investigation,” Coleman said with a tip of his hat. “You’re fine. I’ll get this mess cleaned up and be out of here before you return.”
“Much obliged, Sheriff.” The last thing Caleb wanted to do was to bring Katherine home to reminders of the horrors she and Noah had endured.
Coleman patted Caleb on the back. “You need a ride to the hospital?”
“No, thanks.” He said goodbye and climbed into the cab of his pickup.
* * *
HE MADE IT to the hospital in record time and found Katherine sitting next to Noah’s bed.
She looked up at him with those expressive eyes. “He’s going to be fine. His skin is already pink and dry.”
Relief flooded him as he pulled up a chair next to her. “Did they say when he’ll be released?”
“Could be as early as tomorrow. They want to keep him overnight for observation.”
“That’s the best news I’ve heard today.”
“It is.”
He cupped her cheek. “Then why the sad face?”
“Nothing. How’s Matt?”
“He’ll be fine. They’re bringing him in. Not that he likes the idea.”
A knock at the door interrupted their conversation. Marshal Jones poked his head inside. “Katherine Harper?”
“Yes. That’s me.”
“Marshal,” Caleb said, nodding.
Jones returned the acknowledgment.
“Could I have a word with Ms. Harper in the hallway?”
“As long as he can come with me.” She moved to the door alongside Caleb who was already in motion.
“Not a problem,” Jones said.
“Is everything all right, Marshal?” Her hand was moist from nerves.
Caleb gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“I didn’t mean to worry you,” Jones said. “I wanted to let you know what we found on the CD.” He glanced from her to Caleb.
Katherine’s hand came up to her chest. “What?”
“Turns out your sister videotaped Kane murdering a business associate. We’ve been watching him for years trying to gather evidence against him for other crimes. He was slick. Anytime we got close, witnesses disappeared.”
Katherine’s head bowed.
“Your sister outsmarted him. She went to great lengths to hide the evidence. She disappeared. Then he found her.”
“I wonder why she didn’t run straight to the police or you guys,” Katherine said, wiping a tear from her eye.
Caleb pulled her close.
“She’d been on the run, trying to keep her son safe. She was young and scared,” Jones said. “All she wanted was to give her son a life. When I finally made contact with her, she told me that if anything happened, she wanted Noah to be with you. Said you’d be the best mother he could possibly have.”
Tears rolled down Katherine’s cheeks.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. She was brave to do what she did,” he said. “If not for the accident, she would’ve brought Kane to justice.”
Katherine’s gaze lifted, her chin came up. “Thanks. It means a lot to hear you say that.”
He inclined his chin. “Emergency personnel tried to revive Kane at the scene. You should know he didn’t survive. He’ll never be able to hurt you or Noah again. We apprehended an SUV with his associates, and they’ll be locked away for a long time.”
“Thank you.” Relief washed through her.
Jones excused himself as Caleb walked her back into Noah’s room.
Katherine checked on her nephew before taking a seat next to Caleb on the sofa.
“You need anything? Coffee?” he asked.
“No. I want to be right here in case Noah wakes in this strange place.” Her eyes were rimmed with tears when she said, “I’m sorry you couldn’t stay with your friend.”
“Are you kidding? He was pissed at me for leaving you.”
Confusion knitted her eyebrows. “I didn’t want you to have to choose between us and him. He’s your best friend.”
“And he always will be. Did you think you were doing me some kind of favor pushing me away like that?”
“Yes. Noah was fine, and I needed to know how Matt was doing.”
“That so?”
“Yes.” She looked at him as if he had three eyes. “Besides, you don’t know what it’s like to have a family thrust on you before you’re ready.”
“As a matter of fact, I do. And guess what? It doesn’t scare me. You make a decision and then adjust your life to adapt to it. I’m a grown man.” He pulled her into his arms and felt her melt into his chest. “And I want you.”
Tears spilled from her eyes, dotting his T-shirt. “I want you, too,” she admitted.
“Let’s make a deal.”
She arched an eyebrow. “I’m listening.”
“Let me tell you what I can and can’t handle when we go home.”
“Okay.” Her smile didn’t reach her eyes.
“You gonna explain the long face?”
“You have the ranch. Where’s home for me and Noah? We can’t go back to my apartment. Not after what happened.”
“I was getting to that. I want you both to come to live with me. I love you. My life was empty until you came along. If you don’t like the ranch, we’ll buy a new place. I belong wherever you are.”
“Are you serious?” She looked as though she needed a minute to let his words sink in. Her head shook. “You love that place.”
“Not as much as I love you.”
“I love you, too. Believe me. I do. But what about Noah? I’m the only family he’s got and I don’t want to confuse him.”
“Then let’s change that.”
Her expression made him think the three eyes she’d seen on his forehead had grown wings. “All I’m saying is let’s make it permanent. Us. I want to become a family.”
She looked up at him wide-eyed as he stood.
He got down on one knee. “If I live another hundred years, I know in my heart I won’t meet anyone else like you. You fit me in every possible way that matters. I don’t want you to leave. Ever. I want to spend my life chasing away your fears and seeing every one of your smiles. I’m asking you to be my wife.”
Tears fell from her eyes.
He leaned forward and thumbed one away as it stained her cheek, and he waited for her answer.
She kissed him. Deep. Passionate. And it stirred his desire. “Keep that up, and I’ll show you what we can do with the bed on the other side of that curtain while little man sleeps.”
She smiled up at him and his heart squeezed.
“You haven’t answered my question.”
“Yes, Caleb, I will marry you.”
“Good, because I want to start working on a new project.”
“A project?” she echoed, raising her brow.
He pulled her into his chest and crushed his lips against hers. “I want Noah to have a little brother or sister running around soon.”
She smiled. “I want that, too.”
“And I’m going to spend the rest of my life loving you.”
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from RAVEN’S HOLLOW by Jenna Ryan.
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Chapter One
She was being hunted.
The darkness seethed with the bloodlust of the fanatics behind her. She couldn’t see them, couldn’t see anything except the shadows of the hollow that twisted branches into skeletal limbs and turned everything that moved into her persecutors. The shadows hid their faces, and their bodies, but the footsteps shaking the forest floor told her they were closing in.
An ancient name swam in Sadie’s head even as desperation drove her deeper into the woods. Nola Bellam. Not her, not quite, but someone who was part of her.
The knowledge did nothing to alter her flight. Fear gathered like a fiery liquid in her chest, blocking logic, preventing clear thought. The trees, misshapen and grown together, bent lower. The ground grew rougher, the bushes more tangled. Wind swooped down in bursts to claw at her black robe.
She’d run from these same pursuers many times before tonight, as herself and as her ancestor. She was fast, but they were faster, and one of them was equally desperate.
Ezekiel Blume had raped Nola Bellam, who’d been his brother’s wife. Nola had taken her child and escaped, but not to safety. Nowhere was safe in Raven’s Hollow. Ezekiel had been hell-bent on capturing her before his brother returned to the area. On killing her before the truth came out.
Because ignorance was the mightiest weapon of all, he’d branded her a witch and set a group of fearful townspeople on her. He’d died for that in the end. They all had. His brother, Hezekiah, had ensured it.
Words and images blurred. Ravens dived now with the wind. One of them, as large as a man, landed on the path several yards a
head.
Something about him penetrated the haze in Sadie’s mind, and she slowed.
“Keep running,” he ordered, but she wouldn’t. It was time to make things right.
Moonbeams silvered the trees. Ezekiel’s knife slashed the air while his mob of followers held their torches high, circled and salivated.
Smiling at their fervor, Sadie raised her arms and let the glittering darkness enfold her.
When Ezekiel’s blade struck, pain shot through every nerve in her body. A single cry kept the man-sized raven away. Tonight, the war was hers to wage.
So let it hurt. Let her blood be spilled. This time she wouldn’t try to trick death. She would accept her fate, and in doing so, she would save a man from the evil that stalked him here in the heart of the hollow.
As she lowered her arms, a knife slid from her sleeve into her palm. Resolved, she closed her fingers around it. She saw Ezekiel’s face in the gloom, lit from within by the madness that consumed him.
When his blade fell yet again, she aimed and plunged her own into his chest.
His eyes widened, his hand stilled. His body froze beneath its cloak.
Ezekiel dropped to the ground at her feet, blood flowing like a river from his wound.
Sadie’s breath rushed out. She’d stopped him. There was no longer a reason for the evil to be called up, no need for the poison within it to destroy an innocent soul. The man-sized raven would turn back into what he had been, what he still should be, and life would resume its normal rhythm.
Yet when she turned to watch the separation occur, her heart stuttered.
The raven stood, as solid and malevolent as ever, half bird, half man, staring at her through eyes that glowed red and vengeful.
“What is done cannot be undone, Sadie Bellam. You have your own battle to fight, and he who is me to help you conquer what comes.”
What did he mean, he who was him? Frustration linked with fear even as the creature closed enormous black wings around his body and dissolved into the night.
It started slowly, a mere thread of sound beneath the raging wind. She spun back, but saw nothing. No one.