“I’m fine,” he hollered over his shoulder. “I don’t care!”
She stared after him until he slammed his door. Sure sounded fine to her. Damn it. She blew out a breath and rolled her shoulders. The bath sounded better and better, yet something told her it wouldn’t relax her half as much as she’d anticipated.
And it didn’t. Neither did a hot cup of tea, or the lights out in her bedroom as she lay on the soft king-sized bed. Worry over Noah’s reaction kept her wide awake, despite the fact there was nothing she could do about it tonight. Her best bet was to get some sleep and reassess the situation in the morning. Make sure her little brother accepted Colton’s presence and they made it through the next couple weeks with the least amount of stress possible.
If only she could fall asleep. This was what she hated most about the night. Laying in the quiet, listening to every noise, worrying who might be out there. Watching. Waiting. Planning. And Colton’s surprise arrival last night hadn’t helped her anxieties.
Her exhausted mind locked on her new housemate. Where the heck was he, anyway? There’s no way she would’ve missed the loud muffler on his rusted car. She punched her pillow a few times and then held it over her face in frustration. Who cared where he was? Or with who? Or what he was doing?
Not me!
And yet she proceeded to imagine—with a little too much detail—what kept him out.
She groaned at the clock, half-past midnight.
Next she knew, she jerked straight up in bed; breath panicked, pulse racing, Jeremy’s vile face still vivid in her mind. Fighting for oxygen, she squinted at the red numbers on the clock that read three-forty-five. Her shoulders slumped in despair before she threw back the covers and stumbled toward the kitchen to brew some coffee.
As the black liquid dripped into the pot, she couldn’t help brushing aside the green-checked curtain and rising on her tiptoes for a peek out the window.
No maroon car.
Kendra shoved away from the counter and went to get her book from her bedroom. She didn’t care. Not at all.
She almost believed it by the time she entered the barn a little before seven a.m. Joel appeared above in the opening of the hayloft, a bale in hand.
“Hey,” she greeted with surprise. “Good morning.”
“Morning,” he replied with a cheerful grin. “What are you doing here? It’s Saturday.”
Kendra climbed the ladder to join him. “You advanced me a full week’s pay, I’m going to work a full week.” It was a simple explanation, and she demonstrated it by lifting a bale and swinging it a few feet closer to the loft opening before gravity took over.
Joel didn’t argue and they began feeding the horses. Between their teamwork and the easy conversation that flowed between them, she began to enjoy the morning. Until Joel surprised her out of the blue with the question, “Who’s Robert?”
She froze for just a second. The uneasy flip of her stomach spurred her back into motion. More surprising than the question was that he hadn’t asked about him before now. “He’s my older half-brother from my dad’s side…why?”
He lifted a shoulder. “His name was in the letter, but you haven’t mentioned him at all.”
She wracked her brain for an explanation to offer.
Before she could think of anything, Joel added, “Not that I mind that you came to us, but why didn’t he help you?”
Because he wants us dead.
She couldn’t blurt that out so decided to stick as close to the truth as possible. “We don’t get along—never have.” She moved to the next stall with three flakes of hay to avoid Joel’s probing gaze.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, I’m not.”
On her way back out, their eyes met. The compassion she read there hit her right in the chest. She’d forgotten what it looked like when someone actually cared. His warm, golden-brown eyes invited her confidence, and she suddenly wanted so bad to tell him everything.
Her heart thudded hard, even though she sensed by now she could trust him. If only it were so simple. It wasn’t Joel she worried about, it was the police he would surely want to notify. She couldn’t take the chance of someone from Jeremy’s department leaking information to either him or Robert. Robert was friendly with the whole department—one mention of her name would generate interest and inquiries. Questions would be asked, bloodhounds would scent the trail, and they’d find her and Noah.
She couldn’t take that chance.
She looked away from Joel…directly into Colton’s green eyes. She sucked in a breath at his unexpected appearance. As his gaze shifted to Joel, and he offered a general greeting to encompass the both of them, she couldn’t help notice he wore the same clothes he’d left in yesterday.
His date must’ve been successful. She pictured him with a tall, undoubtedly beautiful, blonde. Someone named Sandra with big breasts and…nah, Sandra sounded too innocent. Her name would be Tasha, or Candie, or Barbie—