No answer.
Too soon for Nell to be home and—oh, no—Colin was speaking to some community group. Eagles or Jaycees or… She didn’t remember. Because of her, he was still putting off announcing his candidacy for sheriff, but when his bodyguard duties allowed, he was trying to squeeze in more of these kinds of events to bring name and face recognition.
The worry was sticking with her like a burr. There were already a couple of other candidates besides the incumbent sheriff. What if her problems dragged on and Colin entered the race too late?
And yet, for all her guilt, right this minute she was ungrateful enough to be swept with relief because she could be alone, if only for a few minutes.
Still carrying both bags, she had started down the hall toward the bedroom when she heard the sound of breaking glass.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
NOAH WASN’T TWO minutes down the road when he abruptly wrenched the wheel to the side and skidded to a stop on the shoulder.
“Shit,” he said explosively.
How could he have left her like that, thinking there was any truth at all in the crap about being a wimp. He winced at the memory of her eyes, darkened to charcoal by pain he hadn’t done a single thing to ease.
If you think that, you’re still letting him victimize you.
“Letting him” had to be the worst thing he could have said, after she’d just finished telling him that she’d “let” that bastard Ralston brainwash her, dominate her, hit her. As if “letting him” wasn’t bad enough—he’d tacked still onto it.
Noah groaned, hearing her response.
Then I guess I’m just cut out to be a victim.
The irony was, despite what she had to have seen as his cruelty, her chin had had a belligerent cast, her wounded eyes were dry, her pride alive and well.
Couldn’t she see that her childhood had set her up to accept abuse? Living in fear of her father, seeing her mother cower? Noah had read between the lines in Cait’s few stories about her childhood. To survive, she’d made herself the next thing to invisible. She grew up knowing only two survival tactics: going unnoticed and enduring.
Animals like Blake Ralston seemed to have a gift for homing in on susceptible women. Noah guessed that Cait had had no idea she was until she’d gotten involved with him. She’d made herself into a strong woman in so many ways. Why would she suspect her instinct would be to revert to those childhood lessons?
Noah swore a few more times, then checked the road both ways and swung into a sharp U-turn. He should have marched right in the house with Cait, told her brother and his wife that they needed privacy and straightened her out. Instead, he’d left her thinking…
He didn’t like knowing what she was thinking.
* * *
CAIT FROZE. It was all her nighttime fears made real.
The bedroom, she thought frantically. She could push the dresser over to block the door, give herself time to get out the window.
Heart slamming, she ran in, closed the door and pushed the useless little button to lock it. Her bags dropped with a thud and she began to wrestle the tall dresser across the floor.
The door splintered, and she whirled as the lock gave and a man shoved his way in. The lethal-looking gun in his hand riveted her. And, oh, God, that hand wore a thin latex glove. Only slowly did she lift her gaze to his face.
An ordinary face. Thin, to go with his medium height and lean runner’s build. Graying brown hair, brown eyes.
Shaking, she whispered, “I would never have recognized you.”
His expression didn’t even change. “I couldn’t take that chance. You did recognize Jerry.”
“Only because I knew him.”
He shook his head and stepped away from the door. “We need to go.”
“I won’t.”
“Your choice.” He sounded truly indifferent, although beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. “There are kids playing outside next door so I’d rather not kill you here, but I will if you’re too much trouble.”
She thought frantically. In the self-defense class, they’d taught that a woman should never go with the man. They hadn’t mentioned the choice of being alone with him or…alone with him.
And she could see in his flat gaze that he really would do it. At least if she walked out of the house with him, she’d buy herself a few minutes.