Confessing to the Cowboy - By Carla Cassidy Page 0,74

weeping became tiny sniffles. “I never expected...” she began.

“That people around here care about you? That they would do what they could to help you if you needed it? You’ve obviously underestimated your own worth with the good people of Grady Gulch,” he replied gently.

She dabbed at her eyes and turned to stare at him, the blue of her gaze hollow and empty. “I have to leave here,” she said. “We need to go to the school and pick up Matt and then he and I need to leave.” Despite the emptiness of her eyes, there was an urgent desperation in her voice.

“Don’t you understand, all those people are potential victims. If Jason sees that they care about me at all, then he’ll go after them. He’ll kill them and it will be because of me.” A new sob caught in her throat.

“And where are you and Matt going to go?” he asked.

She stared at him and that delicate frown he found both charming and troubling appeared across her forehead. “Somewhere...anywhere...just away from here.”

“And wherever you go he’ll find you again and then you’ll have to run once more. Matt will never know a real home and friends again. He’ll learn to be afraid of everyone, afraid to get close to anyone. Is that what you want for him? For yourself?”

She closed her eyes and leaned her head back, as if exhausted, broken by the very thought. “No, that’s not what I want for either of us.”

“I thought you were through running away, that you were ready to stop and take a stand. At least here you have people who love you surrounding you. At least here you have support and you aren’t alone.”

He wanted to touch her so badly, just a reassuring tap on her hand, a quick embrace to let her know she was where she belonged. But he was afraid to touch her now, especially after last night. He had no right.

“Stay, Mary. Stay here where you’ve built your life, where Matt is happy and feels like this is his home. Stay and let me and my men end this for you here and now.”

“But what if it doesn’t end here? What if it never ends?” Her voice trembled with the frailty of her emotions.

“It ends here, Mary,” he said firmly, believing what he told her. “One way or another it ends here. You have to trust somebody. Trust me. Trust in this town and us. Trust in these people who care about you, people who have embraced you and your son.”

He held her gaze and watched her eyes soften and lose some of the abject fear that had radiated there only moments before. She finally cast her gaze back toward the café. Her shoulders straightened as she sat forward. “This is my home. This is my town and he has no place here.” She looked back at Cameron and nodded. “I should have made a stand against him years ago, before things got to where they did. I should have been strong enough to walk away from him the very first time he hit me. You’re right. I’ll make my stand here.”

She opened the car door and stepped outside. As he followed her back to the café he only hoped...he prayed that this wouldn’t be a stand that ended in her death.

Chapter 15

Mary spent most of the morning with her heart in her throat as her friends worked hard in her living quarters to turn things right again for her and her son.

The burnt sofa was dragged outside by the Taylor twins to the Dumpster and then the real cleaning began. Lynette and Ginger worked to clear the closets and drawers, carrying out plastic tub after tub of clothing to be washed. The plan was to take them to the local Laundromat where they could use eight washers and dryers to get the job done in as short a time as possible.

Everyone else worked on cleaning, wiping smoke from tables and chairs and from the countertop surfaces in the bathrooms. Each and every item on the bookcase was taken off and swiped clean. Mary was ordered to sit in a chair with a cup of coffee and do nothing other than supervise the job.

She didn’t have to do any supervising. Everyone worked hard at each task assigned by Lynette, who seemed to be in charge, leaving Mary nothing to do but think and thank her lucky stars that she was here in Grady Gulch, a town