cup and carried it to where she still slept, curled into the bedcoverings as if still hugging him.
Her shift had risen up her thighs and his admiring gaze moved over her half-nekkid form.
That’s when he noticed the blood.
At first, he’d believed she’d just gotten her monthly flow, but none of the red was between her legs. It seeped through her nightgown on the lower right side of her back. When he leaned closer to get a better look, he also noticed the bruising on her right arm. Hand shaped bruises in two spots, the impressions deep enough to make out the individual demarcations of each finger.
Zeke had hurt her yesterday. In three different spots that he could see—who knew if there were other places she’d hidden from him?—and she’d fucking lied about it.
Lied.
To his face.
What the hell had happened to her promise that she wouldn’t keep things from him?
It’s not as if you’re not keeping things from her too.
Yeah, but those things were for her own good.
Maybe she believed this was for your own good. How would you have reacted yesterday if you’d known she was bleeding and bruised at the hands of Zeke West?
Silas would’ve killed him. Right then and there.
And he’d be in jail.
Even if she would’ve shown him the injuries last night, he likely would’ve gotten up, ridden to the snake pit that West crawled out of and killed him.
So he’d be in jail.
Either way—the end result was the same.
He forewent his impulse to ease back into bed and snuggle up to her, coddling and cuddling her—which given her stubborn nature would be a worse method of getting answers about her lies than merely shaking her awake.
Instead of poking the bear, he parked his ass on a chair and drank his coffee as if he had all the time in the world to do so.
He’d finished his second cup when Dinah began to stir. He loved watching her come to wakefulness. Blinking away the haze of sleep that looked damn close to her drowsy look of pleasure. The way she stretched her whole body, swaying her clasped arms above her head, rolling her back into an arch from her hips to her shoulders, rocking her neck side to side, pointing and flexing her toes and then expelling a soft sigh.
But that’s not how his beloved awoke this morning. She moved her arm gingerly and emitted a soft wail. If that tiny movement caused her to cry out, how in the hell had she cooked, cleaned and target shot yesterday without yelling in agony?
Because like you, she is damn good at pretending everything is fine.
And Dinah did yelp when she caught him sitting at her bedside, staring at her.
“Silas? Is everything all right?”
“Nope.” He drained his coffee. “How’d you sleep?”
“Umm…okay. Why—”
“You must’ve been restless since it caused the wound—I’m guessin’ a goddamned stab wound—to reopen in the night, since you’ve got blood on your nightgown.”
She started to retort but he shook his head.
“Don’t bother to pretend it’s your woman’s time because even I know that you don’t bleed from your lower back. Or maybe”—he stood and shuffled closer—“we oughta discuss all them bruises on your arm. Bet it hurt like hell to have that arm wrapped around me last night.”
“Fine. I’m in a lot of pain. Is that what you want to hear?”
“No. I never wanna hear that you’re hurtin’. But what’s worse is you didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth when I asked you about it yesterday.”
Dinah closed her eyes. “You know why I didn’t.”
“Yep, I do. So darlin’, I hate to do this, because I know you’re sore, and this ain’t about me punishing you for not comin’ clean about him hurtin’ you, but I can’t risk leavin’ you here when I check cattle.” He wished he could just kiss her on the forehead and tuck the covers around her so she could rest. “Since I took most of yesterday off, I gotta do a full check, so you’ll have to get up and come along. I promise we’ll get you to Doc’s as soon as possible so he can take a look at you.”
She threw back the covers with her left hand. “If I can walk, I can ride. If I can ride, I can check cattle.” She stood. “Ain’t that right, cowboy?”
At any other time, he would’ve laughed. But not today. Today he just felt sad and kind of sick that his damn cows had to come before her. “You need