never ends. I’m positive I’ll meet up with Calder in the near future. He just has to find me first.”
His voice had risen, but she wasn’t afraid. Her own anger rose as she faced him and shook her head, writing, “He’s a fool. His younger son’s death was an accident, and the other was due to his own stupidity. I can see that you’re a decent man, a good man, someone I’m proud to be married to—and you know who and what you are. Nothing else matters.”
“Might I remind you that I have a price on my head? I can be arrested, hanged for it.”
“We’ll make sure you’re not.”
“How?” His eyes blazed with helpless fury. “How can we do that?”
She didn’t know, but she’d do whatever she must in order to keep Ridge free—and that was a promise. She hadn’t found the only decent man in her life only to lose him now.
Sixteen
Ridge worked with Bodie’s lessons after supper, then read a chapter from Oliver Twist aloud while Addie darned socks and knitted. Anyone looking in at them would never have been able to imagine the undercurrent of danger hidden beneath their relaxation. They could be any happy family in Texas. Except they weren’t just anyone’s. Addie and Bodie were his—and they were all he had.
He thought of his four sisters, married with children, who cursed him to this day, refusing to utter his name. His parents long dead. Yes, Addie and Bodie made up his family.
Addie shifted in her chair, listening with rapt attention as Ridge got to the part in the book where the character Nancy developed a caring for the young orphan Oliver. Addie sniffled and wiped her eyes. Soft lamplight shone on the delicate curve of her cheek, the graceful column of her neck, the sensitive glimmer in her pretty eyes. That picture might give someone the impression she was meek. But brother, would they be wrong. She had fire and passion beneath that calm exterior, and he couldn’t wait to awaken it fully.
Bodie lay on the floor, his chin propped on his hands, also riveted by the emotional story.
Reaching the end of the chapter, Ridge closed the book. “I need to take a walk around before I turn in.”
“I’ll come too.” Bodie got to his feet.
“Addie, I’ll be back in a little bit.” Ridge waited for her nod, then reached for his rifle over the mantel and went out.
The moon shone brightly, lighting up the ground. Ridge stood for a moment, listening to the sounds of night creatures. Everything appeared normal, but sometimes that fooled a man. “Bodie, you go around the house to the front. I’ll check farther up near the mesquite thicket.”
“Yes, sir.” The kid got his rifle from the barn and began his patrol, the darkness swallowing him.
Ridge moved away, his ears and eyes attuned to what belonged and what didn’t. A night hawk flew silently overhead, and a coyote howled in the distance. Despite appearances, something was off. His gut warned him as the hair stood on the back of his neck. He crept through the darkness, entering a world he’d had to learn well—the ugly side of survival, kill or be killed.
With Tiny and Pickens locked up before they got word to Ezekiel Jancy, it had to be Hiram, he felt.
The bounty hunter was close. The man’s evil greed reached, trying to burrow inside.
“Bodie, stay alert,” Ridge whispered into the slight breeze. A backward glance at the house, now fifty yards away, revealed soft lamplight shining through the windows where Addie waited.
Then he saw it—a hunched figure of a man running from the barn. Ridge couldn’t tell if it was Bodie or someone else. His gut screamed to hurry back to the house.
A flash of orange fire spat from a figure in the shadows, and the boom from a scattergun carried on the breeze.
Apparently drawn by the sound, Addie stepped out of the kitchen door. The light silhouetted her as she pulled her shawl closer around her. Oh dear God!
Ridge yelled a warning but couldn’t stop the dark figure from hurling himself at her.
A blood-curdling scream split the air. His heart thundered in his ears as he bolted toward Addie. Please, just get there in time. She shouldn’t suffer for his crimes. He ran as hard as he could, praying with every step.
Bodie reached Addie first. The kid grabbed the dark figure, slinging him away like a sack of grain. “Get in the house, Addie!” Bodie screamed.
“I’ll kill you this