“Now, if you two will excuse me, I’ve got somewhere else to be.” He touched the rim of his hat with the tip of his gun in a mock salute and disappeared out the door. Seconds later came the sound of horse hooves thundering down the road.
“Heh,” Spurlock said. “That son of a bitch actually left you to die. No. He stole your money and then left you to die. He didn’t even untie you or take my gun with him so you’d have a fighting chance. You know, I actually feel kind of sorry for you. I mean, sure, I was going to kill you, but I wouldn’t have ripped your heart out before I did it.”
He sighed and scratched at his beard and then shrugged. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got an outlaw to catch.”
He picked his gun up off the ground and shoved it back in his holster.
“You’re just going to leave me here?” she asked. It probably would have been wiser to keep her mouth shut rather than reminding him he hadn’t killed her yet. But at that particular moment, she didn’t care anymore. Kill her, don’t kill her. He couldn’t hurt what had already been completely destroyed.
Spurlock grabbed his hat from where he’d hung it over a post and shoved it on his head. “Under normal circumstances, no, I wouldn’t. But Brady did make a few good points about your people coming for me, if you even have any, because they still don’t seem to have noticed you’re gone.”
“Plus, that man has proven more than capable of disappearing at the drop of a hat, and I don’t want to let him get too far ahead of me. My associate who found him for me in the first place met with an unfortunate accident a few days ago, so I’m on my own for the moment. Which means I’m afraid this is where we say goodbye. Sorry your lover turned out to be such a coldhearted bastard. If it makes you feel any better, he’ll never get to Denver alive.”
He was out the door and on his horse before Nora could release the shuddering breath she’d been holding. It blew out of her in a long, slow exhale, and when she tried to suck in more air, it caught in her throat in a silent sob, the pain of Adam’s betrayal ripping through her so fiercely, her body shook with the agony of it.
Him leaving was always going to hurt. But if he had just walked away, it would have merely broken her heart. Instead, every word he’d uttered had sliced at her until she’d been left sitting there, her very soul shredded beyond repair.
She’d opened up to him. Told him her deepest, darkest fears, the pain she hid from the rest of the world. She’d stripped her pride for him, given him access to the soft, secret pieces of her that she kept safe from the rest of the world. She’d let him in. And he’d burned her down. It would have hurt less if he’d simply stabbed her through the heart. But he hadn’t killed her.
He’d completely destroyed her. And the pain was too much to survive.
She dragged in a ragged breath so sharp, it was like breathing glass, and when she let it loose again, it tore from her with a wail that made the very heavens bleed. Once she started, she couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. They left her in great racking sobs that set her body shaking.
She hadn’t cried when her mother had died. She hadn’t cried the first time she couldn’t rouse her father from a drunken stupor. Or the first time he’d stolen her money. Or the first time a man had laughed at the thought of courting her. Or any of the other hundreds of times strangers or even her own friends had looked at her and joked about her size, her strength, or any of the other dozen reasons no one would ever want her before going about their day like they hadn’t just carved out another piece of her heart.
But she cried now. She cried for it all. All the lost love, the lost innocence, the lost dreams.
And Adam. The biggest dream of all. The one she’d been foolish enough to actually believe in. She’d known better. She’dknown. And she’d fallen anyway.
And now she’d pay the price.
“Nora?” A voice finally filtered in past her shuddering breaths and the noise roaring in her ears, and she squinted through wet, swollen eyes.
“Baby? Can you hear me?” Gentle fingers brushed across her cheeks, wiping away the tears that still leaked from her eyes.
“Pa?” she whispered, her voice hoarse like she’d been screaming. Maybe she had been.
“It’s me, baby.” He’d untied her without her even realizing it, then he shoved his shoulder under her arm and helped her stand.
“We need to get moving,” he said. “Can you walk? I…I don’t know how much help I’ll be…”
The familiar scent of whiskey clung to him, but he seemed much more lucid than he usually did. He helped her across the yard and into the house, where he deposited her on a kitchen chair. A moment later, he pressed a cup of water into her hand and wiped at her face with a damp cloth.
His face scrunched into a grimace when he dabbed at the cheek Spurlock had hit.
“It doesn’t hurt that bad,” she said, and he nodded and moved on to the rest of her face, though he didn’t look like he believed her.
She meant it, though. It smarted, sure. But it was nothing compared to the pain that still throbbed in her heart like it was a living, breathing entity trying to consume her alive.
“I’m sorry I took so long getting to you. Adam—”
She flinched at his name, and her father frowned and dropped to his knees in front of her.
Her eyes widened. Her father had never been one for coddling when she was younger and seemed pretty much of the mind that trials and pain only served to make one stronger and should be embraced. Until he’d succumbed to his own demons, that was.
But this…this was different. She’d never seen him so earnest.
“I know you’re not going to want to hear this right now, not after what all just happened. But you need to know the truth. That man loves you—”
