wanted to fuss at him but fatigue made her dismiss that idea. She had a feeling they’d have lots of discussions before this was over.
When would it be over?
Nathan walked her back to the upstairs door to the carriage house. “Alisha.”
“I’m all right, Nathan. I just want a shower and sleep.”
“Okay.” He turned to go across the breezeway, but pivoted to stare outside, checking. “It’s snowing,” he said.
Alisha looked through the windows on both sides of the wide room. “So it is. I used to stand here on nights like this, waiting for the snow to fall. This has always been a beautiful place, the one place where I felt loved and happy.”
“Alisha,” he said again, something raw in the way he said her name. “I know you don’t want me here but... I can’t leave now. This is dangerous, too dangerous. You have to know that we might not be able to stay here.”
“I might not be able to stay here,” she retorted, her heart battling a mighty war. “You can go on about your business.”
“No, I can’t,” he said, his tone sharp. “I’m in it now. They know my vehicle and they must know I brought you here.”
What if they hurt Nathan? She hadn’t considered that he was in trouble, too. “I shouldn’t have involved you. I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“I don’t mind being involved and I want to find these people, same as you. We have to work together and that means we might have to leave together.”
So he could protect her and seek justice, not because he wanted to be near her. She wished she’d never called him. “But we don’t know who was out there in the yard.”
“Yes, we do. They sent someone here because they know everything about you now. The minute you looked into that hit man’s eyes, they started digging and now you’re on their list.”
“So you believe this was a professional hit?” She’d suspected that herself.
He lifted his chin. “The way you described it, the way they came after you, yes. It had to be.”
Alisha leaned against the door jamb. “This is bad. I should have left and gone far away from here.”
“But you didn’t. I’m glad you didn’t. Now I can help you and protect you... That is, if you let me.”
With that he turned and went to the other side of the rambling old house.
Alisha shivered and closed the door between them, thinking there was a lot more between them than just a hallway in a house.
More like a lifetime of regret and longing across a broken bridge that couldn’t be mended.
God, if you had to send me a hero, thank you for sending this one. Even if I didn’t want him here. Thank You, Lord.
With that prayer centered in her head, she went into the tiny room with the window alcove she’d always loved, showered, threw on some old pajamas then sprawled across the purple chenille spread her grandmother had turned down.
And promptly fell into a troubled, nightmarish sleep.
Nathan sat in a chair by the window in the room across the house from Alisha, his eyes burning from fatigue while he noticed every little thing in the muted darkness below. The snow silenced most of the noises, but years of stakeouts and doing surveillance that kept him up in the wee hours made him tense and alert. He’d told Alisha the truth. He never slept well.
While he sat in the shadows, he remembered the girl he’d fallen in love with. He’d been willing to give up his way of life for this girl but as it turned out, he’d had to give up the Amish community for another reason. That reason had opened a chasm between Alisha and him, all of their dreams shattered and broken in one long horrible night.
A night so different from this one but full of the same kind of fear and angst.
Summer. With a full moon and the world at his feet.
Sitting there, he drifted into sleep, his memories an aching reminder of the family he’d left behind. Just a few miles from here but so far away.
He thought of Alisha with her long golden-brown hair and bright green eyes, laughing in the wind, her sundress long and flowing. He’d been out in the garden right here helping his father work the soil and plant a butterfly garden for Mrs. Campton. Alisha had been visiting her grandmother and she’d been sitting by the pool, reading a book but also watching them at work.
He’d met her briefly once before when her grandmother had come calling at his family’s house. And he’d never forgotten looking into her pretty eyes.
Now she was staring at him, smiling at him.
After he’d clumsily dropped a whole crate of plants and sent dirt flying everywhere, she’d hopped up to help him salvage what he could before his father saw what had happened. They’d become fast friends and Nathan had gone home with a big crush on a girl he was forbidden to like.
“You’re different, Nathan. You’re like no one I’ve ever met.”
He’d felt the same about her. Always.
We were so young and carefree that summer.
And so naive.
Nathan came awake with a start. Had he heard something outside? Or had he been dreaming?
Standing, he grunted in pain, every muscle in his body protesting. Wiping at his eyes, he noticed the time on his watch. Four in the morning. He’d slept in this cushioned chair for over an hour.
Wide awake now, he studied the front yard and saw that it was now covered in snow. No alarms had sounded and the motion-detection lights hadn’t triggered.
He was imagining things.
But his gut told him to be cautious so he washed his face and decided he’d do a walk through the old house and wait for the sun to come up.
For good measure, he grabbed his weapon. He’d been licensed to carry a concealed weapon for years now but he rarely had to use the thing. Still, he’d learned that being out alone in the wee hours could be dangerous.
He padded in his socks up the wide upstairs hallway, the wooden floors creaking here and there underneath his weight.
He made it to the master bedroom and took his time checking on the backyard. It stretched like a white blanket down to the deep creek that ran through this town. He remembered swimming and fishing in that creek with his younger siblings.
“Tag, you’re it.”
“I’ll find you,” Nathan would call to his two younger brothers. He’d always been the one who looked after the kinder.
Then
