“You can do better than that.”
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
Adam halted his steps just in front of the ranch’s wooden gate. “You can join me in fighting for justice for your slain parents and people.”
All the color drained from Olivia’s face. She hadn’t expected him to ask her to take part in his investigations.
“Olivia, I can’t do this on my own. I can’t tell you how joyous I was when you told me you accosted Micah Peterson because you want him to pay for his crimes. It showed me you were ready to seek justice for your people. Having you believe that the perpetrators of the crime should be brought to justice is very inspiring.”
Olivia stared at him with skepticism in her eyes. She hadn’t been thinking when she approached the gang leader. But if Adam saw it as an internal quest of her to find justice, why argue with him?
But she would rather go on her knees in prayers for him to find the murderers than for her to go accosting someone else. She refrained from telling him she had seen it as God’s orchestration for her sighting Micah Peterson a short while ago.
When he stared at her with eager expectation in his gray eyes, she said, “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you will help me.” His penetrating gaze became so intense, Olivia had to lower her eyes from the searing force of it.
“I’m not asking you to join me in going after the lawbreakers like you did with Micah Peterson today. Right now, you’re the only witness I have in fingering the gang leader to the raid. If I can find a way to link him to Gabe Winters, then I’m sure I’ll be able to arrest them with enough proof.”
Olivia lifted her head as Adam removed his hat and raked his fingers through his lustrous dark mass of hair. Olivia’s lips suddenly ran dry and tingles raced up her body as she thought of weaving her fingers in his hair.
Blushing to the roots of her hair at the bold thing her heart yearned to do, Olivia swallowed thickly.
“I can’t do it without you, Olivia. I need you as a witness to help bring those despicable men to justice.”
Although she was still skeptical about the way she could help, Olivia nodded.
“Fine. I’ll help you with the case.”
Adam’s broad smile lifted her heart.
She would do anything to seek justice for her people. But if she was being sincere with herself, accepting to help Adam with his investigation meant she would spend more time with him.
And she looked forward to that.
Chapter 22
Whistling a discordant tune but not caring about it, Adam rode his horse to the orphanage. His eyes fell on a bed of wild flowers growing beside the path.
He halted in his tracks and wondered if he would be overdoing it if he were to pick some for Olivia. The previous day, he had given in to an impulse to beautify her hair with a flower and give her one.
If he did that again today, what sort of a message would he be passing to her?
“What do you think, Dark Knight? Should I do it?”
The horse snorted and bowed his head.
“What kind of answer is that?”
The horse looked away, bored.
Adam’s face crumpled into a frown. He had spent a considerable amount of time at his office that morning thinking about Olivia and their walk to the ranch the previous day.
The more he had thought about all the words that passed between them, the more he had realized that he and Olivia had drawn quite close over the weeks.
The memory of her beatific smile wiped the frown off his face. Olivia was the only person he knew that he could talk to about his job as a lawman and not find her yawning.
His brother felt he was too obsessed with the law. He never failed to mention at every turn that Adam was following the wrong path.
