Annie wasn’t in the kitchen when he reached it. And then he heard voices coming from the sitting room. With his heart in his throat, he crossed the hallway to the room, where he saw Stephen comforting his sobbing wife. Adam’s breath whooshed out of him with relief. Annie’s tears were most likely because she had burned lunch.
Stephen lifted his head as soon as Adam stepped into the room. The fury he saw in the depth of his brother’s eyes halted Adam’s steps. Stephen shot to his feet.
“I hope you’re happy now that things have gone haywire around here.”
Frowning, Adam asked, “What are you talking about?”
Sniffing, Annie tugged on her husband’s hand. “Please don’t fight with him, Stephen. It’s not his fault.”
“Whose fault is it?” Stephen took a step forward. “You’re to blame for everything!”
Adam, confused, wondered if Stephen was blaming him for his wife burning lunch. He opened his mouth to ask, but Stephen forestalled him.
“First, they set my barn on fire. Then someone let my cattle lose over the fields and it took us a day to round them up. We didn’t find over twenty of them, believing they rustled them. And this morning, I went to the range only to find out someone poisoned the water trough. Half of my cattle are dead.”
The words sounded like a heavy thud in Adam’s chest. It wasn’t enough they had him incapacitated as a marshal, they were tormenting his brother as well. Pain shot through Adam as Annie continued sobbing.
“I can’t go on the cattle drive now because it won’t be worth it.” Stephen’s voice held bitterness and sorrow. “I hope you’re happy now,Marshal.”
Adam bowed his head, not knowing what to say to show how pained he was by what happened. Annie’s tears made him feel even worse than he already felt.
“Stephen,” he began but his brother cut him off.
“I have had enough, Adam. I told you to let the case go, but you wanted to prove how competent you are as a marshal.”
Adam wanted to tell his brother it wasn’t like that, but Stephen interrupted him again.
“You either drop the case or leave this house.”
Annie gasped.
“What?” Adam’s lips parted.
“I’m slowly losing my means of livelihood because of you. I’m not about to lose my wife and my unborn child and my house.”
“Stephen!” Annie protested and clumsily rose to her feet. She placed one hand on her rounded stomach and another on her husband’s arm.
Stephen turned toward her. “No, Annie. Please don’t interfere. Adam either drops the case or he leaves this house. Who knows what else Gabe Winters would do just to show how mean he is? I will not lose you and our child because of my brother’s stubbornness!”
Turning to glare at a stunned Adam, Stephen firmly reiterated, “Choose Adam. You either find somewhere else to live so that my wife and I have peace and no longer live in fear, or you let go of this obsession with being the best lawman in America.”
Adam longed to ask Stephen why he didn’t want to depend on his God any longer to protect him, but he felt he would only make matters worse. In all his years, he never for once guessed that he and Stephan would be so much at loggerheads that his brother would put him out of his house.
Without saying a word, Adam nodded, turned around, and walked away. So much for brotherly love. He wished he could make Stephen understand, but there was no point doing that. Stephen had made up his mind and only saw him as an enemy now.
Adam reckoned he wouldn’t return to the ranch. He would stay at his office until he got word on what next to do. Adam ignored everyone he met along the way to Boone and Cora’s place. He desperately needed to see Olivia. Being with her would surely lift his sour mood.
A smile spread across his face when he saw the woman he loved seated on Boone’s wicker chair on the porch. His steps hastened towards her. It was selfish, but he hoped Bone and Cora weren’t at home so he could have some privacy with her.
“Olivia,” he called happily even before he reached the porch.
She had seen him approaching and had kept her bible aside to bestow on him a bright smile.
“How have you been?” he questioned as he climbed the porch steps.
“Very well. and you?”
He returned her smile and shrugged. “Things haven’t been going as planned, but I’ll get through it.”
