She had to speak before he triedto silence her.
She turned to Eric and locked his gaze. “Three weeks after you left last year, I received a note saying you’d sent news. That I should come to your family’s home. Harvey was the only one there. He brought me inside and…” A weight pressed so hard on her chest, she could barely breathe. “He…forced… He took…” What she tried not to give him. He took everything. Then pushed her out the front door, sending her crying, broken, terrified.
Eric’s voice came low and hard. “Naomi. Are you saying what I think you’re saying? Did he…?”
She wouldn’t look away from Eric’s gaze, no matter how the shame pressed in. He had to see. Had to understand.
As he searched her eyes, she could see the progression of his emotions. Confirmation. Horror. Anger. A rage so intense, his eyes turned solid black.
His hand around her had already tightened, but now it felt like a steal band. He turned to Harvey, and when he spoke, his voice sounded like someone else’s. Deep. Impenetrable. Sharp. Likely a finely honed ax.
“Is this true?” There was no question in how Eric spoke the words. Only accusation. Perhaps a single chance for Harvey to speak his side.
Harvey seemed to vacillate between his options—deny the charge and try to wheedle back to his cousin’s good graces, or unleash his venom.
Eric must have caught the conflicting expression, for he ground out, “The truth.”
The air in the campsite turned stifling, as she caught movement at both sides of her gaze. Jonah on one side and Two Stones and the guide on the other—all of them edging in toward Harvey as if they planned to tackle him.
Harvey’s gaze narrowed, and his expression turned to such cold loathing, she wanted to curl behind Eric. She wouldn’t cower or run this time, though. She stood her ground.
“The twit should have known better than to be alone with a man. Her reputation was already ruined, I figured I might as well get some pleasure out of her.” His brows rose in a snakelike smile. “Besides, it wasn’t anything you hadn’t already done, oh, perfect cousin.”
CHAPTER 24
Fury surged through Eric. He wanted to charge forward and punish him for what he’d done to Naomi, and he wanted to whisk Naomi as far from his degenerate cousin as he could get. Naomi, who trembled like a leaf in a windstorm. If he left her side, would she crumble?
In that moment of indecision, Harvey reached into his pocket and pulled out a pistol, aiming it directly at Eric.
Eric’s breath froze, and he shifted, moving in front of Naomi as much as he could without drawing attention to her.
Jonah had started toward Harvey, but he jerked to a halt, his arms moving away from his sides.
Eric couldn’t see Two Stones and Heidi behind him, but they were there. In danger now, because he’d been a fool.
A thick dread hung in the air.
"Move over. Away from him. Or else I’ll shoot him first and you next.” Harvey’s voice bit out the words as he glared at Naomi. Surely she wouldn’t do it. Harvey had to be bluffing about shooting them both. Or at least she would think so. That crazed look in his cousin’s eyes was so foreign from anything Eric had ever seen there.
Movement at the corner of his gaze made him shift to look. Naomi. She’d stepped completely away from his body.
She spoke, her voice hard with fury. “There’s no need to hurt us both.”
No, no, no, no, no! Why was she trying to protect him?
He had to stop Harvey. Lord, don’t let him shoot. Please. Don’t let him hurt her again.
It was Jonah who spoke next, his voice low and calming. “You’d better think twice before you fire that thing. Seems to me, taking a life would only make the situation worse for you.”
Harvey sneered, though he didn’t shift his gaze—or his aim—from Naomi.
Naomi lifted her chin a little, revealing the courage she carried with such grace.
Lord, give her strength. No matter what, don’t let that bullet hit her. Protect her.
How had it come to this? Harvey, the cousin he’d played with like a brother through their entire childhood. The man he was now training to take a leading role in their family’s company. Harvey had done the worst of crimes to Naomi—the reminder sent fresh fury through his veins—and now he was threatening to kill her?
What had Naomi done to anger him so?
