Naomi had been right. Harvey must have been the one who’d blocked their letters and telegrams from reaching each other. Like a heel, Eric had waved her concern aside. Fresh pain sliced through him. She’d had every reason to suspect Harvey. The man had already shown her the depths of his depravity.
And Eric hadn’t believed her.Dear God, forgive me.
Now, all he could do was make it right. Face down his cousin and stop this evil. “Why are you doing this, Harvey? Is it me you’re angry with?”
His cousin still didn’t shift his gaze from Naomi, but a fresh hatred dirtied his eyes. “You’ve always thoughtyou were better than me. You and your rich family. You take whatever you want without a care for what you do to those around you. Even those you call friends. When they can’t give what you want anymore, you toss ’em out like scraps for the pigs.”
Bile churned in his gut. Was Harvey speaking truth? If he had real examples… “When have I done that?”
Harvey’s voice lost all inflection. “Nathan.”
Eric’s heart froze, then pumped pain through him. “Nathan?” His voice came out too weak. Too uncertain. He was supposed to be fighting for Naomi. Protecting her. But Nathan… His biggest regret, other than the indiscretion with Naomi, was that day he’d led Nathan and Harvey up the rocky mountainside where they’d been warned not to go.
“You took his life from him. He was smarter than you. Stronger than you. Better than you. And you didn’t like it. You took his future and left him a shell of himself. Confined to a chair for the rest of his life. So addled he can’t even read or write.”
Eric forced the truth through the desert his throat had become. “I didn’t do that to Nathan. The rockslide did. He was my best friend. I would have given my life to stop him from getting hurt.”
“Is that why you ran like a scared little boy, only worried about yourself?”
Eric wanted to drop to his knees, cover his head and weep. Hehadbeen a scared boy. Panicked. Yet that didn’t change the monumental results of his disobedience that day.
Life-changing, as Harvey said.
“Because of you, my—” A flash from the side cut off Harvey’s words.
Jonah charged him, and Harvey swiveled to protect himself.
The gun exploded, a puff of powder clouding the tip.
Eric launched at Harvey and tackled him.
Two Stones grabbed his gun hand and jerked it away.
Though Harvey struggled, the two of them subdued him, flipping him onto his belly in the snow. From the corner of Eric’s eye, he could see Silas standing before them rifle in hand, pointed toward Harvey. Relief allowed him a moment to breathe. “We need rope.”
Silas nodded. “I’ll get it.”
As the man stepped backward, weapon still aimed at their captive, Eric saw what was behind him.
The women were crouched over a form laid out in the snow.
Jonah.
Blood everywhere.
Naomi’s pulse raced as she knelt with Heidi at Jonah’s side. What should she do?
Jonah gripped his shoulder, rolling onto his side as he groaned with pain. “I’m…all right.”
But he clearly wasn’t.
The bullet had struck his right shoulder. Was there a main artery through there? She couldn’t remember. But maybe the one that went up through the neck.
She had to stop the bleeding.
Jonah was curled onto the injured side, so she couldn’t get at it.
She gripped his good shoulder. “Lay back.”
