“Mark,” she said, tilting her head back. “I love you.”
Chapter Nineteen
MARK HAD NEVER HEARDthree such perfect words in his life.
With Charlotte’s beautiful, trusting brown eyes looking up at him, he didn’t care that anyone else was around them. He kept his arms around her and pressed his lips to her head.
“I love you too,” he whispered against her hair.
She wrapped her hands around his arms and sighed. All he wanted to do was kiss her until everything around them disappeared. But he contented himself with holding her—for now.
“I was so worried about you,” Mark said.Worriedbarely encapsulated the all-consuming fear he’d felt, knowing she’d been in danger. “When I found Mrs. McNab at the sheriff’s office, I knew something was wrong.”
“She went to the sheriff?” Charlotte smiled.
“She told us everything. I had the impression her husband wasn’t the man she’d thought him to be.”
“I’m glad. Now she’ll be free of him.”
“She’ll likely face some charges of her own,” Mark said. “As disinclined as it seemed Sheriff Young was to pursue them, he’ll have to turn her over to the courts.”
Charlotte worried her lip, making his thoughts go straight back to kissing her. “I’ll speak on her behalf, if I’m allowed.”
Mark’s heart melted at her generosity. “Are you certain? She’s the one who led you here and put you in this position.”
“I’ll talk to her first, but Mark, I think she regretted every second of it. And if she does, I’ll speak for her. We all deserve forgiveness when we’re truly sorry, don’t we?”
He nodded before glancing behind her, where Caldwell and a couple of the other men were carrying McNab from the house.
“He’s still alive,” Caldwell said. “Don’t know if he’ll make it, but we’ll take him to the doctor.”
Mark swallowed, watching the nonresponsive man—the one who’d held Charlotte at gunpoint—lying still as he was carried from the house. He hoped he would be allowed forgiveness too, for shooting the man if he died. It was done to save Charlotte, but the thought that he had taken a life sat heavily on his soul.
“Mark?” Her soft voice brought him back.
“What about your father?” he asked, trying to leave the turmoil in his mind to deal with later, if McNab passed on.
