The door swung open. She darted inside, banging her shin against a hard metal object. Stifling a yelp, she rubbed her leg while her eyes adjusted to the darkness.
Two hulking shadows claimed the center of the shed.Four-wheelers?She hadn’t driven one of those in years, but she’d figure it out if she could find a key...
She fumbled around the handlebars but came up empty-handed.Of course, they don’t keep the keys on the machines.In fact, they probably kept this shed locked. Robert must have forgotten to lock it yesterday.
Jessie continued to search the small shed for a place to hide. The fishing boat lay on its side against the far wall, and two canoes rested upside down across the rafters overhead. She wrapped her arms around herself as the pressure in her chest increased.
She had nowhere to hide.
She backed out of the shed.
“Jessica!” Patrick’s angry bellow came from the front of the cabin, followed by the sharp crack of wood splitting.
Jessie clapped one hand over her mouth and the other over her stomach that had turned rock hard. Blinking back the tears that filled her vision, she turned and bolted to the steep trail behind the shed.
* * *
Robert closedhis office door behind Debbie and dropped into his chair. That’s what he got for staying late. He scrubbed his hands over his face.
The woman never gives up!
This time she wanted his help to develop a youth outreach program. A great idea, but it was all Robert could do not to bite her head off.
He didn’t have the patience for Debbie and her “do-good” programs today. He had more important things to worry about, like helping Jessie. The fear in her eyes as she flinched away from him yesterday had haunted him all night.
Jessie shouldn’t be afraid of everyone and everything. She deserved to live a normal life, dressing the way she wanted and doing the things she loved.
An odd sensation—somewhere between a crawl and an itch—swept across his skin.
He loosened his tie and undid the top button of his uniform. The last time he felt like this was years ago, when Jessie was thrown from a horse.
He rolled a pen between his fingers as he thought about Jessie riding out on her own on Honey. He’d wanted to join her, but his father needed his help with a heifer that had fallen into a ravine.
Even before they arrived back at the ranch and realized Honey had returned without Jessie, Robert had been uneasy. Something was wrong. He just knew it. He left his father and pointed his horse in the direction she’d ridden.
His heart had nearly stopped when he found her unconscious on the ground, miles from the house.
She easily aroused when he touched her. But he refused to let her move until he’d checked her over for bleeding and broken bones. Her only injury was a goose egg on the back of her head where she’d struck it on a rock.
“What happened?” he asked, overcome with relief.
“Honey got spooked by a rattlesnake and bucked me off.”
Warmth flooded over Robert as he recalled holding her in his arms. She could have suffered serious injuries.
Grabbing his keys and sidearm from his desk drawer, he walked out of the office with barely a wave to Janice. He got in his truck and headed toward the ranch. He needed to talk to Emily.
He didn’t know what he’d say, or how Emily could help, but he needed to do something.
Fifteen minutes later, he pulled off the road at the turnoff to the lake. He’d been thinking so intently about Jessie—wishing she’d come back to Providence under different circumstances and hoping she’d stick around—that he’d blown right past the ranch.
He told himself to turn around, go back, but something pulled at him to check on Jessie. Despite remembering how much he’d enjoyed riding double with Jessie after Honey threw her off, the hair on the back of his neck lifted.
Something is wrong with Jessie.
Putting his truck into drive, he made the turn toward the lake, unsure how he’d explain his unexpected visit.
Chapter 13
