LITMIR.BIZ

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nails bit into her palms. “Danny needs to find someone closer to Norcross. Quincey’s a seven-hour drive away.”

      Adam descended the stairs and stopped a yard from her, bombarding her nerves in a dozen different ways. He looked so much like his brother—same dark hair, blue-green eyes, features and height. But he wasn’t the husband she’d loved, the one who’d betrayed her, the one she’d buried because she’d lost her temper and made a mistake that she couldn’t wash away no matter how many tears she cried or how many animals she saved.

      Anger emanated from Adam. “You tell Dad to get someone else. I tried. He won’t listen to me.”

      Although Adam’s voice was firm and authoritative, for the first time since she’d met him fifteen years ago she saw naked fear in his eyes. He was afraid of losing his father. She understood that fear all too well, since she’d already walked that lonely path. But she couldn’t allow herself to be vulnerable again. She might not make it out with her sanity intact this time.

      She pushed away thoughts of the dark days after the wreck, of a cold, clammy hand and blood...so much blood.

      “I’m sorry. I can’t,” she repeated and scrubbed her palm against her pants.

      Tires crunched on the gravel driveway of her farm followed by the low rumble of a diesel engine pickup truck. Panic clawed up Madison’s spine. June, her friend and tenant, was home, and knowing the curious deputy, as soon as she parked her vehicle by the cottage she rented from Madison, she’d come over to investigate the strange car beneath the pecan tree.

      She had to get rid of Adam before the tight-knit community of Quincey found out about the atrocity Madison had committed. No one here knew about her unforgivable sin—and she wanted to keep it that way. Otherwise the townsfolk might turn against her and cast her out of the sanctuary she’d created for herself.

      Maybe all Danny needed was someone outside the family to make him see reason. She could afford to drive down to Georgia once. Then she’d come home and life would return to normal.

      “I’ll come Saturday and talk to him.”

      Adam’s gaze held her captive for several tense seconds, making her heart pound as she listened in dread for June’s approaching footsteps.

      “You reverted to your maiden name,” Adam accused.

      “Yes, I...” How could she explain that she’d wanted to erase everything about her marriage to his brother? She couldn’t. “Look, I can’t invite you in. I have plans this evening.”

      A plan to clean cages, but that wasn’t how he interpreted it if the revulsion filling his eyes was any gauge. She didn’t enlighten him.

      “Make sure you show up. Here’s the address and my number.” He pulled a business card from his pocket and wrote on the back, then thrust it at her. He strode to the sedan and drove away just as June rounded the house.

      Madison sagged in relief, but the damage had been done. The scab had been ripped away. All she wanted to do was crawl into the farmhouse and tend her wound. She didn’t want to talk to anyone—not even a friend.

      “Who’s the hunk in the rental car?” the blond deputy asked.

      “Rental?” Madison dodged the question.

      “Sticker on the back bumper. Rental company license plate frame. Good-looking guy—where’d you find him? Not in Quincey, that’s for sure.”

      Should she claim he was someone who’d gotten lost and was asking for directions? No. She never lied to her friends. She just hadn’t always shared the whole truth. But how much should she tell June? Only the basics—

      “He’s my ex-brother-in-law.”

      June’s eyebrows lifted. “I didn’t know you were divorced.”

      Again Madison hesitated, but she trusted June as much as she trusted anyone. “Widowed. A long time ago.”

      “Oh, I’m sorry, Madison. I didn’t know. I haven’t seen him around before.”

      “We haven’t kept in touch.”

      Questions filled June’s eyes, and Madison scrambled to keep her from asking them. “Are you going to help me feed up tonight?”

      “Not a chance. I’m grabbing a quick shower, then heading over to babysit for Piper. What’d he want anyway?”

      So much for a distraction. “A favor. I have to go out of town Saturday. Can you watch the menagerie?”

      “Happy to. Not much else to do.” June scanned the empty driveway. “Is your truck in the shop again?”

      “Yes.”

      “You should’ve called me. I would’ve given you a ride home.”

      “I needed the exercise. It’s only a couple miles.”

      “You ran in this scorching heat?” Madison nodded and June’s gaze sharpened. “You should be flushed and sweaty, but you’re pale. Sure you’re okay?”

      Not even close to okay. “I’ll be fine. It’s been a long day. Mondays usually are.”

      And it was about to become an even longer week, knowing that at the end of it she would have to face the nightmare of her past.

      * * *

      SATURDAY MORNING MADISON steered her truck into the driveway of the unfamiliar address Adam had given her.

      She parked and her doubts surrounded her like a pack of snarling wild dogs, paralyzing her. The cedar siding and river rock home was set on a heavily wooded lot that sloped gently down to a pond. The neighbors’ houses were barely visible through the towering, dense pines, but the peaceful setting did nothing to soothe her jagged nerves.

      Had Danny and Helen moved from the place where they’d raised their boys? Had the memories been too much to bear? While Madison could understand the need for a fresh start, the possibility they’d sold the home where the boys’ growth had been marked on a door frame and by the trees they’d planted in the yard swamped her with a sense of loss that made leaving the truck very difficult.

      She’d spent nearly every holiday, school break and weekend in the Drakes’ sprawling ranch house from shortly after she’d met Andrew until her vet school graduation. But that fairy tale had been an illusion.

      How could she have been so completely blinded by love that she hadn’t seen Andrew’s narcissistic streak until the final months of their marriage? She’d attributed the change in his personality to the stress of her accidentally becoming pregnant, and she’d blamed herself for messing up her birth control and their five-year plan. But thanks to the alcohol he’d consumed at her graduation celebration, she’d discovered how wrong she’d been.

      How could she ever again trust her judgment when it came to men?

      She couldn’t. And because of that she’d vowed to remain single and limit herself to living with a menagerie of rejected pets. She wouldn’t let anyone get too close again, and not even the two women she considered her best friends knew the whole sordid story. She couldn’t risk them turning on her like the Drakes had.

      Nervousness dampened her palms and quickened her pulse. She forced her fingers to release the steering wheel, then flexed them in an attempt to ease the stiffness.

      The sooner you say your piece, the sooner you can go home.

      Bracing herself, she climbed from the cab and pointed her feet toward the front door. Emotions warred within her, adhering her feet to the concrete.

      Then she remembered she hadn’t locked her truck. In Quincey no one locked their doors, but Norcross was a suburb of Atlanta. Unlocked doors, even in a neighborhood as nice as this one appeared to be, were an invitation. And she had a lot of valuable vet equipment in her truck that she couldn’t risk losing. She pushed the pad on her key fob, and once that task was done she had

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