LITMIR.BIZ

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her trip to Painted Rock. “Nice to be here,” Olivia mumbled.

      “Heard you had some trouble on the road,” the man standing beside Denise commented.

      Olivia wasn’t sure what to say in response. It wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have with another stranger.

      “Raymond keeps things up and running around here,” Claudia interjected.

      “I’m looking forward to seeing the ranch in the morning,” Olivia said.

      Claudia wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “I’ll bet right now you just want to take a nice hot bath, crawl into bed and get some rest.”

      It was exactly what she wanted.

      “Time for us to go,” Denise said to Raymond. She glanced at Olivia. “We just wanted to pop in and welcome you. We’ll see you in the morning.”

      “You hungry?” Claudia asked after they left.

      “Starved.”

      “Denise made fried chicken for supper, but we put it in the fridge after you called from the side of the highway to tell me you’d run into trouble. Shall we have a cold supper and turn in?”

      Olivia nodded.

      “You go on home,” Claudia said to Elijah. “I’ll keep my phone turned on and by my side all night.”

      Olivia frowned at Elijah, hoping he would leave. She wouldn’t be able to relax with him around. Not with those muscular arms under that black T-shirt distracting her. Plus the fact that just about every time she looked at him, he was already looking at her. The dream of finally being able to let down her guard, even if just for a short while, was what fueled her determination to leave Las Vegas and make the drive here.

      “I live close by,” Elijah said to her after a long pause. “My family’s ranch borders Aunt Claudia’s property. I can get here fast if I need to.”

      Olivia nodded. Good to know.

      “All right, I’ll head on home.” He turned to Claudia. “Call me if you hear anything. And make sure you lock your doors.”

      “Of course.”

      Elijah headed out of the kitchen, across the dining area and toward the front door. The women walked with him.

      He paused as he passed through the front room and glanced toward something on a bookshelf. Olivia followed his glaze and saw a framed photograph of an older gentleman with a long rectangular face, thick white hair and gigantic sideburns. He looked familiar. Olivia walked toward the picture.

      “My Hugh,” Claudia said quietly, stepping up behind Olivia.

      “Of course.” Aunt Claudia and Uncle Hugh had made a trip to Phoenix for a visit when Olivia was fourteen. She remembered now that Hugh was about a foot shorter than Claudia. She’d said hello to them and then scampered off to the mall with her friends. Hugh had died a few years later of a sudden massive heart attack.

      “What’s this?” Olivia asked, pointing to something brittle and crumbling in the lower right corner of the frame, underneath the glass.

      Claudia laughed softly. “Hugh picked that daisy and gave it to me the morning he passed away. Of course it came from a flower bed that I tended.” Claudia touched the glass. “He was something, all right.”

      Elijah hesitated instead of continuing out the door. Olivia was afraid he’d change his mind and stay. “It was good to meet you,” he finally said to Olivia. “Sorry about the circumstances.”

      She nodded, willing him to go. He might be Claudia’s protector, but he wasn’t hers.

      The second he was out the door she snapped the dead bolt into place. The porch light was already on. In the gap between the curtains and the window frame she could see light reflecting off his motorcycle as he climbed on and cranked up the engine.

      Let the knight in chrome armor go rescue somebody else. Olivia Dillon was on her own. Especially now that she knew leaving Las Vegas hadn’t made her any safer. She’d thought she could restart her life with a clean slate in Painted Rock, but that obviously wasn’t going to happen. And there was no way she would put her great-aunt in danger.

      She needed a new plan. Maybe Ricky the mechanic would give her a few bucks for her car. She could buy a bus ticket to a bigger city. Get lost in the crowd and stay in a shelter until she could find a job. She needed to run farther. And the sooner she left, the better.

       THREE

      Elijah’s mom taught him to be respectful of the wishes of a woman, so when a woman asked him to do something, he always listened. But that didn’t mean he always did what she asked.

      The morning after finding Olivia by the side of the highway, he steered his dirt bike toward the back of Claudia’s house. Just after sunrise most mornings, he could find Claudia there feeding her chickens, looking over her property and greeting the morning sun. He found her right where he expected, dressed in jeans and an orange-checked shirt and wearing an old pair of Hugh’s battered blue suede house slippers.

      Olivia stood next to her, slump-shouldered, looking like a withered blade of golden grass. When he drove up she glared at him through bloodshot eyes. Probably the result of a sleepless night. And yeah, he’d gotten the message—she wished he would stay away. Too bad. Sorry, Mom.

      “Morning, honey,” Claudia called out as he killed the engine. At least somebody was glad to see him.

      “Good morning.” He got off the bike.

      Claudia walked over to him, one of her chubby little beagles by her feet. “Have you eaten breakfast? Denise made a pineapple bread pudding.”

      “Yes, ma’am, I already ate.”

      He turned to Olivia, who’d sullenly followed her aunt. “How are you this morning?” He reached down to scratch Jasper behind his ears. “Did you get any sleep?”

      “A little.”

      A brittle spirit showed through in the pinched, angry expression on her face. Elijah knew that feeling well. He’d come home from Iraq and later Afghanistan fighting his own version of it.

      It was likely she wanted to shove everyone away. It was a good thing she had Claudia, who was good at soothing hurts. Elijah’s talent lay more in the realm of poking at whatever hurt until the person realized they wanted to lay down the hurt more than they wanted to coddle it. They appreciated his help in the long run. In the short run, not so much.

      “Ricky told me it would take him at least a couple weeks to fix your car. I thought you might have gotten a ride to the bus station and moved on by now.”

      “It would probably be safer for your aunt if I did.”

      Boy, that “aunt” thing really bothered her. Too bad. Half the town referred to Claudia as “Aunt Claudia.”

      Claudia waved her hands. “That’s enough of that talk about moving on.” She turned to Olivia. “You’re staying.”

      Elijah watched Olivia look down, then look off into the distance. She took a deep breath and her eyes filled with worry. Afraid to stay and afraid to go, most likely.

      He turned his attention to Claudia. “I just stopped by to let you know I’ll be working on that section of fence damaged in that last storm.” He glanced at Olivia. “It’s right at the boundary between Claudia’s property and ours, not too far away.”

      She shrugged as if it meant nothing to her.

      Then he made a point of pulling the pistol out of the waistband at the small of his back, and replacing it, as if he’d just wanted to make the fit more comfortable. Olivia kept her gaze on the gun the whole time. When she looked at him, it was with just a little bit less hostility.

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