Amazing, then, how familiar Riley seemed to her after such a short time. Though she knew so little about him, beyond the handful of facts she’d gleaned over the past two days, she was more convinced than ever that she’d made the right choice that night in the hospital when she’d made the leap of faith and put herself under his protection.
He put her to work, showing no signs of trying to coddle her. She was grateful for the show of confidence. After the way she’d acted during their trip west that day, he’d have been justified in thinking she was weak and unreliable.
She brushed the mud off the chestnut mare’s coat and held her bridle while Riley picked the dirt out of her hooves. “What’s her name?” she asked.
“This is Bella. She was Emily’s.” Riley stood up and patted the mare’s flank. “The black gelding is Jazz. And those two-” he pointed to the paint gelding and the buckskin mare they’d already settled for the night “-are Lucky and Lady. Joe bought them last year after he and Jane married. He doesn’t have a stable on his land, so we share feed costs and vet bills, and he pays me for boarding them. He and Jane used to come daily to ride, too, before Jane got pregnant.”
“I mentioned we’ve been thinking about building a stable on our land back home, to offer trail riding up the mountain as part of our services, didn’t I?” Hannah put the brush back on the tack table and turned to look at Riley. “We all know how to ride well, and I think my brother Luke might consider coming back home to run the stable if we ever got around to doing it. He’s the best horseman among us.”
“I thought all your family was together back home in Alabama.” Riley put Bella in her stall and added food to her feed bowl.
“We mostly are. Sam and his little girl Maddy live in the Washington, D.C. area-he’s a prosecutor-but he’s been talking about moving back to Alabama so Maddy can grow up around her grandparents and her cousins. If he comes back, the only one missing will be Luke. He retired from the Marines last year, but so far, he’s still hanging around San Diego.” She couldn’t hide a little frown.
Riley picked up on it immediately. “That worries you?”
“A little,” she admitted. She turned to look at Bella over the stall door. The mare was crunching her feed contentedly, her dark eyes soft and calm. “Luke has always been a bit of a loner, which is hard to do in a family as big as ours, but after his last tour of duty, it’s-worse, somehow. He hardly ever calls, and when we call, he keeps it short.”
“Is he married? Or maybe has a girlfriend keeping him busy?”
She smiled. “I wish. I think I’d relax more if that’s what I thought it was. There’s just-I don’t know. It almost feels like he’s brooding about something.”
“Do you think something happened to him that he’s not telling you?”
She wasn’t sure. She knew he’d done a tour of duty in Kaziristan right before he returned stateside, but that had been nothing but peacekeeping. Kaziristan’s civil war had been over for a couple of years now, and the small Central Asian republic was mostly stable. Compared to some of his previous tours of duty, the one in Kaziristan should have been a cakewalk.
“I just want him back home where I can keep an eye on him,” she answered finally.
Riley smiled. “All your ducks in a row.”
“Exactly.” She laughed self-consciously. “I can’t believe I just told you all that about Luke. I haven’t even talked to my parents about it.”
“Maybe it’s easier to tell things like that to a stranger.”
Except he didn’t feel like a stranger, she thought. She looked up at him, realizing just how much she was going to miss him when she had to go home.
And every day took her closer to that moment.
“What if I don’t remember more about who attacked me?” she asked aloud.
The sound of boots on the hard-packed barn floor made them both turn in surprise. Jack Drummond stood in the doorway, his hat and jacket glistening with rain. He looked from Hannah to Riley, his expression dark and suspicious.
“Someone attacked you?” he asked.
Hannah and Riley exchanged looks. He gave a little shake of his head, clearly not ready to let Jack in on their secret.
“We were wondering where you’d gotten off to,” Hannah said quickly, ignoring Jack’s question. “Did you have fun in town?”
Riley stepped up behind her and slipped his arms around her, clasping his hands in front of her stomach and resting his cheek against her head. “
“Don’t try to distract me.” Jack strode into the stable, his eyes darkening. “You said something about an attack, Hannah.” He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a folded section of newspaper. “Funny-I read something about an attack in the newspaper just this afternoon.”
Riley’s arms tightened around Hannah’s waist. His tension radiated through her where their bodies touched, making her stomach clench painfully.
“Seems a woman was attacked on the road to Moran the other day. No identity given, but police sources say the assailant got away, and other sources mentioned a possible second attack in a Jackson hospital.” Jack handed the paper to Hannah. “Page three.”
She opened the paper to the page he mentioned. There it was:
“What makes you think that’s me?”
“The timing. Your injuries. The complete impossibility of Riley meeting someone online, much less someone he’d invite to stay with him after just one meeting.”
Riley dropped his hands away from Hannah, backing away. Cool air replaced the heat of his body, and she shivered.
“Nobody can know Hannah’s connected to that story. Nobody, Jack. Understand?”
Jack’s lips tightened to a thin, angry line. “You lied to me.
“You drink too much, Jack. You party too much. You don’t keep your tongue when you’re drinking.”
Real pain etched lines in Jack’s face. “That’s what you think of me?”
“Tell me it’s not true.”
“It’s not true,” Jack said angrily. Then he lowered his voice. “Not anymore.”
Riley’s expression grew thoughtful. “When did that happen?”
“Last year. I got drunk in Amarillo and lost the best thing that ever happened to me.” Jack removed his hat and ran his fingers briskly through his thick black hair. “I guess you wouldn’t have known about that.”
“And why’s that, Jack? Because you haven’t been back here since Emily died?”
“I couldn’t.”
Hannah felt like a voyeur, watching the two men deal with their private pain. She eased away from them, retreating to the horse box near the back, where Lucky quietly chewed what was left of the night’s feed. She ran her hand down his brown spotted neck. He rewarded her with a soft nicker of pleasure.
“Why did you bring her here to stay with you?” Jack asked, apparently not caring that she was right there in the stable with them. “She could have stayed with Joe and his wife, or, hell, the Teton County Sheriff’s Department could’ve found her a safe place to stay. Why was the first lie you came up with about sleeping with her? Have you given that any thought?”
“Stop it, Jack! This is all about Emily,” Riley said, his voice rising with emotion. “Everything I’ve done since the day she died is about making sure the son of a bitch who murdered her gets what’s coming to him. Don’t you dare question that.”
Hannah felt a sick, hot pain in the center of her chest. She turned her back to them, pressing her face against the gelding’s warm, silky neck.
“Okay, so nobody can know why she’s here,” Jack said. “What’s next?”
Hannah looked over her shoulder at Riley, wondering what he’d answer. He paused, as if at a loss for an
