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."No," he said, shaking his head."Sam wouldn't do that, not to Sarah.He'd never betray her like that, steal her son away.Look at all that blood.It'd be a miracle for anyone to survive that.Not to mention having enough strength to kill a federal marshal and dispose of his body.""You're right, Sam couldn't have moved Richland." She frowned, staring at the photos.It was a hell of a lot of blood, but it was also raining—could have been diluted.Still, there was no way, unless— "Maybe Sam had an accomplice?""Couldn't be Sarah, she was in Albany.""We've been looking at this like a crime of opportunity because we thought Wright did it.What if this was a well-thought out, orchestrated plan and the only opportune part of it was Wright's arrival to act as patsy?""I don't understand.You think someone planned to kill Sam and Josh, planned to hide their bodies, then framed Wright as an after thought?""Murder 101—look to the family first."He straightened, his jaw muscle spasming again."I told you, Sarah had an iron clad alibi.""Doesn't mean she couldn't have hired someone to do it for her.Maybe she's the one who called Logan, got him to send Richland? Or maybe poor old Richland really was just caught in the middle like Wright.Maybe she hired someone to kill Sam and Josh and things got out of hand."For a moment Sam couldn't breathe.It was as if the darkness had entered his lungs, smothering him from the inside out.Surrendering to the flood of memories, he gazed around the clearing.His steps were jerky as he walked to the tree line and squatted, patting the ground."Here." The syllable sounded as shaky as the leaves rustling in the night breeze."This is where it happened."Sarah rushed to his side, joining him on the ground, her hands encircling his arm.He was trembling but her touch released the constriction in his chest and he could breathe again.He had to tell her everything, he knew that.At least he wouldn't be re-living it alone."There was a man.I saw him taking pictures of the kids, spying.I told Hal about it, he told me he'd call the feds, keep an eye on him." He shrugged."I guess he must've used my name and it sent a signal to the wrong person.Anyway, two days later a US Marshal named Richland came knocking, said I had to leave immediately."You were in Albany, so of course, I said no, I couldn't.Then he drew his gun." He slapped his palm against the dirt at his feet, the memory of his helplessness surging through him."That's when Josh came in, distracting Richland.I tackled him, yelled at Josh to run, run up to our safe place.""Your safe place?" Her grip tightened painfully on his arm.Anger flooded her voice.Not much he could do about it except explain."I was always worried something like this might happen, so Josh and I had a secret hiding spot up the trail a bit.I taught him to go there if anything ever happened—it's a cave stocked with supplies.Just in case.""Just in case." The words came in a whisper tight with fury."And you never thought to tell me?""I thought about it every second of every day," he protested."But how could I ask you to accept the risks of a life like that? How could you ever love the man I was? The man I am," he added with regret.Her hands dropped and suddenly he felt light-years away from her."Just tell me what happened.""I knocked Richland down, scrambled out the door, figured I'd lose him in the woods.Or at least slow him down, take him in a different direction from Josh.""Why didn't you go into town? Flag down help?""Who was I supposed to trust? I still have no idea how Richland found me, I'm not sure if it had anything to do with Damian Wright or not.At least I wasn't then.So I did the best I could.""You ran.""Yeah.But he caught up with me here.Shot me."The scar on his side burned with the memory.His hand rose to rub it, silence it, but the pain spiraled into his gut, as vivid as the day it happened."The movies have it wrong," he continued, his gaze fixed on the small patch of earth that had almost become his grave."You don't fly back or crumple to the ground.I didn't even hear the shot at first—it was like my brain was roaring, I couldn't hear anything.Then I felt this burning and I looked down and blood was everywhere."Her hand covered his, gently tugged it away from his shirt.He sat on the cold ground and allowed her to pull his flannel aside, raise his T-shirt up.The scar tissue glistened an ugly pale silver in the moonlight, the heaped up edges twining around his side like a viper.He flinched when she reached her hand to it, drew back from anticipated pain.She traced the area with her fingers, ever so gentle.The area was wider than two widths of her palms.It had taken a skin graft to cover it.Sunken like a crater from the missing band of tissue, it was a misshapen hollow the rigid muscles of his abdomen defining its boundaries."Here," she whispered.To his surprise, her touch soothed the angry burning."Yes.I was in the hospital almost ten weeks—by the time I got to a doctor, it was infected.Took three surgeries to get it looking this good.I was in a coma for a lot of the time, delirious most of the rest.It was three months before I could walk farther than the bathroom without falling down."She tilted her face up to meet his gaze, her palm laying flat over the center of the wound."You're lucky to be alive.""Luck had nothing to do with it.I had to stay alive.I was Josh's only hope."CHAPTER 30Sarah snatched her hand away.She rocked up to her feet and looked down at the man sitting on the ground below her.Who was this man she had married and begun a family with? A stranger, a total stranger—yet somewhere inside him was the man she had loved, the man who risked his life to save his son.But also the man who had placed her and Josh in danger.She backed up, anxious to have some breathing room.As the temperature plummeted, the mist the mountain was famous for swirled around her ankles.A cloud covered the moon, plunging them into near-total darkness.With a blink of an eye, Sam had vanished.Her throat tightened and she reached out a hand—her body wanted him back, wanted him near.Leaves rustled nearby and in the darkness the nocturnal stirrings of the forest seemed magnified.Moonlight filtered through the cloud as it passed and Sam's outline came slowly into focus.He remained where she had left him, staring up at her with eyes filled with sorrow and regret.An owl called out its mournful dirge.Tears welled up behind her eyes.God, how she wanted to take him into her arms, run away with him, forgive him everything.Her heart told her to trust him, to have faith in the man she loved.She blinked back her tears and held her ground.She'd been fooled before by her heart and its urgings.Never again."Richland shot you." The words dried her mouth out.She swallowed and started again."What happened next?"Sam climbed to his feet, stared at her a long moment before backing into the shadows, leaning against an oak trunk."Richland came close, ready to shoot again.I tackled him—well, fell on top of him would be more like it.We struggled and he hit his head on a rock, was knocked out.I grabbed his gun and headed up the mountain to where Josh was waiting." He tilted his head and smiled at her."He's so much like you.Practical, no-nonsense.He helped me patch up my wound, never panicked.I think he thought it was an adventure."The thought of Josh needing to cope with any of this made her stomach heave.She crossed her arms over her chest
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