To Wed and Protect by Carla Cassidy

Author:Carla Cassidy
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Silhouette
Published: 2002-08-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

The minute Luke saw Abby sitting in the car, he knew something was wrong. She wasn’t just pale—she looked positively ill.

The kids both seemed okay. They were buckled into the back seat, each of them looking at books Abby had bought for them earlier in the day.

But Abby definitely was not okay. He threw the guitar strings on the seat between them and slid behind the steering wheel. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“Nothing. Everything is fine…just fine,” she replied, a sharp edge in her voice. “I just really need to get home right away.”

“All right, we’re on our way.” He started the engine and pulled away from the curb, aware of her gaze darting frantically out the front window, then out the side.

The tension rolling from her was thick enough to cut, and he could hear her taking shallow little breaths, as if she were fighting off sheer hysteria. As they drove away from town, she constantly turned in her seat to check the road behind them.

“Abby, what’s going on?” he asked again, unease rising in him as he recognized that the emotion that darkened her eyes appeared to be fear. “Did somebody say something to you? Did something happen while I was gone?”

“Is something wrong?” Jason asked from the back seat.

“No, honey. Everything is fine…just fine,” Abby said to him. “I’ll tell you later,” she said in a low voice to Luke.

The drive was finished in silence. Abby continued to twist in her seat and look out the rear window as Luke tried to figure out what might have happened in the space of the few minutes he’d been getting the guitar strings.

When they reached the house, Abby opened the front door and told the kids to go inside and turn on the television or play in their rooms, then she stepped out on the porch with Luke.

Her eyes still held an edge of panic, and her delicate hands worried themselves, clenching and unclenching, twisting and wringing.

“I have to think,” she said absently and paced the front porch. “We have to go…we have to leave here.”

“What are you talking about?” He stepped closer to her and grabbed her hands in his. “What do you mean, leave here? Where are you going?”

“I don’t know…we just…we just have to go. We have to get out of here.” Her hands were cold as ice and trembled unsteadily. She tried to pull them away, but he held on tight.

“Why? Why do you have to leave? For God’s sake, Abby, tell me what’s going on.”

Tears formed in her eyes as she gazed at him. “I can’t tell you. I can’t tell anyone. I’m afraid…” The tears trickled from her eyes and fell down her cheeks. “Please, let me go so I can get the kids ready to leave. If we stay here, I’ll lose everything, and the children will be lost.”

“I’m not going to let you go until you tell me what’s going on.” Luke squeezed her hands. “Abby, you can trust me. Maybe I can help.

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