Return To Falcon Ridge. Rita Herron

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СКАЧАТЬ I was fourteen.”

      He frowned. “What happened?”

      She shook her heard, hunching her shoulders. “I…don’t want to talk about it.”

      He gestured around the monstrous room. “He left you here at this orphanage, didn’t he?”

      A slight nod of her head served as her reply. Then she stood and turned toward the fire, seemingly lost in the flames.

      “I will take you back to your home,” he said. “When you see your mother, everything will be all right. Trust me, you’ll see.”

      Elsie shook her head, tears spiking her long black lashes. “It’s too late,” she said in a haunted whisper. “I can’t go back now, Deke. Not ever.”

      Raw anguish knifed through Elsie. In mere seconds, she’d memorized her mother’s features. Her smile. Her sad eyes. The changes in her face. The slight graying of her hair.

      And with that, the memory of her voice had returned. The sound of her soft singing. Her spontaneous laughter. The smell of the gardenia lotion she used on her hands. The look of joy on her face when Elsie had drawn a picture for her or when she’d done something to please her mother.

      “I’m so proud of you,” her mother would say. “You’re my little angel.”

      But in the fire, Elsie saw Howard Hodges, his skin burning, his eyes screaming in pain, the flames eating his hair.

      If her mother knew what Elsie had done, how she’d survived, the fact that she had murdered a man, she couldn’t smile or be proud of her. And she would never call her an angel.

      Shame would fill her eyes. Disappointment. Maybe fury.

      She would send Elsie away for sure this time. Elsie wouldn’t blame her.

      She wasn’t the innocent, sweet little girl she had been when she’d lived at home or when she’d played hopscotch and baby dolls with Hailey. But heaven help her, she wanted to go home. Wanted to feel her mother’s arms around her.

      She angled her face and saw Deke studying her. She had been afraid of him when she’d first met him. Yet in the last few minutes, he had shown her a tenderness she’d never known existed. A tenderness between a man and a woman.

      He had made her want to fall into his arms and let him hold her. Yet his raw masculinity frightened her at the same time. How did she know if she could trust him?

      He was only here doing a job. And it was sympathy in his eyes, not real emotion or caring. Or even attraction.

      No, if she confided about her past, he would never want to be seen with her. He might even turn her over to the police.

      He placed his hand on her arm, turned her to face him. “Elsie, talk to me. Tell me what’s going through your head. I swear, I’ll help you.”

      She pulled away, immediately missing the warmth of his touch. But she couldn’t share her horrid secrets with anyone.

      “I need some time to think.”

      “To think about what?” His voice sounded gruff, slightly agitated. “Deanna has called me almost every day the last two weeks to see if I’ve found you. She’ll want to know what you look like, when I’m bringing you back.” His dark brows furrowed. “I hate to lie to her. She’s a sweet lady, and she’s suffered for a long time.”

      Guilt weighed on Elsie’s shoulders. She almost wavered. Deke Falcon had no idea how much she wanted to see her mother. But she couldn’t return until she made something of herself. Until she faced her past and rectified her sins by building this center for kids. If she didn’t, she would always look at herself as an evil person.

      And as a murderer.

      Chapter Five

      Frustration filled Deke. He’d expected Elsie to hear him out, then let him drive her back to see her mother and a happy reunion to ensue. Then his job would be done.

      It was obvious that Elsie wanted to see her mother. She was plainly devastated to learn that her father had lied to her. So why would she choose to stay in this mausoleum where her father had left her? What kind of hold did the town have on her?

      He had to dig deeper. Find out what had caused her to be so skittish. Why she had come back here. What she was hiding.

      “Elsie, tell me why you really don’t want to go back to Falcon Ridge.” He started to reach for her again to assure her that everything would be all right. But her shoulders tensed and she drew away, his touch unwelcome.

      “I…just can’t,” she whispered in a faint voice.

      “Why not? Do you have obligations here in town? A job or a man in your life?”

      “God, no,” she whispered.

      “Then what?”

      “My mother doesn’t know me now,” she rasped. “I’m…not the same little girl she once had.”

      No. She was a stunning woman. Delicate and vulnerable with eyes that mesmerized him, and a soft pouty mouth that he desperately wanted to kiss. No, he wouldn’t do that.

      But someone had attacked her, and he had to protect her for Deanna’s sake.

      And for his own? He couldn’t deny that he’d instantly felt drawn to her. Maybe because he understood the pain of desertion.

      Except that his father hadn’t deserted him of his own free will.

      Still, at times, Deke had blamed his dad for not being around. For staying away so long. For not fighting harder to beat the conviction and get it overturned.

      The silent realization shocked him. He shoved his hand through his hair, trying to make sense of his reaction. He’d never given voice to those irrational feelings before. And they were irrational—his father had been innocent. He’d tried his damnedest to free himself, but the truth hadn’t mattered.

      Although when he’d been sentenced, his father had refused to see the boys. Deke had thought he didn’t love them anymore.

      As an adult, he understood that his father had been trying to protect them. He hadn’t wanted his sons to see the meanness inside the prison. He’d thought the family would have a better chance of happiness without the turmoil of constant prison visits tainting their impressionable lives.

      But Deke hadn’t understood at the time. He’d been devastated and hurt, had felt as if his father had abandoned them completely. And he’d hated hearing his mother cry at night, had felt so helpless….

      But his parents love for each other had survived, and now the family had been reunited. Deanna and Elsie deserved the same.

      “Elsie, your mother loves you,” he said gruffly. “Nothing that’s happened in the last twenty years can change that.”

      Her gaze met his, and his gut clenched at the pure fear and pain darkening her eyes. She didn’t believe him.

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