Page 51 of Montana Mystery

Up close, there was an engraving on the metal that Rayne had had me put there. Not to be opened unless it serves my healing.

Wasn’t that the truth?

I was no closer to sleep, but there was relief in my chest and my limbs. I was still here, and still whole. My past hadn’t gotten the best of me yet.

Chapter 17

Kate

A chill across my skin woke me.

I sat up in the bed, my mind taking several seconds to remember where I was. What happened?

Noah’s house. This was Noah’s house, and this was Noah’s bed. I shuddered. The reason I was in Noah’s bed was still in the forefront of my mind.

I felt better, but there was a part of me that was still shaken. Bruised and vulnerable from what we’d come up against tonight. Was it tonight? What time was it?

As I reached for my phone, something squeaked. Garfield was curled up halfway on the screen and barely moved when I slipped the phone out from underneath him. Utterly adorable.

I tapped the screen, the light bright in the darkness. Three in the morning. But I didn’t feel sleepy. I felt clear. If I stayed here staring at the ceiling, that’s what I would do. Stare.

The temptation to see where Noah was overtook me. I still wasn’t all right, and he probably wasn’t either. But I hoped he would at least be asleep, since he’d said he had trouble with it.

I tiptoed down the stairs. They led straight into the living room, and I wasn’t about to be the reason why Noah lost some of the precious little sleep that he did get.

But the couch was empty. The fire was low in the fireplace, and Noah was nowhere to be found. Where was he? After what had happened tonight, I knew better than to think that he’d gone anywhere else. Even within the safety of Resting Warrior, I didn’t think he’d leave me alone. So where was he?

I shivered as a breeze hit me.

That’s why I was awake, I realized. It was cold in here.

At the back of the house, I found the source of the dropping temperature. The back door stood open, knocking against the house in the stiff breeze. It wasn’t snowing anymore. The white covering the ground was fresh and shining under a clear moon.

And out in the yard... Noah.

He was far enough that it was hard to see him. But there he was. I didn’t bother being quiet now, grabbing my boots and my coat from by the front door before heading out the back and shutting the door gently behind me so the house and kittens wouldn’t get any colder.

Noah faced away from me, staring into the distance. He didn’t seem to be aware I was approaching at all, so still that he looked like a statue.

I was almost to him when I stopped. “Noah?”

He whirled, faster than breath, taking a step toward me before he stopped. It had taken him a second to realize who I was and that I wasn’t an enemy. His gaze was dark in the moonlight.

Those were shadows I recognized. I’d seen them in my brother’s eyes too. After what he’d told me, I didn’t doubt he was caught up in a storm of memories.

“Noah,” I said again.

“Kate.” My name was a ragged breath in his mouth. He exhaled, some of that darkness fading.

But not all of it.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

Turning away from me, he looked back past the fence, and I realized that Noah wasn’t actually alone out here. A dark, fluffy shape was standing by the fence. One of the alpacas. I hadn’t known their enclosure came so close to Noah’s house.

“When I came back. From... captivity.” The word seemed hard for him to say. “I wasn’t the same. I was... broken. In some ways, it was worse than what they did to me.”

I didn’t dare say anything. I didn’t want to break the spell of his vulnerability. Noah was trusting me with this. I was honored. And terrified. Not of him, but of the enormity of it, even as it felt right.