Deeper Than Need Read Online Free PDF Page A

“I’m helping him with something.” Then she slid out from under Noah’s arms and twisted away, looking around. When she turned back to him, the look on her face was serious, her eyes hard as stone. “Listen, Noah, you can’t tell anybody, okay? I know you don’t understand. Just … Noah, just trust me, okay?”
    He blinked. The urgency in her voice tugged at him and he caught her arm, pulling her close. “What do you mean?”
    “Just promise me you won’t.” She lifted a hand and pressed it to his cheek. “Please. Don’t tell, Noah.”
    Alarm blared in his gut. “What’s going on, Lana?”
    “I love you.”
    She pressed a kiss to his lips, hard and fast, as the bell rang. Then she was gone.
    *   *   *
    Sighing, Noah knelt in front of the flowers he’d picked out for her. They needed weeding. Because it had happened more than once he’d brought the gear he needed, and he set about taking care of it. The flowers were bright, vivid blooms, the kind Lana had helped her dad put in around their house. A few times, she’d sweet-talked Noah into helping. It wasn’t like you could say no to her. It just didn’t happen.
    Maybe if he’d pushed harder, maybe if he’d listened to that niggle of worry in his gut instead of listening to her, she’d still be here.
    Now, instead, he lived with the guilt, twenty years later.
    “You know, a man can go crazy like that.”
    The low, gruff voice caught his attention. Although the sun was setting at the man’s back, Noah had no problem recognizing him. The broad-brimmed hat and the big frame were unmistakable, the voice even more so. Caine Yoder squatted down next to him and Noah sighed. “Go crazy doing what?”
    “Brooding like you do. It’s been twenty years, you know. It’s time to let it go.”
    He didn’t bother to ask how Caine knew. He might not spend a lot of time in town, but he listened to everybody, noticed everything. Lifting a shoulder in a shrug, Noah said, “I deal with it. Most of the time, it’s something I leave in the past. Letting it go isn’t quite as easy.”
    Caine pulled a few of the weeds up, dumped them in the pile Noah had going. “I see that pretty lady at the Frampton house. Seems to me there’s…” He paused, shrugged. “Something there. Might be easier to pursue it if you could let go of all this.” He looked up and gestured to the gazebo.
    “This?” Noah asked softly.
    Caine smiled. “You finished it, to the day, fifteen years after all that went down. I heard people talk. Heard you lost somebody that day. It’s kind of surprising not many people put it together. Everybody is wailing and gnashing their teeth over the family. But not many talk about her. You gave her a place. That should give you some peace.”
    Then Caine stood up, walked away.
    Peace.
    Noah just shook his head. He wasn’t going to ever really find peace. How could he when there were no answers? Nothing but the bloody streaks left on a window and the blood left on the floor. Nothing else, not in all of the years that had passed between then and now.
    How did a man find peace in all of that?
    Noah just didn’t know.
    He blew out a breath and focused on the flower bed in front of him, pushing the memory out of his head.
    Along with Caine’s words about Trinity. That pretty lady at the Frampton house. Noah wasn’t even going to think about that.

 
    CHAPTER THREE
    Overslept.
    Check.
    Stubbed his toe coming out of the shower.
    Check.
    Lost his keys.
    Check.
    Running behind?
    Oh, hell. Check.
    Some days, once the hits started a man just couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. It was a fact that Noah was well aware of, and normally he would just roll with it. It was better to just roll with those hits, because when he let it get him mad, it only got uglier. He had a vicious temper—he’d been born with it, but over time he’d gotten a handle on it.
    There were days, though, when he just didn’t want to roll with it. He wanted to reach out,