Lauri Robinson Read Online Free PDF Page B

light in his heart either.
    “Where do you think she went?” his deputy asked.
    Jake’s teeth were clenched, so he shrugged.
    “You’re the sheriff, why aren’t you out looking for her?”
    “Because she’s not missing.” Jake tossed aside the report he’d been pretending to read. Stacy was all his eyes wanted to see and they formed an image of her no matter where he looked.
    “She’s been gone two weeks.”
    Jake bit his tongue before snapping that he knew exactly how long she’d been gone. “She bought a train ticket. Left of her own accord,” he said. The same day he’d lied to her, let her walk out of his office. He’d sent wires to every city along the rail, but all he’d discovered was she’d switched trains in Yankton. Searching her home hadn’t given him any clues either. Still full of her belongings, it reminded him of a tomb.
    Built for a railroad magnate’s family, the house had been an empty relic of the boom Founder’s Creek had known the year the railroad made the township a hub while laying the rail west. That had happened before Jake had arrived, but the house had always caught his eye. He’d considered purchasing it, had the money, but his salary alone wasn’t sufficient and that would have caused tongues to wag. So the house had sat empty until Stacy Blackwell’s arrival—just like him.
    Herman’s sigh echoed off the ceiling. “It sure is lonely without her.”
    His nerves couldn’t take any more. “I’ll see you later.” Jake grabbed his hat off the hook and left his office.
    Walking the streets was worse than listening to Herman. Every time he passed a door someone rushed out to ask if he’d heard anything about her.
    No, he wanted to shout, he hadn’t. But as soon as he did, he’d be gone as well. To wherever Stacy was and there he’d bare his soul. Tell her gambling wasn’t what haunted him. Never had been. After years of condemning the game, he finally understood exactly why he’d left it all behind.
    Just then the train whistle sounded, echoing through the air and tearing at all that was left of his heart. A ball of anxiety had rolled in his stomach when he’d entered Ma Belle’s last week, but sitting down across from Ratcliff had been easier than he’d thought. There’d been no demons staring at him on those cards, just shapes and symbols on heavy pieces of paper. An odd almost painful ache formed inside him, the same as it had the night he’d won Stacy’s necklace. It hadn’t just been watching that woman die back in St. Louis. It had been seeing what her life had held that made him leave the tables.
    Standing there in the street, momentarily deaf to his surroundings, Jake stumbled when someone rushed past him. Spinning on a heel, he caught a nearby post as others shoved him aside in their hurry.
    “It’s her.”
    “Just stepped off the train.”
    “She’s back.”
    Jake’s heart left where it had sat in his stomach the past weeks to clutch the back of his throat with the ferocity of a hawk. Passing several slower-moving people, his feet skidded to a halt when a frilly pink parasol popped up above the bystanders gathering at the train station.
    The crowd parted, giving her room to pass out hugs and kisses on cheeks. Jake followed her every move, noted Herman was one of the first in line. A grin almost formed. It took the old man ten minutes to walk across the office, yet he’d made it across town in seconds.
    When she lifted her face and caught his gaze, Jake dug his heels into the ground. As if she had to gain control of her senses as badly as he did, she closed her eyes for a moment. He locked his lungs, refused to let his gaze waver as she lifted her lids. Decked from head to toe in pink—a shade lighter than her cheeks—the little gambler would make any queen of hearts jealous, and the brief smile of her lips had his insides flipping.
    She continued her greetings until her path ended directly in front of him. “Sheriff McCrery.”
    “Miss