Close Range Christmas by Nicole Helm (best free ebook reader .txt) 📕

belly felt too weighted and her back was aching. Which was totally about pregnancy and not how Liza’s words seemed to hit their mark. “I’m not betting on Dev.”

Liza shrugged. “I don’t believe you.”

Before Sarah could get bent out of shape about that, Jamison came to collect Liza and Gigi, then Cody and Nina to pick up Brianna. They took Claire with them to drop back off at the Reaves Ranch since Felicity and Gage were staying with Grandma Pauline.

When Duke came in, he wasn’t alone, and that scared Sarah to her bones. Dev was with him and they both looked at her with a grimness that could never be good.

DEV KNEW HE shouldn’t have come. He should have let Duke handle this aspect of things. Duke would take care of his own. They’d all take care of each other. He didn’t need to be smack dab in the middle of anything that involved Sarah.

But he’d found himself trailing after Duke anyway, and when Duke hadn’t offered any objections, they’d driven over to the Knight house together.

Sarah eyed them both with mounting suspicion, her hands coming over her belly in a protective gesture. Something he refused to acknowledge twisted in Dev’s gut.

“What is it?” she asked, her voice coming out strong even if the worry showed in her eyes.

“We’re just going to move you over to Grandma Pauline’s. Aside from Jamison and Cody’s families in Bonesteel, everyone’s going to be staying there, much as they can. Strength in numbers.”

“What about you?” Sarah demanded, as Dev had known she would. Before Duke could give his lame excuses, Sarah continued. “If we’re all going to be there, you should be, too.”

“We’ve been trying to tell him that,” Dev muttered, earning a glare from Duke.

“It’s not necessary.”

“Why not?” Sarah insisted.

“I’m not a part of this.”

“Then neither am I,” Sarah replied. “Not married to a Wyatt, and if working together on both ranches doesn’t count for you, it doesn’t count for me either. And if this is about me being pregnant—”

“It isn’t,” Dev said firmly. Again he got a glare from Duke. Maybe this was why he’d come though, because he knew she wouldn’t get the unvarnished truth from anyone else. They’d try to dance around the problem—the danger.

He understood why. She was supposed to be relaxing and avoiding stress—but she had a connection to the man threatening them and it could not be ignored.

“Duke, you have to tell her. No amount of moving her and installing people around her is going to keep her safe if she doesn’t know.”

“Knew I shouldn’t have let you come,” Duke muttered.

“If someone doesn’t tell me what I don’t know right this second I am liable to go straight into labor. Spit it out.”

Dev wished it was a much less scary a situation so he could find some enjoyment in how quickly Duke jumped to explain himself after that.

“I know a little about Anth Wyatt.”

Sarah’s eyebrows drew together. “More secrets?”

Dev winced at the hurt in her tone. Because this whole disaster was the unraveling of more secrets than he’d ever expected.

“I won’t apologize for this secret. When your parents—”

“My parents!” she screeched, trying to push herself out of the chair, but Dev was quicker and was gently pressing his hand into her shoulder to keep her put.

“Let him finish,” Dev ordered.

Sarah whipped a killing look up at him, but he nodded toward Duke.

“Your father was friends with Eva. From way back. We were friendly with your parents. They knew we had fostered girls. At that point we thought we couldn’t have any children of our own.” Duke rubbed a hand over his graying hair. “They came to us, a few weeks before you were born. Your mother had had a child from a previous relationship. They were afraid of both the man and the child. He’d been threatening your mother. They were worried about your safety. They wanted someone to take you until they could be sure they were safe.”

“What does this have to do with the Wyatts?” Sarah asked. Her voice was flat and emotionless, but her hand had come up to grip Dev’s on her shoulder.

“Your mother had been involved with Ace Wyatt.”

The hand that had been clutching his fell off and into her lap. She didn’t say anything, so Duke continued. But Dev knew what those little gestures meant. She didn’t want any kind of link with a Wyatt.

Even him.

Still, he couldn’t bring himself to pull his hand off her shoulder and leave her sitting there absorbing all that information without some kind of understanding. Connections to monsters he knew all too well.

“Ace and your mother had a son before she managed to leave,” Duke continued. “She met your father, started a new life. Or thought she had.”

“Anth Wyatt is the son,” Sarah said, her voice even flatter. She slid her hands over her belly, that protective gesture.

It wasn’t about him, but it still made Dev feel like slime. He’d known Anth was out there and hadn’t used that as a reason to keep her at arm’s length when it came to the whole helping her have a baby thing.

“Yes. They knew Eva and I would take good care of their child, and they knew that being close to Pauline Reaves wouldn’t hurt any.”

Sarah swallowed loudly, though absolutely no emotion showed on her face. “My...parents. Are they...”

“They both died, sweetheart. I’m sorry.” Duke sighed heavily. “Eva and I had agreed that if Ace wasn’t a threat anymore, we’d tell you. Once he finally wasn’t, it didn’t seem any good to stir up a hornet’s nest.”

Sarah was quiet for a long time, and Dev and Duke stood in silence, letting her decide what to say next.

“But right now the threat is against you.” She looked up at Dev. Her blue eyes weren’t accusing, but Dev wasn’t accustomed to the cold light in them.

“My brothers and I got notes, yes.”

“I didn’t get one. The threat wasn’t against me. If everything you’re saying is true, he doesn’t