Carolina Moon

take on someone who comes from that?”
    “You know the answer. And if love isn’t enough, we’ll add sense. You aren’t your parents any more than I’m mine. The life we’ll begin and build together is ours.”
    “I should walk away from you. That’s sensible, and I suppose loving, too. But I won’t. I need you. I want so much what we might have together. So I won’t do the courageous thing and walk away.”
    “Darling, you wouldn’t get two feet.”
    She let out her breath in a shaky laugh. “Maybe I know it. Cade.” It was so easy to touch him, to brush her fingertips over the gilt edges of his hair. “Would we have come together, do you think, if Hope had lived? If nothing that happened had happened and we’d just grown up here like normal people?”
    “Yes.”
    “Sometimes your confidence is a comfort.” She walked to the end of the porch to look at the trees that tucked the marsh into shadows. “This is the second time since I’ve come home someone has died. The second time I thought it would be me he came for. He’ll come yet.”
    “He won’t get near you.”
    Yes, she thought, his confidence could be a comfort. “He’ll have to come. He’ll have to try.” She steadied herself, turned back. “Can you get me a gun?”
    “Tory—”
    “Don’t say you’ll protect me, or that the police will find him, stop him. I believe all those things as far as they go. But he will come back for me, Cade. I know it as truly as I know anything. I must be able to defend myself if I have to. And I will defend myself. I won’t hesitate to take his life to save my own. I might have once. But I have too much at stake now. I have you now.”
    There was a sick dread in his stomach, but he nodded. Saying nothing, he walked to his car, opened the glove compartment. He’d started carrying the revolver with him since Sherry Bellows’s murder.
    He brought it back to Tory. “This is a revolver, a thirty-eight.”
    “It’s smaller than I imagined.”
    “It was my father’s.” Cade turned the old Smith & Wesson over in his hand. “What you call a hideout gun, I suppose, because it’s compact. Do you know how to fire it?”
    She pressed her lips together. It looked sinister and efficient in Cade’s hand. The elegant farmer’s hand. “Pull the trigger?”
    “Well, there’s a little more to it than that. Are you sure about this, Tory?”
    “Yes.” She let out a breath. “Yes, I’m sure.”
    “Come on then. We’ll go out in the yard and I’ll give you a lesson.”
    Faith sang in a voice surprisingly light and sweet as she carried groceries up the stairs into Wade’s apartment. Bee scrambled after her, sniffing the air that held memories of countless dogs, cats, and pet rodents. Delighted with herself, Faith shifted bags, managed the knob, and bumped the door open with her hip.
    On a ragged pad in the living room, Mongo was lying with his head on his paws. His tail thumped, and his head lifted as Faith walked in.
    “Why, hello there. You’re looking lots better, you big old thing. Bee, Mongo’s recuperating. Don’t chew on his ears. He’ll swallow you in one bite.” But Bee was already sniffing, nibbling, and nudging
    “Well, I guess the two of you better get acquainted. Where’s the doctor?”
    She found him in the kitchen, staring into a cup of coffee. “There he is now.” She dumped her bags on the counter, then turned to wrap her arms around his neck from behind and kiss the top of his head. “I’ve got a big surprise for you, Doc Wade. You’re going to get yourself a home-cooked supper. And, if you play your cards right, a romantic interlude will follow dessert.”
    There was a machine-gun burst of barking from the living room that sent her scurrying out. “Now, isn’t that the cutest thing? Wade, you ought to come out and see this. They’re playing together. Well, this big dog here’s pretty much squashing Bee with one paw, but they’re having such a time.”
    She was still laughing when she came back, then stopped when she saw Wade’s face. “Honey, what’s the matter? Did something go wrong with the horse out at the Hill place last night?”
    “No. No. The mare’s fine. My aunt—my father’s sister—she’s dead. She was murdered early this morning.”
    “Oh my God. Oh, Wade, that’s awful. What is going on around here?” She sat down across from him, wishing she knew what to do. “Your daddy’s sister? Tory’s mama?”
    “Yes. I haven’t seen her in,