River’s End

nightmares.
    Covered with blood, and watching her.
    Fury that was as much hate as fear spurted through her in a bitter kind of power. “Where’s Noah? What have you done to him?”
    He was on his knees, his hand pressed to his side where blood spilled out of him. The pain was so huge it reached to the bone, to the bowels.
    “Livvy.” He whispered it, both prayer and plea. “Run.”
    “I’ve been running from you all my life.” She stepped closer, driven forward by a need that had slept inside her since childhood. “Where’s Noah?” she repeated. “I swear I’ll kill you if you’ve taken someone else I love.”
    “Not me. Not then, not now.” His vision wavered. She seemed to sway in front of him, tall and slim with her mother’s eyes. “He’s still close. For God’s sake, run.”
    They heard it at the same moment, the thrashing through the brush. She spun around, her heart leaping with hope. At her feet, Sam’s heart tripped with terror.
    “Stay away from her.” Sheer will pushed him to stand. He tried to shove Olivia behind him, but only collapsed against her.
    “You should have died in prison.” David’s face was wet with rain and blood. The knife in his hand ran with both. “None of this would have happened if you’d just died.”
    “Uncle David.” The shock of seeing him, his eyes wild, his clothes splattered, had her stepping forward. With a strength born of desperation, Sam jerked her back, held her hard against him.
    “He killed her. Listen to me. He killed her. He wanted her and couldn’t have her. Don’t go near him.”
    “Step away from him, Livvy. Come here to me.”
    “I want you to run,” Sam said urgently. ‘‘Run the way you did that night and find a place to hide. Find Noah.”
    “You know better than to listen to him.” David’s smile made her blood go cold. “You saw what he did to her that night. He was never good enough for her. Never right. I’ve always been there for you, haven’t I, Livvy?”
    “She never wanted you.” Sam’s voice was slurred and slow as he fought to stay conscious. “She never loved anyone but me.”
    “Shut up!” The parody of a smile became a snarl. His face flushed dark and ugly. “It should have been me. She would have come to me if you hadn’t gotten in the way.”
    “Oh God. Oh, my God.” Olivia stared at David and braced to take her father’s weight. “You. It was you.”
    “She should have listened to me! I loved her. I always loved her. She was so beautiful, so perfect. I would have treated her like an angel. What did he do for her? He dragged her down, made her miserable, only thought of himself.”
    “You’re right. I treated her badly.” Sam slumped against Olivia, murmured, “Run.”
    But she only shook her head and held on to him. ‘I didn’t deserve her.”
    “I would have given her everything.” Tears slipped out of David’s eyes now, and his knife hand dropped to his side. “She would never have been unhappy with me. I settled for second best and gave Jamie everything I would have given Julie. Why should I have settled when she was finally going to divorce you? When she finally saw you for what you were. She was meant to come to me then. It was meant.”
    “You went to the house that night.” Sam’s side was numb. He levered himself straight, caught his breath and prayed for the strength to step away from his daughter.
    “Do you know how much courage it took for me to go to her, to give her everything that was in my heart? She let me in and smiled at me. She was doing her clippings and having a glass of wine. The music was on, her favorite Tchaikovsky. She said it was nice to have company.”
    “She trusted you.”
    “I poured my soul out to her. I told her I loved her, always had. That I wanted her. That I was leaving Jamie and we could be together. She looked at me as if I were insane. Pushed me away when I tried to hold her. She told me to leave and we’d forget I’d ever spoken of it. Forget.” He spat the word out.
    “She loved my father.” Olivia murmured. “She loved my father.”
    “She was wrong! I only tried to convince her she was wrong, I only wanted to make her see. If she hadn’t struggled against me. I wouldn’t have ripped her robe. Then she turned on me, shouted at me to get out of her house. She said she would tell Jamie everything. She said I was scum. Scum! That she would never see me again, never speak to me. I—I couldn’t hear what she was saying, it