Free Strong and Stubborn by Kelly Eileen Hake Page B

to.”
    Granger frowned, repeating the sounds in a furious whisper before his brow eased. “Don’t let Draxley leave town.” The rest of it seemed a greater challenge. “Hunt him down if we have to?”
    Mike gave a quick nod. Once sounded out, without the distance and the interference, the words made perfect sense. Except for the fact they had no idea why Dunstan would want to hunt Draxley down.
    â€œHe won’t go anywhere.” Granger took care to speak slow and loud—apparently not caring that everyone could hear. “Draxley’s just outside the mines, head crushed by a boulder from up the ridge.”
    Shaken from their hushed expectation, the men began murmuring to one another. Mike picked up on their shock—but he noticed no one seemed broken up over the loss of the town telegraph operator. Added to Dunstan’s directive that they hunt him down if necessary, Mike pieced together an unflattering portrait of the man—as well as a few suspicions. A telegraph operator had no business lurking around the mines—on the very day Dunstan and Lacey decided to investigate. So what were the chances that this second cave-in was a coincidence?
    Mike shook his head and kept his musings to himself. Who wanted to hear half-fledged theories from someone new in town? Nobody. If he turned out to be wrong, he looked insolent and self-aggrandizing. And if he turned out to be right … well, in that case, Hope Falls had enough to worry about without adding in a know-it-all.
    The strike of a shovel against a nearby rock demanded his attention. Everyone else was looking at Granger, waiting to be sure the conversation with their trapped townsmen had ended. Everyone, that is, except Naomi. It seemed as though Granger’s pronouncement shook loose her fears. The people trapped inside the mountain could still be crushed. She gripped the shovel handle with gloves torn enough to show the blood beneath, working feverishly to break through the wall still separating her from her unfortunate friends.
    Mike knew he should do the same, should attack the rocky barrier with equal enthusiasm and twice her strength. His hands tightened around the pickax he’d been using to dislodge larger rocks and lever them away. Beneath his leather work gloves, he felt the ridges of the handle where the new tool had yet to be worn smooth by hours of friction. Calloused as his own hands were, the rougher surface hadn’t registered until he spotted Naomi’s gloves.
    And now that he’d seen, Mike couldn’t convince himself to turn away and get back to work. There was no way of knowing whether Naomi herself realized the damage—the woman was obviously caught up in the rescue and not giving a thought to taking care of herself. Before they heard the answering call, how long had it been since she’d paused for a breath? When was the last time she drank from her canteen? Mike didn’t know, but he knew it had been too long.
    Why hasn’t anyone else noticed? Someone needs to look after the woman
. Common sense warred with a surge of protectiveness, cautioning that it wasn’t Mike’s place to step forward.
She only turned to you earlier out of shock and grief
. To take care of her now would signal an undue interest and arouse suspicion.
    He couldn’t afford to start off on the wrong foot with the residents of Hope Falls. It would jeopardize his chances of bringing Luke to the isolated safety of the town. And as much as it went against the grain to leave a woman hurting, Mike couldn’t risk it.
    Lord, You’ve answered many prayers from these parts today, and I’m going to add one more to them. If You can give me an opportunity, any window to stop Naomi from shredding her hands without sacrificing my son’s future, I’ll gladly make use of it
.
    As he had many times before, Mike lamented that prayers weren’t often answered immediately. He’d never manage