Page 88 of Her Hidden Smile

“Millie we’re here. We’re here.”

An excited little girl was at my door, and No-Name answered it. He grabbed Bella by her arm and swung her inside. He raced over to me and dumped her beside me. His dagger pointed at both of us.

“I hope you have sweet tea,” Lisa hollered from outside. “I have brisket sandwiches on fresh-baked bread.” I could see her opening the door further. “Millie, I have lots of different desserts for you to choose from,” Lisa continued. “Except you don’t get the snickerdoodle cookie. Bella called dibs on that.”

“What happens if I want the snickerdoodle cookie?” No Name asked.

Lisa spun around and looked at the three of us, then dropped the bags of food and her purse.

“What are you doing?” Lisa asked softly. “Why do you have a knife?”

“Lisa, it’s not a knife. It’s a dagger.” No-Name smiled. “Look. I had it specially made. It has a green stone in the quillon.”

Bella whimpered when he lifted the dagger up into the light.

“That’s amazing,” Lisa whispered.

I struggled to push away from the wall. I wanted to comfort Bella.

“What did you do to Millie?” Lisa all but yelled at No-Name.

“Don’t look at me like that, Lisa. You know I’m not that type of man.” He sounded hurt. “I would never hurt a woman in that way.”

“Then why does she have bruises?”

They kept talking, but all my focus was on Bella who was crying.

“Millie, are you okay?” Lisa asked me.

“Water,” I pushed out the word. “Please, water.”

She turned to No-Name. “Have you even been giving her water?”

“Don’t listen to her,” he roared. He pounded across the floor and stopped right in front of Lisa. “You pay attention to me!”

Bella started crying harder.

“It’s okay, Bella,” I whispered. “Pay attention to me,” I begged the little girl.

“I’m listening, Rod,” I heard Lisa say.

“You better be. Because you sure weren’t when I tried to get you to leave this town and come home to Elkton.” He lifted the dagger over Lisa’s head.

“He’s got a knife,” Bella whispered. “He’s gonna kill Lisa.”

“It’s okay, baby.” I promised her.

I heard Lisa asking Rod what his plan was.

“We’re going to stay here awhile. We had a connection. I felt it. You felt it. You’ll forget all about that Thatcher man. We’ll go somewhere and make a life together.”

“I can’t do that. I need to take Bella home.”

“I thought about that. You’re going to call the brat’s mother. You’re going to say she wants to sleep over for a couple of days. It’s going to be some kind of woman’s night party.”

“A girl’s night?”

“That’s right. Then we’ll have time to get to know one another.”