Forever and Always Read Free Page B

by his shaking voice that he was as stunned by the unexpected turn of events as she was. “You’d better take your own advice,” she responded. “If you shoot me, you will die for sure.”
    â€œWe’re getting out of here together. There’s a back door.”
    Sibyl wasn’t willing to trust her safety to this man. As soon as he tried to pull her back toward the rear door, she went limp. The bank echoed with the sound of a shot, and the robber and Sibyl tumbled to the floor. It seemed the stranger was at her side the moment she hit the floor.
    â€œAre you okay?”
    Sibyl was so horrified by what she’d just witnessed—and the blood spatters covering most of her upper body—she couldn’t get a word out, but she did manage to sit up.
    Cassie wasn’t similarly handicapped. “I’m sure glad you got here when you did,” she said to the stranger. “That son of a bitch who grabbed me smelled bad.” She looked around at the bodies and the blood. “You made a real mess. I hope nobody’s expecting me to clean it up.”
    Sibyl didn’t know whether to laugh or take the easy way out and faint. Instead, she took the hand the stranger offered. For a moment she was afraid he didn’t have the strength to help her up. Just as she was about ready to call for Horace, the stranger grimaced and pulled her to her feet. The effort so exhausted him that he staggered.
    â€œAre you okay?” she asked. “Have you been shot?”
    â€œNo. I’m just a little weak,” the man said. “I haven’t been well lately.”
    He looked so unwell, she looked for signs of a wound anyway—maybe he was in shock and didn’t realize he’d been shot—but she saw no blood. She raised her gaze to his face. Despite the distorted features, she was stuck by the intensity of green eyes that were like fiery emeralds, backlit until they glowed even in the light of day. They gave evidence that the man inside this emaciated body still held to life with a tenacious grip, that his spirit was as vigorous as his body was frail.
    â€œAre you all right, Mrs. Spencer?” Horace had gotten over his shock and come out from behind his teller’s window.
    The sound of his voice shattered Sibyl’s focus on the stranger. She didn’t know how to answer that question, but after having survived an Indian attack, she wasn’t going to let a little blood be her undoing. “I’m fine, Horace. We’d better see to Mr. Spencer. His leg will need treatment.”
    Before she could move, the bank doors were flung open, and people wanting to know what had happened began to stream in. She quickly lost sight of the stranger in the confusion.
    Cassie pointed to the dead robbers. “They tried to rob the bank. Fortunately for us, that stranger showed up and shot all four of them. I’ve never seen anything so brave since Colby swam that swollen river three times.”
    â€œI need to check on Norman,” Sibyl repeated.
    â€œNorman’s dead,” someone said.
    They were mistaken. Norman had been shot in the leg. He had screamed a lot, but it hadn’t killed him. But when she reached Norman, he wasn’t moving. The reason was obvious. There was a large bloodstain on his shirt over his heart, with a small hole in the middle. She didn’t know when it happened, but Norman had been shot a second time.
    For a moment, she couldn’t take it in. For seven years, Norman had been as constant in her life as the sun in its orbit. She and Kitty had been the satellites that revolved around him. Every thought, every deed had been in response to him and his wishes that were often delivered like commands. She had been catapulted into a vacuum without a stabilizing force.
    â€œAre you all right?”
    Sibyl managed to focus her gaze on Dr. Kessling’s kind face.
    â€œI think so. I mean, yes.”
    â€œOf course