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“Jackson.” She said my name firmly. “Look at me.”

“I can’t.”

She made a noise of frustration.

“I’m sorry, Lee. I’m so fucking sorry.”

She planted her hands on my chest. “I know you’re kicking yourself right now, probably going through a laundry list of things you could have or should have done differently. I know this because I’ve been doing it all day. My biggest fear was thatIbrought Cristobal to town and that might have hurt any number of your friends.”

“Nope. That honor is mine.” Scottie, Joanne, and Mack spent the last few hours in a mine. Cristobal was ready to snatch Marley right off the street. And all of that was possible thanks to the selfishness of my father.

Fucking hell.

“You’re angry at your father.”

“Of course I am!” I paced away, whipping the hat off my head to stab my fingers through my hair. Anything to keep me from punching something.

But Marley stood there as calm as a statue, watching me. “Then I’m going to need you to stop beating yourself up for something you didn’t do. And I’d really appreciate it if you’d hug me.”

I froze in my tracks. Then I took the two steps that separated us and held her tight. I could and would be pissed for a while, but not now. Not when she needed me. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry.” She burrowed into my chest.

I couldn’t relax, but a little bit of calm made me slow down. She was here and she was safe. My father had tried and failed to hurt the people I cared about. My brain was a whirlwind of what-ifs and could-have-beens. It wasn’t doing me a damn bit of good and yet it wouldn’t stop. It saw the bad possibilities and outright ignored the reality that Cristobal was in handcuffs and he hadn’t touched a hair on Marley’s head.

“Was…was he violent? Cristobal?”

There were so many things I wished I could hide from her. “Not to me. He didn’t really have a chance.”

She pulled back just a little and looked up. I forced myself to meet her gaze. “So that’s a yes?”

I didn’t need to give her details. “He hoped to be very violent, yes.”

Her lips thinned and a little color drained from her face and I wished like hell I could shield her from the rest. “Then I’m glad I picked the right town.”

I crushed her against my chest because I needed to feel her. Needed to feel like if I held her tight enough I could keep anything else from ever hurting her.

In all the scenarios I hadn’t once considered what might have happened if she never ran into me at all. Never picked Lost Creek.

I owed the Alibis a hell of a lot. If they hadn’t pointed us in the right direction, Travis and I might have missed Cristobal.

A sheriff's deputy I didn’t know approached us. I slowly loosened my grip on Marley. “I think you’re up next for questioning.”

Marley sighed and pulled out of my arms. “They must be done with Joanne. Promise you’ll be here when I get back?”

“Wild horses couldn’t drag me away, darlin’.”

She gave my hand a squeeze and walked off with the deputy.

Forty-One

Jackson

Oh Jackson. What am I going to do with you?

I letsome of that fury flood back into my system. George was an asshole. There was no changing that fact. He was allowed to make me miserable as long as he refrained from turning his misery on anyone else.

He crossed the line. No, he obliterated it.