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“She isn’t a stranger.”
Huh.
That ‘light’ atmosphere feels like laughing gas has been pumped into it.
My grin widens at how freeing it feels to admitthat.
“What do you mean?” Theo asks, no small amount of confusion lacing the words.
“I mean she’s not a stranger.”
“Are you being pedantic? Sure, we were raised in the same town and went to the same school and know all the same people but?—”
I press my knees into Fen’s sides to still him. Theo gently tugs on Esmeralda’s reins until he’s next to me. “Listen, bud. You want to be more emotionally available, open your ears. I knew her a long time ago. Before the fire. We used to hang out when she was a kid.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“No. It doesn’t. Why do you think I never told anyone? They’d either think I was a creeporthat I was plain weird. Never mind the crap that comes from her being a McAllister and me being?—”
“You?”
“Exactly. She’d run away from home and hide in the stables. Figured that was the safest place from her grandmother. Knew hell’d freeze over before Juliette would come knocking on our door to see if we’d found her wayward grandchild, and we struck up a friendship.” I hitch a shoulder. “She’d lost her dad and I couldn’t get rid of her. When she talked, I listened. She had a sweet soul…”
“But you never let on that you were friends. Is that why you said Clyde did it?—”
I knew he didn’t believe me. He’d have given me the third degree if he had.
“I can see why Bea got mad with you. Look, Clyde was pulling an insurance fraud. There. Simple. That’s why he did it. I only just found out or I’d have reported him to the Mounties faster than Fen can hit thirty miles per hour.”
“Who told you it was Clyde?” His lips tighten. “Susanne?”
“She was there. She saw him do it. And, rightfully so, she knew no one would believe her. So many things left unsaid and all because of her surname.” If my gaze is pointed, so be it. He winces. “Before you askwhya man as rich as my father would defraud an insurance company, it’s because he’s been lying to us for years. When Uncle Clay died, he left the ranch under my guardianship. Not Clyde’s?—”
“That bastard,” Theo grinds out, finally angry about the correct thing.
“Precisely. He must have needed the cash.” I rub my cheek. “I’ve been looking into what happened ten years ago. Gathering evidence to?—”
“You want to have him arrested?!”
“Damn straight. I’ve set a forensic accountant onto it and I’m having the board investigated too, as well as the trustees of the family trust fund because he must have gotten to them somehow.”
“Blackmail?”
“I wouldn’t put it past him. Either that or bribery. If he can burn a herd of innocent animals alive, why wouldn’t he be capable of blackmailing an official or bribing them?” I grit my teeth. “I want him to rot in jail, Theo. If I never have to see him again, it’ll be too soon.”
“Thisis why you’ve been acting weird, isn’t it?”
“I haven’t been acting weird!”
“You have. You’ve dealt with all this stuff on your own.” He punches me in the shoulder. “Dammit, don’t you know that a problem shared is a problem halved?”
“What was I supposed to say?”
“What you literally just said, jackass. What the hell are friends for if not to help out when you need it?”
“I didn’t need help. I need the people I’ve paid to dig up the dirt on my asshole of a father to come through for me.” I sigh. “But thanks, man.”
His gaze is perturbed. “Do you not trust me or something?”