“What are you thinkin’, darlin’?”
I sigh, shrug, and shake my head. “Do you think . . . Could this be John?”
A flash of anger crosses his face. “Do you think it could be?”
“I honestly don’t know, Clayton. The John I knew years ago wasn’t a good person, but he was an angry drunk who preferred to use his words and strength to hurt someone. He wanted people to know he was powerful in that way. Hiding behind a fire doesn’t make sense. I just can’t see him wakin’ up one day and decidin’ today is a good day to become an arsonist.”
“Just because he didn’t show it then doesn’t mean he didn’t have more malicious intent hidin’ away and waitin’ to come out.”
“I know, I know. But it just doesn’t feel like somethin’ he’d do. If he’s even still in town, he’d corner me somewhere before he’d hide behind a fire and not let me know he was the one who took more from me. The man I knew would’ve left no doubt it was him.”
Clayton drops his head, looking down at his boots.
“What?”
A little pit of unease opens in my gut when he just shakes his head.
“Clayton. Tell me what’s goin’ through your head.”
“Goddamn,” Clayton grunts. “You knew him as a boy, Linney. You don’t know him as a man.”
“I was with him for close to six years. I might have started with him when he was a boy, but he was a man when I finally left.”
“And you haven’t seen or really talked to him in close to another five, darlin’. People change, and you might not know the man that he is today.”
I take a calming breath. Placing my palms on the counter, planting my feet on the rungs on the barstool at the kitchen island, I arch my brows at Clayton.
“I asked you to trust me,” he finally answers my unspoken silent demand that he continue.
“I do, but I don’t need you keepin’ somethin’ from me because you think I need you to protect me from him. He can’t hurt me, even if he is the one behind the fires. He’ll never touch me again.” The confidence I’m starting to get used to rushes through my body. I can tell the second Clayton realizes that while I trust him completely, I won’t back down from this conversation.
“Son of a bitch,” he grunts under his breath, studying my face before shaking his head and continuing. “I’ve had problems with him for a while, Caroline. A lot of those problems are ugly, and I wanted to spare you that shit.”
“What did you tell me about the ugly in our past, Clayton? I got you and you got me; all of that stuff we’ve dealt with in our lives just helped us get to this point. So stop thinkin’ I can’t handle it and let me show you how strong your love helped me become.”
“Fine,” he grinds out unhappily. “I’ve known John Lewis since his family moved to Pine Oak. He was a middle school punk then, as I’m sure you know, but his arrogance didn’t turn dangerous until years later. I never liked him, but I didn’t hate the man until more recent years. It started when Jess used him to attempt to make me jealous. Didn’t bother me that she was carryin’ on with him, but him tryin’ to pick a fight with me got real old, real quick. He mighta had a drinkin’ problem when you left him, but he developed a drug problem on top of that when he came back to Pine Oak.”
“How long has he been back?” I ask, unable to stop the chill that trickles down my spine just thinking about him being so close to where I’ve settled, even if he never made an attempt at making me aware of that. Just thinking about how easy it could have been for him to inflict pain on me makes my heart race.
“Way I figure, right after you left him. Dates seem to match up.”
“I never knew.”
“Darlin’, he was so strung out, I don’t think he knew which way was up, let alone that you were only a half hour, forty-five minutes tops, away.”
“Tell me the rest, Clayton. I can see all over your face that there’s more.”
He runs his fingers through his hair, his naked chest flexing as he does. “He was supplyin’ drugs to some of the newer hands here on the ranch back then. I busted him myself when I came back from a night ride checkin’ the property after a nasty storm to find him in my fuckin’ barn dealin’. He was so high, but he was even more reckless. He took off before the sheriff got here, but not before his strung-out ass took out a fence and killed two of my horses on his way out. He didn’t even slow, Linney. Blew right through them in his daddy’s jacked-up truck. First time I’ve seen him since was that afternoon outside the diner in Wire Creek. I know he went to jail, heard rehab followed, but I’m not ready to eliminate him from the list of suspects who could be responsible for this just because he supposedly got help.”