Hidden Treasure(64)

“Brielle, I can explain.”

“I’ll just bet you can. Save it, Colt.” She looked around the back deck of his log mansion, built-in outdoor kitchen and all. “A ranch hand? Really? You must have found immense entertainment in the fact that I thought you worked for me. Did you come home and look around and laugh? Was it a fun game for you to play?”

While he struggled to speak, she cut him off. “I lived in the world of the rich and famous for a lot of years, Colt. A lot of years!” she thundered. “But I will tell you this — in all that time, I never met anyone who held a candle to you. No one who came even close. With them, I knew they were lying. I knew they weren’t truly my friends. That’s how that world works. But bravo to you, sweetheart,” she said, then raised her hands and clapped loudly. “You really fooled me, Colt. You got under my skin and burrowed down. You rammed right through every defense I’ve managed to build, and you took my heart and ran with it.” On her final words, her anger drained. Despair had taken over.

Colt stood and moved toward her. “Please, Brielle. Please let me explain.”

She held out her hands in horror and retreated. “Don’t you dare touch me, Colt. You’ve lost that right!”

“I was going to tell you.”

“I’m done, Colt. I’m done with you.” She packed up her emotions and returned to the place she’d lived for so many years. Cold comfort.

“Don’t say that, Brielle. What we have is real,” he said, and took a step closer.

“No, Colt. That’s where you’re wrong. We don’t have a single thing, because our relationship, or what I thought was a relationship, was built on lies. Just tell me this. Why? Was it really just a game?”

“It wasn’t a game. I swear it wasn’t.”

She didn’t know where his friends had gone, and she didn’t care. The entire town knew she was a fool already.

“Why, Colt?”

She didn’t know why it mattered, but she needed to close this chapter in her life, and the only way to do that was to have some sort of an answer.

“I didn’t know you, Brielle.”

“Just spit it out, Colt. I’m tired and I’m done, so just tell me.”

“Your father bought the property I wanted. I didn’t know you then. I wanted it, and I was willing to do whatever it took to get it,” he said, and she felt like a knife was slicing into her heart. “But that changed…”

She held up her hand to keep him from saying anything more.

“It’s over, Colt.”

She turned and walked away. Of course, he chased after her, of course he tried to plead with her, but Brielle didn’t hear a word he said through the buzzing in her ears. She didn’t even see anything as she climbed into her truck and started the motor, her motions on autopilot.

“Brielle, don’t leave like this,” he demanded, but she was beyond listening.

Throwing the truck into gear, she drove away in a tornado of dust. She welcomed the numbness that settled over her, because she had no doubt that when the numbness vanished, the pain would be unbearable.





Chapter Thirty-Four

Aweek after Brielle walked away from Colt’s house, her father showed up on her doorstep, and she fell into his arms, so grateful to see him again. If she focused on her dad, she wouldn’t have to focus on Colt. That’s what she should be doing anyway!

There were a million questions brewing about how the cancer treatment was going. Of course they’d been in contact, and he was keeping her updated on the phone, but it would be much better to look into his eyes. That way she might know whether he was speaking the truth or trying to protect her feelings.

Anger and hurt inspired by Colt had helped to keep the tears at bay, but she simmered with frustration because the man had been showing up daily with flowers, chocolate, and jewelry, begging her to speak to him, begging her to forgive his lie. He’d offered to fly her anywhere in the world she wanted to go, offered to give up everything just for another day with her.

Of course he could give her everything money could buy. He was obscenely rich! He’d lied to her. And worse, he’d done it so that he could take her ranch from her. Colt was a user. How could she forgive that?

So it was a welcome relief to open her door and find her father standing there. She clung to him and promised herself that she was never going to let him go, that she would focus wholly on him, and not think twice about Colt Westbrook.

When Brielle looked past her father, she found two men standing beside him. At first glance, she thought nothing of it, but then her eyes snapped back first to one giant of a man, and then to the other, who wasn’t far behind the first, and very close in height to her father.