“He doesn’t.” She gave him a sharp look. “I spoke to him tonight. He knew your pa had evidence, possibly the identities of the individuals involved in the Syndicate, maybe more. He wasn’t certain.”
“I think my father stumbled onto something, something he shouldn’t have—and that’s why he ended up being framed. Whatever he had on them, it was significant enough to keep him alive.” Her hand lifted to the buttons again. A nervous habit. There was more.
“What?”
She raked her teeth over her bottom lip and held it there, staring at him with those big blue eyes. “I wonder if... Did it ever seem strange to you, your father coming to Pa’s defense? Or Vernon’s cattle conveniently being found on our land? Do you think there’s a chance that maybe your father is somehow—”
“No!” The denial shot out of him hot and fierce. She flinched. “No,” he said more softly. “I already asked him about it. He said he had no part in it.”
“And you believed him?”
He nodded his head, shaking off her doubt as it tried to find purchase with his own. “I know my father well enough to know when he’s lying.” But did he? His father had shut him down every time he’d tried to question him on what had prompted his sudden defense of Abbott Connolly, a man he had hated for longer than Hunter had walked this earth. He glanced down at the ledger sheet again. His father couldn’t be involved. He was a bastard but he wasn’t a thief. Or a murderer.
He just couldn’t be.
“He’s not involved,” he repeated.
He handed her back the piece of paper and walked to the bed. He sat down and leaned his forearms on his knees then lifted one hand to rub at the tension bunching the muscles in the back of his neck. This week had gone from bad to worse. He had a town bursting at the seams waiting for a trial, a prisoner refusing counsel and a counselor hired by an anonymous benefactor, and now someone was trying to break into Meredith’s room driving her into his. If this kept up, leaving his position as Sheriff and taking up ranching might end up being the best thing that ever happened to him.
“Sit down.” He motioned toward the straight-backed chair near the door.
Meredith grabbed the chair and plunked it down in front of him. Even with the space separating them he could feel her. Her presence sank into the marrow of his bones. He realized then in that moment he would never escape her. She could move to Boston, hell she could cross the ocean to parts unknown, and still she would live inside of him, a constant reminder of what might have been. It was enough to kill a man.
He kept his gaze fixed on the toes of her boots where they peeked out from the hem of her nightdress. Droplets of melted snow dotted the black leather.
“Yucton warned me this whole thing wasn’t over yet.”
He revealed to her what Yucton had told him. She listened without interruption. When he was finished, she remained silent. He glanced up to gauge her reaction. Her expression had stilled to such a degree she reminded him of a stone statue.
“You okay?”
She shook her head. A fat tear pooled near the corner of her eye before she blinked and sent it trailing down her cheek, racing the one on the other side. No sound came out of her, just silent tears. It was more than he could take but she had placed herself too far away for him to reach. He pushed off the bed and knelt in front of her, taking her hands.
“Mere...?”
Her question came on a whisper. “Tell me the truth, did Pa ask you to send me away?”
For a moment, Hunter couldn’t speak. For so long he had wanted to tell her the truth. Now that he had the chance, he hardly knew where to begin.
“It was the best thing, Meredith. Abbott didn’t think you would be safe here, but he wouldn’t tell me why. He made me promise to send you away, to stay with your aunt in Boston. He wired her ahead and once she agreed to take you in, it was up to me to make sure you went.”
The revelation stabbed into Meredith like a hundred tiny needles, sliding beneath the skin awakening emotions until they ran rampant through her body wreaking havoc everywhere they went.
The more pieces of the puzzle that came to light, the more the question grew inside of her. At first she ignored it. It was just her foolish heart and its silly notions. But the more she learned, the more time she spent with Hunter, the more the idea took root until she couldn’t ignore it any longer.
And she had been right.
Hunter and her father had conspired to send her away.
Her mind reeled as she tried to process what had up until now been nothing more than a hope. The truth she’d lived with these past seven years had been a lie, one designed to protect her. She wondered if either her father or Hunter had understood their solution had hurt her far more than whatever danger they thought threatened her.