“I trust you,” Ashley said. A tear rolled down the curve of her cheek. “I don’t trust them.”
“Oh, don’t start crying.”
“How am I not supposed to…？” Ashley sat down at her desk. She rubbed her swollen eyes with the heels of her hands. “Before all this, nobody died in Snakebite. It was perfect.”
“Careful…” Logan warned.
“You guys showed up and everything fell apart.”
“So, you do think they did it,” Logan scoffed.
“Can you blame me?”
“Yes.”
Ashley’s expression wrinkled in frustration. “What do you want from me? I ignored the obvious because I trusted you, but … I can’t let this keep happening. I’m losing everyone.”
“You haven’t lost me.”
“I lost my home.”
Something snapped in Logan. She stood, red-faced and breathless. “Oh, like Snakebite was so great before.” Anger crept up her throat and threatened to choke her. “I’ve heard lots of stories. It sucked then and it sucks now. You thought it was perfect because this stuff didn’t matter to you, but it’s always sucked for people like me.”
“That is not true.”
“There’s a reason people like my dads have to leave. Alejo said you’d turn on me just like your mom turned on him,” Logan said. “But this fucking sucks.”
Floorboards groaned outside Ashley’s room. Tammy Barton peeked around the bedroom door and surveyed the room. Her gaze landed on Logan and her expression soured. “What is going on in here?”
“I was just leaving, Ms. Barton,” Logan said. She approached the window and opened it. She wanted to spit on both of them. She wanted to let them know that they’d torn her whole world apart. Instead, she laughed. “In case you didn’t hear, my dad’s in jail. Maybe you can go tell all your friends. You can have a party.”
Tammy’s eyes widened, but she said nothing. Under the stern layers of her town matriarch persona, she looked more confused than relieved. “I don’t—”
“Logan,” Ashley snapped.
She didn’t wait to hear more excuses. Ashley was supposed to be her ally, but she was the same as Brandon. Too afraid to do the right thing, too afraid to admit what she’d done wrong. Logan climbed out the window and rushed back to the minivan. She pulled away from Barton Ranch in a blur, because this was it. This was the end. Alejo was gone, Brandon was silent, and Ashley was a traitor. After everything, she was alone.
She was alone.
27
Chokecherry And Other Menacing Flora
Logan was not okay.
Maybe she’d never been okay. It’d been two weeks since the fight with Ashley. Two weeks since Alejo was arrested. Two weeks of visiting him in the holding cell at the Owyhee County police station, talking about nothing, waiting for something to come to a head. Two weeks since her dreams of being buried alive had become a nightly occurrence. And for the last two weeks, Brandon was hardly more than a ghost in her life. No—given everything, ghost wasn’t the right word.
He was nothing at all.
Logan sat alone in the back booth of the Chokecherry. It was the same as always: mildly populated, playing country a little too loud with the lights a little too low. It didn’t set her on edge like it had the first time Ashley walked her through these doors. In a way, it was almost comforting. It was familiar.
“Can I have another porter?” Logan asked as Gus approached her table.