She tacked a tease on the last.
A pained chuckle slid off my tongue. “I guess he and I were inevitable.”
A magnetism that couldn’t be avoided.
Gravity.
My words narrowed in pained emphasis. “I wish he would have told me. Confided in me then. We could have figured something out.”
Speculation pulled through Paisley’s expression. “He told you they made it clear what would happen to anyone he cared about if he left. And I might not know the details, but I can only imagine what that might have looked like. He was probably terrified, Dakota. Terrified of putting someone he loved in harm’s way. Put yourself in those shoes. I doubt you would have been able to confess it, either. But he’s also a good man who knows he can’t allow it to continue, so he’s taken the step.”
Fear spiraled.
A battering of horror.
What if that step cost him his life?
I couldn’t even let myself contemplate it.
Couldn’t handle the idea.
“He lied to me,” I told her, hating how bad it hurt that he had. That I’d been so gullible. So deceivable. That my dream had been built on something so ugly and vile.
A clatter of pounding footsteps cut off our conversation, and we both turned to see Evelyn come barreling into the kitchen.
All messy brown hair that was in her face, the little girl wearing a pink tee, jeans, and matching pink cowgirl boots. “Mommy! I took Kayden to the barn to see the horses, and he got to sit on Mazzy. He loved it!”
She threw her hands in the air and planted her feet in a lunge, like she was calling a touchdown.
Paisley’s grandfather wandered in behind her, chuckling under his breath. “Those two would have spent the entire day out in that barn if we would have let them. Had to drag them back in so we could get some lunch.”
“That’s because the barn is my very favorite place in the whole world, Grandpa,” Evelyn told him, perfectly nonchalant.
The old man’s face lit in staggering joy, and his eyes moved between Paisley and the child, cherishing every moment he had with them.
Paisley was actually his granddaughter, and he and his wife had raised her from when she was little. Paisley and Caleb had moved him here into the house so he could be near them. So he wouldn’t be alone.
Caleb sauntered in last, carrying Kayden.
“Mommy! I see the horsey!” Kayden pointed his little finger toward the wall like I could see into the barn.
I swallowed the misery down and forced myself to smile at the treasure that was my son.
“You saw the horses? That is amazing.”
Caleb set him onto his feet, and he went bouncing up to Evelyn’s side. “I ride horsey, my Evie?” He patted his chest, and she giggled like mad as she reached out to take his hand.
“Not right now. We have to eat lunch, and then maybe we can again.”
“How about Grandpa makes us some sandwiches, and then we’ll go back out for a bit?” Paisley’s grandfather suggested.
“Yes!” Evelyn shouted.
“Yes!” Kayden copied her, dancing on his feet when it made her laugh.
“These two,” Caleb rumbled as he came deeper into the room, easing our way. Worry was written in his expression as he approached. He came up behind Paisley’s chair and pressed a soft kiss to the crown of her head, but it was me he was looking at.
Concern weighed heavy in his eyes. He’d told me last night that he had known Ryder was involved in something just because he’d been involved in enough corruption in his own life that he knew when something shady was going down.
But he had no idea how bad it was. That Ryder was in that much trouble.
Ryder had kept it from everyone who was important to him. Except for when he’d finally hit a breaking point and had gone to Ezra.
Another wave of alarm went off.
Caleb touched my arm. “We’re here for you, Dakota. Both you and your son. And I know I don’t have the details or know exactly what is going on, but the one thing I know, for certain and without fail, is my cousin loves you, and he would do absolutely anything for you.”
But that was the problem, wasn’t it?
What he’d done for me, and the lies he’d told to cover it.
“Do you think we should just postpone the party?” Paisley asked as she followed me to the door. She chewed at her nail in contemplation, at war with how to proceed.
I shrugged even though I was in the middle of that war, too.
A war that conflicted and raged, so many questions at odds with each other I didn’t know how I was even standing beneath the barrage of bombs.