“Molly didn’t send me. She asked me to come. I came on my own accord,” she says.
“So you came all the way here to tell me in person that you don’t want the farm. Okay.”
Her face pinches and she looks like she’s halfway between slapping me and jumping my bones, and I’m really fucking confused right now.
“Molly says you didn’t do it,” she says. “I just wanted to ask you one more time … for the truth.” She swallows, her eyes searching mine. “Give me a reason not to hate you, River. Give me a reason not to hate the man I was beginning to fall in love with.”
Her words sting, and I wish I could tell her what she wants to hear, but I can’t.
“I wish I could.”
Her eyes water and her lip trembles. “It’s not fair.”
Tell me about it.
She steps closer. “I waited twelve years to put a face to this crime, to look into the eyes of the man who killed my father. Why’d it have to be you?”
I don’t speak, wishing I could absorb her pain, take it all away.
“Why?” She cries, tears streaming down her pretty face.
Leighton pounds on my chest, but I feel nothing. I let her hit me. I stand there and take it. And when she’s almost out of strength, struggling to stand, I take her in my arms.
Her body shakes and shudders as she cries into my shirt.
“I’m sorry, Leighton,” I whisper into her ear, breathing in the sweet scent of her shampoo and feeling her silky strands on my cheek one final time. But there’s something more I need to say … something I’ll never have another chance to tell her as long as I live. “I love you.”
Pushing herself away from me, she gives me a wild-eyed glare. “Why? Why would you say that right now?”
My brows angle. “Because it’s the truth.”
“Don’t you think this is already hard enough? Why would you hurt me like that?”
“Hurt you? By telling you I fucking love you?”
Her arms fold. “Yes!”
“Forgive me.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” she asks, brushing tears from her cheeks.
“Don’t get what?”
“You’re making it hard for me to hate you,” she says, head tilted and shoulders falling. “And I really need to hate you right now.”
“Then hate me. I deserve it.”
She shakes her head. “I can’t hate you and love you at the same time.”
Something comes over me, something I can’t control. Maybe those rosebud lips of hers don’t belong to me anymore, maybe her heart will never be mine again, but I need to feel her one last time.
Crushing her mouth with a kiss, I commit one last crime against the woman I’ve come to love.
And it’ll be the last time I ever hurt her.
Police lights flash outside the window.
It’s time.
Chapter Forty-Seven
River
My head pounds.
I’m not sure how long I’ve been in this interrogation room—hours, I’m guessing.
I’ve gone over my story—at least what I remember—frontwards and backwards dozens of times. Every time they send in someone new, I have to start at the beginning. I know they have to check for inconsistencies, but this is fucking ridiculous.
I’m alone now, and any minute they’re going to send in someone new, and I’m going to have to rehash that night all over again.
The door lock clicks and a plain-clothed detective steps in. “River, you’re free to go.”
“What?”
“I think we’ve got all we need.” He stands aside. “Your ride is waiting in the lobby. We’ll be in touch if we need anything else.”
I’m really fucking confused, but I don’t argue, and when I get to the lobby, I find Molly and Guy seated in the corner wearing exhaustion and sipping coffees. It’s dark outside now, not a single car cruising down the highway outside the window. While I’ve been holed up in an interrogation room, the rest of Bonesteel Creek has retreated to their hum-drum lives.
“River.” Molly wraps her arms around my shoulders. “Oh my god.”
“They said I could go,” I say, wincing. “Why are they letting me go?”
“Because I found the guy,” she says, grinning ear to ear.
“What guy?”
“The military friend of Seth’s,” she says. “His name is Brandt Hallifax. Seth was friends with him on Facebook. Super easy to track him down, though it took him a few days to respond. He says he’s not online that often anymore. I convinced him to come forward. He said that night had been weighing heavy on his mind too. He said he didn’t know they’d even hit anyone until years later, and at that point, Seth had threatened him into keeping his mouth shut. I guess he had some dirt on him and he was afraid of being dishonorably discharged from the army. Anyway, Brandt was passed out when it happened, woke up to find Seth moving you into the driver’s seat and telling him to help push the truck out of the ditch. He didn’t see Leighton’s dad’s truck because it was dark and it was upside down.”
“So I didn’t …?”
“No, River. You didn’t. You’re not responsible for what happened.” Molly stands on her toes, cupping my face in her hands.
Exhaling, I find the nearest chair and sink into it. I need to catch my breath and wrap my head around this.
“When you’re ready, Guy can drive you home,” she says. “I drove separate. Got to get back home to the boys.”
Dumbstruck and still deep in shock, I look over at her. “Thank you.”
“You should’ve believed me the first time I told you you were innocent.” She winks. “Would’ve saved you a world of hassle.”
Molly tosses her bag over her shoulder and heads out of the county sheriff’s office, and Guy and I head out to his truck a few minutes later.
All I can think about is Leighton.
I need to know if she’ll ever be able to look at me the way she once did, if she’ll be willing to look at me again at all.
When Guy pulls into my drive, the house is pitch black. A couple utility lights paint the sidewalk and the dog greets me with a lick on my hand.
But Leighton’s car is gone.
She didn’t stick around.
And that tells me everything I need to know.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Leighton
“They cleared him!” Molly rushes into the house at half past eleven that night. After the police took River in for questioning, Molly asked if I’d stay at her house with the boys for a few hours while they handled some business.
A part of me wasn’t ready to leave, as angry as I was with River. A part of me was holding out hope that he was innocent, that Molly was right.
I shush her. “The boys are sleeping.”
“I don’t care. I’m going to shout it from the rooftops. River is a free man. He didn’t do it!”
“What do you mean? Are you sure? Is there proof? How do they know?” I rise from her sofa, tossing a throw blanket off my lap. I’m wide awake now.
“The night of the accident, there was another man there. I tracked him down and he came forward,” she says. “They’re launching a new investigation, focusing on Seth now. At least that’s what they told Brandt.”