“They were going toshootmyhorse.”
“Because it invested me further to rescue the horse,and they didn’t shoot it.”
“Logan helda loaded gunon us both.”
“But he didn’tshoot,and he and Micah both got too close so I could disarm them.”
Fury balled up the quilt in her hands. “Blaze, I lost myvirginityto you. I wouldnottake one for the team likethat.”
He broke eye contact and looked at the floor, frowning.
“I am apawnin this,” she told him. “I am a rat in a maze. Actually,you’rethe lab rat. I’m thecheesebecause they used me as unwilling, nonconsentingbait.”
The scowl lines on his forehead deepened.
“Here’s the situation from my point of view,” she said. “Youbroke into my house and threatened me with an unloaded gun and a fake machete. The men my aunt sentdidn’ttry to kill me, butyouconvinced me they would, and that’s why I couldn’t trust my aunt.Youtold me my estranged brother sent you, so Ihadto go with you. When we got to Logan’s apartment, he and his friends pointedgunsatyou.”
Blaze still wasn’t looking at her, but his leg twitched.
She accused, “Maybeyou’rethe mastermind, and you kidnappedmeto be a hostage and force my aunt and brother to do somethingyouwant.”
“But that’s not true,” Blaze said.
“And neither is your fabrication that I’m working with Logan and my Aunt Mary,” Sarah said. “The truth is somethingelse.”
Blaze clenched his jaw and barely moved his face. “So what’s the damn truth?”
“The truth is that I havenothingandno oneleft in this entire world who cares one whit about me, except for a recovering barn cat with anxiety issues, a livestock guardian dog, and those two alfalfa-scarfing idiots who live in the barn.”
One side of his mouth twitched, an aborted smile.
“My aunt, theone personwho I thought Imightbe able to call if everything went horribly wrong,usedme for some plot and didn’t give a darnora heck if I died.I am utterly alone.I just want to go back to my farm where at least I have my cat, my coworker dog, my livestock, and my neighbors. They’re all I ever had, no matter what I thought.”
Maybe when she got back, she should call Tiffany Meeks and ask to go to church with her, and maybe she could meet someone so she wouldn’t be so darned alone forever.
Her hands cramped where she was strangling the quilt.
“Hey,” Blaze said. His voice was quieter.
Her hands and the red and blue quilt smeared like rain streaking a windshield.
“Hey,” he said again, closer. “I’m sorry. You’re right. It isn’t us, it’s them. Occam’s razor, right? The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. The four of them—Mary Varvara Bell, Logan, Micah, and Twist—manipulated both of us. I don’t think you were in on it.”
A tan blur that was his hand reached across the quilt, and the warmth of his fingers pressed under her chin to lift her head.
She closed her eyes because she was sick to death of seeing suspicion in his.
Blaze said, “I don’t think someone as honest and kind as you would double-cross anyone. Those guys selling me out shocked the hell out of me. I wasn’t thinking straight. But the fact that they pointed loaded guns at me proves thattheyare the problem.”
“I just want to go home, Blaze. I’ve been away from my farm fordays.”
“But it’s not safe for you there.”
“It’s not safe for meanywhere.At least my neighbors and friends are in Kalona.”
“They can’t fight off the mafia.”
“On the day when my aunt’s goons showed up, my neighbors called me that morning to tell me that some guys were skulking around on their way to my farm. I can call my high-school friends, and we’ll make sure no one sets a dog-gone foot on my property.”
