“There’s no need to be afraid, Ms. George.” He pauses to level a glare on Thorin, Khalil, and Zeke. “If you come with me now, I’ll make sure you’re safe.” He holds out his hand, and I swear I hear a growl behind me that doesn’t come from Khalil.
I almost ruin everything by peeking at Zeke to make sure it’s still him.
“Well, see that’s the thing. If I go back, I’m dead. I’m sorry, Sheriff, but you’ve got this whole thing all wrong.”
The weathered lines around his mouth purse. “What the hell do you mean I’ve got it wrong?”
“Khalil, Thorin, and Se—Zeke,” I say with the barest wince, “they didn’t steal me, they saved me.” I keep my gaze on the sheriff instead of letting my curiosity get the better of me and searching out each of my mountain men’s gazes. I canfeeltheir reaction to my words—wondering if I meant them or if it’s just another part of the web I’m slowly trapping us inside.
“Save you? I don’t understand. How so?”
I shrug as if learning that the man who raised me wanted me dead was no big deal.
“My uncle has been planning to have me killed for some time,” I lie through my teeth. He probably has, but I sure as hell didn’t know about it until this morning when he almost succeeded.
Focus.
Remembering what Finnegan confessed on that cliff, I spin and spin and spin my web of lies.
“Before I fled the States, I had more than suspicions. I had proof.” It’s a fucking bluff since I have jack shit but Finnegan’s word to go on, and he’s deader than dead.
I pray the sheriff won’t call me on it, but why should he? Hewantsto believe that Thorin, Khalil, and Zeke are innocent, so I hold on to that lapse in his judgment and spin some more.
“My uncle hired those men to kill memonths ago. He was just waiting for the right time to strike. I knew that if I didn’t get away from him, he’d succeed, so I got as far away from him as I could. Obviously, I didn’t count on my plane crashing and nearly doing his dirty work for him, but I survived and fought my wayhere. When Thorin, Khalil, and Zeke found me, they wanted to turn me in,” I say, my tone inundated with desperation as if I was a fugitive on the lam and they were the good ole Boy Scouts the sheriff believes them to be.
“You gotta remember, Aurelia,” my uncle schools. “There’s the truth and then there’s your version and theirs. Everyone enters the room with their own notions and what they are willing to believe. The trick isn’t changing their minds. It’s using it against them to get what you want.”
So I turn the tables and I make the sheriff believe thatIcorruptedtheminstead of the other way around. Men have been blaming women for their troubles for centuries. It wasn’t Khalil, Thorin, and Zeke’s lust and frustration and loneliness that made them kidnap me and lie to the sheriff.
It was me.
After all, it was Eve who tempted Adam into eating the apple, right?
The sheriff isn’t just searching for a truth he can believe. He’s searching for a villain to blame, so I give him one. It’s a role I know well.
“I told them what my uncle planned and begged them to help me hide until I could figure out how to stop him. I knew my uncle would send men to make sure I was gone, so they agreed to shelter and keep me safe until the coast was clear and they could get me home without alerting my uncle.”
Once I’m done spinning my not-that-intricate web of lies that could unravel with a soft breeze, I exhale and wait for the verdict that will determine my mountain men’s fate.
And mine.
The sheriff wants to believe.
“Miss George…” Sheriff Kelly removes his uniform hat and runs his fingers through his thinning gray hair with a sigh and shake of his head. My heart drops. “Forgive me if I have a hardtime believing your story.” He drops his hand and gives me a pointed look. “Especially since this isnotwhat you told me earlier.”
To their credit and mine, my mountain men nor I react, but I know it’s coming later when we’re in the clear and blissfully alone.
“Earlier, I didn’t know if I could trust you.” I make a point to narrow my eyes as if I still find him suspicious. “For all I knew, you were on my uncle’s payroll since you’re the one who led the assassins he hired right to me.”
The sheriff reacts like a man with a guilty conscience, the fight leaving his body in an instant with his weathered cheeks reddening with shame.
I…feel like shit.
But I’d feel twice as bad if he died because I couldn’t convince him to back off, so I shrug away my own guilt and search for the old Aurelia. The me who wouldn’t give a shit about hurting anyone’s feelings. I may not like her, but I can’t deny she’s useful.
“And if you still need proof, there are eight corpses buried under an avalanche that might clear some things up,” I blurt.
Behind me, Khalil softly swears.
