I roll my eyes. “Well, they’re idiots. I’m telling you—he didn’t do it.”
“And how do you know that?”
“I just do.”
He shakes his head. “You realize this makes no sense, right?”
“Can I at least talk to him?”
“To Tristan?”
“Yes, please,” I plead.
Jimmy lets out a long sigh. “Sure, what the hell? Nothing about this day makes any fucking sense as it is.”
I follow him back to the cell where Tristan is lying on a metal bench, whistling a Johnny Cash song.
I can’t help the laugh that escapes my lips, and he turns his head. “Lark? What the hell are you doing here?” He sits up, staring at me.
“Getting you out of the slammer, apparently.” I turn to Jimmy. “A few minutes alone, please?”
He laughs and tosses his hands up. “Why would anyone want the officer around? I mean, it’s not like this is my case or anything.”
Tristan gets to his feet. “Go away, ass.”
Jimmy doesn’t say anything. He just walks out, giving us time alone. Tristan comes to the bars, fingers gripping them, and I reach my hands out to wrap around his. “Tell him the truth.”
“No.”
“Tristan, you can’t do this. You didn’t let the horses out. It’s impossible.”
“I know, but the truth would ruin you. They will never understand, and anyway, this will blow over.”
I shake my head. “You’re in jail!”
He winks at me. “Worried about sleeping with a criminal?”
“Yes, that’s my concern. Idiot.”
That’s the last thing I care about. I worry about him, Sadie, the fact that my family and his are hell-bent on making this difficult. Then there’s the truth that someone is sabotaging my farm, and I know, with every fiber of my being, it’s not this man in the cell.
“I promise, this will blow over. Someone has to go through all the footage, and they’ll see someone else actually letting out the horses.”
“Don’t be stupid! My brothers have the footage, and if you think they’re going to scroll through it to find someone else, you’re nuts. You’re going to be the one to take the fall for it.”
He reaches through the bars, cupping my cheek and then lowering his hand. “Go home, Lark. I’ll be okay. I’m not going to spend months in jail. I’ll pay a fine, and it’ll be over.”
“No, I’m going to go in there, tell them the truth, andthenit’ll be over.”
“I’m asking you to let me handle this. I’m not going to make your life more complicated. The entire point of what we’re doing is for simplicity.”
Only it’s not simple. None of this is.
He makes me feel safe, wanted, and so much more. He always does what he can to care for me. Him, my should-be mortal enemy.
Yet he’s the furthest thing from that.
“And what about this? What about Sadie? What about the truth?” I ask.
