Page 145 of Last Man Standing

“No, he didn’t! He wanted information about me, because that’s how he controlled Linc.”

“He…” Stunned, Mills shakes his head. “No. That’s not how⁠—”

“Yes! I’ve never even met Richard! I’ve never been in the same room as that despicable man. But he wanted to control my brother, and this is how he would do it. You spied on me, Mills. And you let him pay you for it.”

“To keep you safe,” he presses desperately. “To keep you away from the Roys of the world.”

“And then Richard died.” Snarling, Arabella steps forward and stops right beside me, her shoulder touching mine.

At the crash and thud of Cinderella’s stable gate closing, I swing around and catch just a blur as Koda bolts for safety.

“Scarlett’s piece of shit ex cost you money,” Arabella grits out. “His death was a double blessing, because the prick was finally dead, and the money Aster paid you was probably more than Detective Sergeant anyway, right?”

Mills bobs his head. “Exactly.”

“Life was good. Work was better because the harassment claims had stopped, and you were already watching Scarlett anyway, since you held affection for her. It was basically free money, and it’s not like he asked you to hurt her.”

“I-I would never⁠—”

“But then he died, and the income you’d become accustomed to dried up.” She claps her hands. “Poof. Gone.”

“It was you,” I rasp. “You knew about Roy. You left the note on my door. To scare me?”

“Not a big scare, sweetheart. Just enough to make you run to your brother.”

“But you already knew his phone number! If you wanted to talk, you could’ve just called him!”

“You told me about his new girlfriend. Remember? You even told me about that guy Nova had been having trouble with. You said his name, Scarlett.”

“You couldn’t just call Linc and ask his girlfriend to connect you to Richard’s money,” Arabella sneers. “So you figured you’d go about it a different way. Go through Scarlett first and negotiate a new agreement.”

“That was my money!” he snaps, loud enough to make the horses neigh. Angry enough to make them shuffle and stomp their feet. “It was mine, and my family needed it. Then you ran to your brother, and soon after that, you told me about the big one.” His eyes flicker to Arabella. “Tank. Richard used to talk about him, ya know? He’d speak of him with pride, so when you texted me about the guy who annoyed you so much⁠—”

“Your mission changed,” Arabella inserts. “From Scarlett to Lincoln. From Lincoln to Nova. From Nova to Sebastion.”

“And then from Sebastion to Arabella,” I breathe. “That’s why Linc couldn’t figure this out. The goalposts kept moving.”

“You called me.” He inches further left and glances over the side of the horse’s stall gate. Not Cinderella’s stall, but one of the other horses. One of the dozen I don’t even know the names of. “You called and asked your questions.”

“Me?” Frowning, I point a thumb back at myself. “I called you?”

“No, you.” He locks eyes with Arabella. “You wanted information on this woman who’d weaseled her way into your home. That’s when it all clicked for me. Scarlett was with Sebastion Jameson, and though you didn’t call yourself by your real name, I could still tell this was personal to you.”

Arabella’s cheeks drain deathly white. “That was before.” She swings her gaze around. “I needed to know who⁠—”

“It’s okay.” I wrap my hand around her wrist and pull her back just an inch. It’s all she allows. So then I step forward and angle in front of her. “She called you and… what? Said I was pissing her off and stinking up her house? How could that possibly lead you to realize who she really was?”

“Because Richard spoke of Tank the way he spoke of no one else. It was pride. It was affection. And Arabella spoke of you the way only a protective mother could. The way my wife spoke of our son-in-law when he first came into our lives.” Mills exhales a soft chuckle. “The way she spoke of him again when Dani told us about the baby. Richard called him Tank, but you called him Sebastion. Linc called him Jameson. After that, I talked to my buddies in organized crime and asked them what they knew of Aster, which is how I learned about the daughter who’d died thirty years ago.” He brings smiling eyes back to Arabella. “There was an entire file about Paul Jameson right there beneath yours. And so I wondered…”

“All of this for money?” I swipe my eyes clear and drag my palms over my cheeks. “You could’ve just asked! You could’ve talked to Lincoln about it.”

“I had to see for myself.”

“Hey, Mom?” Mav enters the stables, his focus pointed the other way, distracted by whatever is happening outside. “Bas is back, and he⁠—”

“No!” Arabella cries out. “Mav!”

Panicked, Mills spins and squeezes off a round that booms in the air and pisses the horses off. Then he shoots a second time and hits Mav square in the chest. The force of the bullet punches him backward with the strength of a Clydesdale’s kick, so he lands with a deafening thud, his arms splayed wide and the back of his head bouncing off the dirt.