Chapter 1
“Her father saved me in that fire.”
Reed stopped moving.
Grain surrounded his boots. The riding crop lay several feet away, and I stood between him and it.
He stared at me like a dead man had just spoken.
Maybe that was exactly what I was.
For six days, everyone outside a tiny circle believed August Vale had died inside the west wing of his estate.
I had allowed the story to live because the fire had not felt accidental.
Now Reed had confirmed it.
“You were supposed to burn.”
His own words.
Not grief.
Not disbelief.
Expectation.
I crouched until we were eye level.
“Who told you I was dead?”
His jaw tightened.
“No one.”
Wrong.
Behind me, Nell was crying against one of my bodyguards.
Three years old.
Dirty cardigan.
Worn sneakers.
No father.
And apparently no one in my family had thought feeding her mattered.
I looked at Reed.
“You locked a child in a horse stall.”
“She’s not family.”
The sentence came too quickly.
I almost smiled.
“Her father died carrying me out of a burning house.”
Reed looked away.
That mattered.
“You knew.”
Silence.
“You knew Brooks went back for me.”
Still nothing.
I stood.
“What debt?”
He laughed once.
“He owed me.”
“For what?”
“Money.”
“How much?”
No answer.
I stepped closer.
“How much does a dead driver owe that turns his three-year-old daughter into payment?”
Reed’s face hardened.
“You don’t know what he did.”
Good.
Finally something real.
“What did he do?”
Reed stared at Nell.
Then at me.
“He stole from us.”
“From who?”
Another pause.
“From me.”
There.
Not Vale.
Reed.
Personal.
Interesting.
I turned toward my bodyguard.
“Take Nell inside. Food first. Doctor second.”
She tightened her arms around him.
“No horse food.”
My throat closed.
“No horse food.”
I looked back at Reed.
“You have until I return to decide whether you want to explain the fire before I explain you.”
His face went pale.
Then he whispered:
“You should ask what Brooks took before he died.”
That stopped me.
Not money.
Not anymore.
May you like
Something had disappeared before the fire.
And Reed believed Nell’s father had it.
