Page 105 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bride

I shake my head. “They never tested my blood. By the time Joey called the police, I was already waking up and they didn’t believe him. There was no proof of our story.”

A growl of disapproval vibrates Silas’ chest. “It sounds like the cops fucked up.”

I sniffle and nod. “I know, and that attorney wasn’t going to do shit for him. I knew I needed to find a good one.”

“Which is why you needed the $50,000.”

The resignation and understanding in his voice finally allow me to relax against him. Keeping it from him all this time has weighed on me more than I ever realized, and I nod against his chest. “I needed the retainer fee.”

Silas runs his fingers through my hair softly. “Christ, why didn’t you tell me any of this, Lyla? I would have given you the damn money, and you wouldn’t have had to go through with this sham marriage.”

His words make me stiffen, and I lift my head and meet his gaze. I know he didn’t mean it like that, but his words still slice straight to my heart.

“I didn’t know you, Silas. You didn’t know me. You were going to give a total stranger $50,000? You told me you didn’t want to take the money in the first place…”

His jaw hardens as he looks at me, and he takes my face in his palm and brushes away my tears. “You should have told me. Maybe not that day, but you should have told me eventually. Those phone calls?”

“To the attorney. I can’t even talk to Joey because he can only make collect calls from the jail where they’re holding him, and we didn’t have phone service on the mountain.”

“Christ…” He presses a kiss to my forehead. “I am so sorry, Lyla. The last thing you need is all this bullshit with my family when you’re dealing with all this. I never should have brought you into it, exposed you to Marty, and allowed him to use your personal trauma against you.”

“No.” I shake my head. “It’s my fault for not telling you. But I was worried that you’d see it the same way Marty does, the same way the board might, that it would stop you from going through with the ceremony and giving me the money if you knew what it was for because it could look so bad, you being associated with someone charged with murder…”

“Fuck, Lyla.” His eyes drift closed. “Everything is so fucked up.” He drops his head back against the headboard and closes his eyes, pulling me down onto his chest and holding me tightly. “What the fuck are we going to do?”

* * *

SILAS

Jesus, I’m a fucking asshole.

I’ve been sitting here, pissed off at her, thinking the worst, imagining a hundred different scenarios for who he might be and why she would’ve hired a goddamn attorney for somebody accused of murder.

For a split second, I even thought maybe she was a scam artist—areallyfucking good one—and that I had let myself get taken, when she is just a caring big sister who wants to help her brother after he saved her from something horrific.

What the fuck does that make me, besides the biggest asshole who ever lived?

I clutch her to me tightly, burying my face in her hair, inhaling her scent that usually calms me so easily. Not this time—because Ireallyfucked up. “Please forgive me, Lyla.”

It takes a few seconds for her to respond, and she traces her fingers over the tattoos peeking out of theVof my shirt. “For what?”

“For ever doubting you for a fucking second…”

Because I did.

I never would have asked her what she did with the money because there are things I never want to tell her, either, but as soon as Marty said she had hired an attorney for a murderer, my head immediately went to the worst-case scenario.

How could I ever doubt her?

Lyla wraps her arms around me and squeezes me tightly, pressing a kiss to my bare chest. “Don’t apologize. I doubted you, too, in the beginning. I thought you were exactly what you appeared to be. I believed the same thing that everybody in town did about you, what youwantedthem to think. It took me a while to see who you really were, and I’m sorry for that.”

I can’t be mad at her confession.

Not when it was exactly what I wanted.

Everything I’ve done since I left here was to push people away, to keep everyone who mighttryto get within reach from ever getting anywhere close enough to hurt me.

And now Lyla is far too close.

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