Page 53 of Christmas with Three Cowboys

“If you thought I was just gonna sit back and let you hurt my boys, missy, you got another think coming,” Darla says to Melissa.

“Darla, if I may?” I politely intervene, searching for Colton and Ethan’s approval. I get it in the form of a slight nod and move closer to Melissa’s chair. She can’t even look at me. “What happened, Melissa? Were you really running away?”

She doesn’t answer at first, but a scoff from an understandably disgruntled Ethan gets her talking. “I’m sorry. I didn’t have a choice,” she says.

“You’re not getting away with an ‘I’m sorry’ this time,” I tell her. “It’s time you tell us what’s going on.”

“Just send me back to Ridgeboro. It doesn’t matter anymore,” she says, defeated.

Colton curses under his breath. “Dammit, woman, just talk.”

“She’s a proud and stubborn one for a thief in the night,” Darla grumbles.

“I’m not a thief.”

“You were going to take Mitch’s truck,” Auntie Fearless says. “That’s theft.”

“I was going to leave it at the Greyhound station.”

“Melissa, look at me,” I insist, and finally, she does precisely that. I see the pain in her beautiful eyes. The tears welling up. The shame that makes her lips quiver. Roses bloom crimson on her cheeks, and the snow is quickly melting into her hair, tightening the curls and darkening it.

“I’m sorry,” she says it again, close to breaking down.

I shake my head slowly and give her another reassuring smile. “Talk to us. Come on. It’s time. We deserve that much.”

Once Melissa starts talking, she has a hard time stopping.

“Apparently the courts weren’t the only ones Jake lied to about the drugs. He also talked to the people the drugs belonged to. They know I’m out of prison and they want their money. They told Jake to find m, so he did. He said I need to come up with two million dollars, which is the street value of those narcotics,” Melissa continues, “or the cartel will kill me. I need to get the money or I’m dead.”

“The cartel?” Colton asks.

Melissa nods. “Yes. The Esparza cartel.”

My blood runs cold.

“I know that name,” Ethan mumbles, his eyes widening as he starts going through his phone. “I’ve got buddies in the DEA who’ve been trying to take those fuckers down for a long time.”

“Mexican?” Colton asks.

“Colombian,” Melissa clarifies. “Jake was moving product for them. He said he tried to get the drugs out of evidence lockup, but—”

“How would he be able to pull something like that off?” Darla frowns.

I shudder at the thought. “He’d have somebody on the inside: a cop, a security guard. It’s not impossible, but he didn’t get it, did he?” I ask Melissa.

“No. And the only reason the cartel didn’t kill Jake is because he pinned the blame on me and thought he might get me to cough up the money.” Her laugh is humorless as she adds, “Which is fucking insane. I don’t have two million dollars.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about this?”

“I was ashamed. I knew being here put you all in danger and I needed to figure a way out. That’s why I was leaving tonight, to protect you all.”

“Jesus, Melissa,” Colton cuts in.

“I threatened to appeal my sentence, to tell the truth to anybody who would listen,” Melissa replies. “It made him really angry. Violent, even. That’s when Ethan stepped in and threw him out.”

I look at Ethan. “He was scared. Imagine if Melissa went public with her story. A Ridgeboro inmate or not, she could still get the press’s attention if she plays her cards right. She gets her story to the media, and soon, Reddit will be overflowing with conspiracy theories. All it takes is one member of the Esparza cartel to lean into her story, and poof… there goes Jake Miller’s safety. If they suspect him of framing Melissa in the first place—”

“They would absolutely kill him,” Ethan concludes.

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