Page 74 of River Justice

The woman looked at her for a moment before she smiled. “You underestimate what I’m capable of all by myself, but if you must know, he’s already in jail.”

Boyle Wilson had helped her? No wonder he said he would talk if she didn’t take back her statement and get him released.

She didn’t know what to say, but Charlotte didn’t give her a chance. Birdie watched her turn to get back into her SUV, too surprised to move. Had Charlotte Stafford just admitted that she’d killed her second husband? Birdie had expected to feel something more than she did right now. The finality of it rang hollow. There had to be more.

“Wait,” she called. Charlotte had just opened the driver’s-side door when Birdie stopped her. “Why do I get the feeling that you’re covering for someone?”

Charlotte met her gaze. “It’s over. Now you have to decide if you love my son Brand enough to let the past go and allow yourself to be happy. Or you can make the mistake I did and let the past consume you.” With that, she climbed into the SUV and drove toward the sheriff’s department.

CHAPTER THIRTY

ITDIDN’TTAKElong for the news about Charlotte Stafford turning herself in for the murder of her second husband, Dixon Malone, to sweep through the county. The only surprise was that Charlotte had admitted the truth and turned herself in.

No one was more shocked than Brand. Birdie had been about to drive over to see him when she’d found Charlotte waiting for her.

“I saw her this morning before she turned herself in. She wanted to know if I’d been using you to get to her.”

He cocked a brow.

She stepped to him. She’d found him mending a stretch of barbed wire fence not far from the house. “I told her the truth. Well, not all the truth. I didn’t tell her that I started falling for you that morning when you’d come out of the stable and dropped that rope over me and pulled me in. You were so hungover and yet so cute. I almost felt bad about throwing you down on the ground.”

“Almost,” he said, grinning at her.

“It’s the grin,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him. “I’m a sucker for your lopsided grin.”

“I’ll have to remember that,” he said as he took off his leather gloves and stuffed them into the hip pocket of his jeans. “I’d hug you, but I’ve been working out here in the summer heat, and I’m pretty sweaty.”

She stepped closer. “I’m sorry about your mother.”

“I still can’t believe she confessed,” he said. “It’s not like her.”

“People change,” Birdie said.

“Not my mother. I hate to say it, but she must have an angle. Maybe she thinks the judge will be more lenient with her because she turned herself in.” He shook his head. “Without any evidence, she could have gotten away with it. Why confess now?”

Birdie had wondered the same thing. “Maybe she did it for us. To make things easier for us to be together.”

He chuckled. “That doesn’t sound like the mother I know.”

“You’re probably going to hate hearing this, but what if she didn’t do it?” Birdie said. “What if she’s covering for someone?”

He groaned. “Who?”

“Maybe your father?”

“Now, that really doesn’t sound like her.”

She closed the distance between them, looping her arms around his neck.

“You’ll be sorry,” he warned.

“I happen to like my cowboys hot and sweaty,” she whispered before she kissed him. His big hands cupped her waist and pulled her to him as the kiss deepened.

She thought about what Charlotte had asked her. Maybe she’d started out hoping Brand would help her, but along the way, she’d fallen for him. Whether or not she stayed around Powder Crossing, though, well, that was still to be seen.

NOONETOOKthe news of Charlotte’s confession and subsequent arrest harder than Holden. “It isn’t that I didn’t know she had violence in her. I just never expected this,” he said when he heard the news.

The doctor said he could be a little more active, but suggested he put off horseback riding for a while yet.

---