Page 45 of Cinnamon Cider Whiskey
Cinnamon eased closer. She rested her soft hand on his forearm. Her touch calmed his soul but didn’t ease his fears. “The one thing Pete wants more than anything is to control me. In order to do that, he needs to make me believe he still has power over me. That he can hurt me. The only way he can do that now is to prove to me he’s already done horrible things and will continue if I don’t return to Idaho Falls.”
Austin ran his thumb over her cheek. “Hasn’t he caused you enough pain?”
“He’s done that to all of us,” she whispered. “But I’ll have the upper hand. I won’t be alone. Brad will have this place bugged. Or wherever I end up meeting him. He will have his people there and Belmont promised he’d have some of his men—people Pete doesn’t know—there as well. He won’t be able to lay a finger on me and I’ll be able to get him to tell me everything.”
“Why can’t I do it?” Austin asked.
“Because you won’t be able to control your temper,” Ted said.
“Not to mention he doesn’t want to control you and keep you to himself.” Cinnamon ran her hand up and down Austin’s arm. “I’d be more afraid he’d kill you than me.”
Austin audibly growled. “I don’t know about that. I saw what you looked like the night you showed up here.”
“That’s because I filed for divorce. Because I said I was coming back here and he knew you were single and still living on the ranch. If he believes there’s a chance I’ll come back to him or that he can win, he’s not going to do that kind of damage.” She leaned in and kissed his cheek. “If he killed Charity and is trying to frame you, it’s all about getting you out of the picture. I’m the trophy and he won’t hesitate to put you six feet into the ground. It’s time to beat him at his own game.”
“She makes sense,” Ted said. “It’s not the perfect plan, but if he’s released from jail, we all know he’s coming here anyway. We might as well be prepared to nail his ass to the wall once and for all and end this.”
Austin pulled Cinnamon to his chest. “I don’t know what I’d do if I ever lost you again.”
“Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m worried about Gage, though. What if he did something to him? The timing of when he left to go see people he hasn’t seen since his family died and when Pete showed up is unusual to say the least.”
He kissed her temple. “Belmont is looking into it. So is JW.” He squeezed his eyes. “I will go along with this plan, but only if I can be part of it.”
“Brad isn’t going to like that,” Ted said. “But I did get him to agree to make sure you were in on everything, and he wouldn’t dare ask you to sit on the sidelines simply because he wouldn’t if this were his wife.”
Austin had to love his brother-in-law.
“I need to get going,” Ted said. “Call me when you know what’s going on and Cinnamon, make sure this guy keeps his cool.”
“I will.” She pulled from Austin’s embrace. “Thank you for everything.”
“I’m looking forward to getting to know you better once all this is over.” Ted smiled. “I’ll see myself out.”
Austin reached for a mug and made his third cup of coffee for the day. “Would you like one?”
“I’ll float away if I have more.” She climbed up on one of the stools.
While he didn’t feel great about the plan, he knew it was the only way. However, his heart still remained firmly wedged in his throat. The mere idea of her confronting Pete made his skin crawl. Worse, the fact that he could have been responsible for Alyssa and her brothers’ deaths made him want to strangle the man himself. Poor Gage had been accused of killing his family. He’d lived with the stares and cruel looks from the town for years. Even he’d wondered if he’d been sneaking cigarettes and never told anyone out of shame. But he knew him well enough that he would have owned up to it and not allowed one of his boys to be blamed for an accidental fire.
“I’m exhausted and it’s not even two in the afternoon yet,” Cinnamon said.
“I know what you mean.” He leaned against the counter. His mind continued to mull over everything he’d learned or pieced together in the last two hours.
“I missed a whole day with the babies and will probably have to miss tomorrow since I won’t want to wait there for fucking Pete to show up.”
“Nope. We will want to ensure we put as few people as possible in the line of fire.” He raised his cup to his lips andsipped. “I still don’t like this ridiculous plan all of you came up with behind my back.”
“Austin, it wasn’t like that.”
“It feels that way to me.” He set his mug on the island. “But I suppose I can be stubborn and I might have reacted even worse when it was first discussed.”
“You have to know this was totally my idea.”
He nodded. “While I still don’t like it, I do love that you’re regaining your confidence and voice and standing up for what you want.”
“I will never let another man control me again.”
“I guess I came on kind of strong, but all I want is for you to be safe and free of Pete.”
