Page 102 of Tessa's Trust

I snuggled closer to Sadie, and she let me. As soon as the feeling returned to my legs, I was going to charge Louise. It was the only way to save Sadie and her brother. The cabin looked nice enough, but it was definitely utilitarian. It didn’t make sense that Sadie would take a hundred and fifty grand in cash and then hide out here.

“Are you in danger?” I just couldn’t make sense of it.

“I don’t think so,” she murmured. “Not really. Well, maybe.”

I tried to keep my brain working, but my body was trying to shut down. Fast. “Who’s after you?”

“At the moment, I am,” Louise snarled. “Where’s the money, Sadie?”

“It’s in my safe back in Silverville,” Sadie said calmly. “Seriously, do you honestly think I brought that much cash here?” She snorted and looked at her brother. “Honestly. Amateurs.”

As my body began to warm, my brain finally kicked in. I turned and looked at Sadie. “You know, there’s one thing I just can’t figure out.”

“What’s that?” Sadie asked, the lines around her eyes showing she’d smiled a lot during her many years of life.

“Why would you hide out?” I mumbled.

Sadie grinned. “For you, sweetheart.”

What? Wait a minute. My jaw finally dropped open, and my teeth stopped chattering. There was only one reason she’d stayed that had to do with me. She wanted to protect me? “You killed Rudy?” I smacked myself on the forehead. “That’s why you’re hiding out.” It was the only thing that made sense. She’d mentioned that Rudy had stolen her safe…how did she know that? The guy must’ve told her.

“No, I killed Rudy,” Jonathan admitted. He lifted a hand. “It was an accident. Well, sort of. He came at me, and I stabbed him.”

“No, brother, it’s okay. You can tell the truth,” Sadie said. “After you paid me, Tessa,” she said clearly, “I was going to go on a nice long vacation a couple of days later, but I remembered that some of my mother’s letters were still back at the bar. So I returned, and Rudy was there, rifling through all of the garbage looking for gold. Dumbass. I’d taken everything of value that I wanted.”

Louise stepped closer, her gun swinging from Jonathan to Sadie. “Keep talking,” she ordered.

“Sure thing,” Sadie cackled.

I wanted to put my arm around Sadie, but it was still bleeding. Should I even move it? “Did Rudy attack you?”

“Yes,” she said. “The asshole had a fake deed and told me he was actually going to tell people I gave him the property. Can you believe that?”

I looked at Jonathan, then back to Sadie. She looked so frail, but I knew she was a tough woman. “What happened?”

“He said he was going to kill me, and the moron pulled out a gun, so I stabbed him. We fell over, and I kept shoving in with a knife.” She shook her head. “Honestly, it was the first time I’ve ever stabbed anybody.” Her eyes widened. “It was easier than you would think.”

I hope I never found out. “What about the deed?”

“Well, I called Jonathan, and he came immediately.

“I’ve disliked that guy since high school when he stole my prom date,” Jonathon admitted. “But I didn’t want him murdered. It really was an accident.”

Sadie shivered in the cold. “Then, of course, our problem was that you would be the prime suspect, and we couldn’t let you take the fall. Rudy said he had recorded his fake deed earlier, so even if we had taken it after he died, there was still a record.”

I lowered my head. “Sadie, what did you do?”

She gulped. “We took that deed and left it in Frisky’s cabin, right where the sheriff could find it. We tried to make it so obvious that it was a setup, even leaving it dead center in the table with nothing else there.” She pushed her hair back with a trembling hand. “We were too freaked out to think clearly and left the knife in his chest, darn it. Should’ve taken it, but by the time I figured that out, it was too late.”

“Why didn’t you just tell the truth?” I asked.

Sadie patted my hand, careful to stay away from the wound in my arm. “Rudy stole my safe from my cabin, which had records of gambling payoffs. I mean, they’re hard to decipher, but I figured the sheriff would find them. Also, I wasn’t sure I could prove self-defense. Don’t worry. I would’ve turned myself in after we figured out the best way to do it. Probably.”

I frowned. “Wait a minute. What about the matching bloody knife found in my fridge?”

“Oh, that was me,” Jonathan said. “We decided if we made it look like somebody was trying to set you up, it would help you.”

My stomach revolted. “Whose blood was on that knife?”

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