Chapter 22
LENNOX
The hospital room goes deadly silent. Walker’s accusation echoes in my ears—you might be the leak—and I feel the floor tilt beneath me. Every eye in the room is on me now. Caroline’s sharp and assessing. Nathaniel’s uncertain. James’s shocked. Sebastian’s unreadable.
They’re all wondering if their patriarch is right. If I’ve betrayed them.
“That’s bullshit.” My voice comes out stronger than I feel. “I’ve been on your ranch for two weeks. Two weeks. You think I orchestrated a cattle theft with people I don’t even know, an ambush and a recovery operation in two weeks?”
“Stranger things have happened.” Walker’s eyes are cold despite the pain medication blurring his edges. “It’s convenient timing, you show up and we’ve got problems,” he says.
“I showed up because your son bought me at a fucking auction and forced me to marry him. A system which your barbaric ancestors set up. Then you summoned him home. The issues he created by stealing land have ended up having consequences.”
Walker shifts in the bed, wincing. “For all I know, you’re a plant. Someone Thomas Marshall put in place months ago—like, say, when you started working at Sebastian’s resort. Someone they’ve been grooming for exactly this kind of operation.”
“Dad, that’s insane. Maybe we shouldn’t discuss this when you’re high on pain meds,” Sebastian says, but his voice lacks conviction.
“She’s conveniently there when we ride into their ambush. And now she’s got some brilliant plan that puts her alone with you on Marshall land in the middle of the night.”
“Where we recovered your cattle!” I cut him off, anger replacing shock. “Twenty-three head that you’d written off as lost. I risked my life going back onto that property to get your animals back, and this is how you thank me?”
“Or you risked nothing because you knew there wouldn’t be anyone to shoot you.” Walker’s jaw is set. “Maybe the whole recovery operation was just smoke and mirrors. A way to make yourself look useful while reporting back to them about our security, our weaknesses, our next moves.”
“That’s ridiculous.” I look around the room again, hoping to find someone in my corner, but if they’re not looking at me with accusation, they’re avoiding my gaze.
“Is it? You’re conveniently right there when Sebastian needs help. Saving him. Making yourself look like a hero.” Walker’s voice gets harder. “Classic infiltration technique. Establish trust through manufactured heroics.”
“I didn’t manufacture anything!” My hands clench into fists. “Those bullets were real. The man I shot went down. There was nothing fake about any of it.”
“So you say.”
“So I know!” I take a step toward the bed, and Nathaniel moves instinctively between us. “I was there, Walker. I lived through it. And if you think I’m working for Marshall, then explain why I’d risk getting shot to save your son’s life.”
“Because he’s worth more alive to you than dead.”
“I did it because I’m his wife.” The words come out raw, louder than I intended. “Like it or not, I married Sebastian. I’m part of this family now. And I don’t appreciate being accused of treason by a man who doesn’t know the first fucking thing about me.”
“That’s exactly my point.” Walker’s voice goes quiet, dangerous. “I don’t know you. None of us do. You’re a stranger who showed up with my son. Two weeks isn’t enough time to earn trust. Especially not when there’s a traitor on this ranch.”
I look at Sebastian, waiting for him to defend me. To tell his father he’s wrong, that I can’t be the leak, that I’ve proven myself.
But Sebastian just stands there, his face unreadable, his jaw tight.
He’s considering it. Actually considering whether his father might be right.
The betrayal hits harder than any of Walker’s accusations.
“You think I’m the leak,” I say to Sebastian. It’s not a question.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” My voice is cold. “You’re wondering if your father’s right. Suppose I’ve been playing you since California. Suppose everything between us has been a lie.”
“Lennox.”
“No.” I step back, away from all of them. “You know what? Fuck you. Believe whatever you want. Think I’m a spy, a plant, a traitor. I don’t care any more.”
“Lennox, wait.” Sebastian reaches for me.
I jerk away from his touch. “Don’t. Just don’t.”
I walk out of the hospital room, down the sterile hallway, past nurses and visitors and the ordinary people with everyday problems who aren’t being accused of treason by their husband’s family.
The automatic doors slide open, and I step into morning sunlight, Texas heat already building despite the early hour. I have no car, no way to get back to the ranch, no idea where I’m even going.
I just know I can’t be in that room any more. Can’t stand there while Walker destroys me with suspicion, and Sebastian lets him.
“Lennox!” Footsteps behind me. Sebastian’s voice. “Stop. Please.”
I keep walking across the parking lot. “Why? So you can interrogate me some more? Try to trip me up, catch me in a lie?”
“So we can talk about this like adults.” He catches up, moves in front of me, blocking my path. “You can’t just walk out.”
“Watch me.”
“Where are you going to go? We’re twenty miles from the ranch, and you don’t have a vehicle.”
“Then I’ll walk. Or hitchhike. Or call a cab.” I try to move around him. “I don’t care. I just need to not be around you right now.”
“Lennox, please.” His hands settle on my shoulders, holding me in place. “Dad’s just scared. Paranoid and on a pile of pain meds. He’s looking for threats everywhere because someone has betrayed us.”
“And I’m the convenient scapegoat because I’m new?
Because no one really knows me. Because it’s easier to blame the outsider than consider that one of your loyal ranch hands might be the problem.
” I shove at his chest. “You bought me, you brought me here, so how do you explain that? Huh, Sebastian? I’m leaving, this is too stupid for me. ”
“Not until you listen.”
“Listen to what? More accusations?” My voice cracks despite my best efforts.
“I risked everything last night. Went back onto Marshall land, where I could’ve been killed.
Moved twenty-three head of cattle in the dark, alone.
And now—because I wanted to prove to you that I’m more than just a woman you bought and paid for—I’m being treated like a criminal? ”
“I don’t think you’re a criminal. And you weren’t alone, I was with you.”
I scoff.
“Your father all but called me a spy, and you just stood there.” The hurt bleeds through now, sharp and cutting. “If you believed in me, if you trusted me at all, you would’ve shut him down immediately. But you didn’t. Because part of you wonders if he’s right.”
Sebastian’s hands drop from my shoulders. “It’s not that simple.”
“It really is. Either you trust me or you don’t. And clearly, you don’t.”
“I barely know you!” The words burst out of him, frustrated and raw. “We’ve been married two weeks. Most of that time, I’ve been trying to figure out who you really are underneath all the performance. And now my father is pointing out legitimate concerns about timing and access.”
“Nothing adds up in a way that makes me guilty!” I’m shouting now, past caring who hears. “If I were working for Marshall, why would I help you recover the cattle? Why not just let them stay lost? Why put myself at risk?”
“To maintain cover. To gain trust for a bigger play down the line.” He shrugs.
“Or maybe, and I know this is crazy, maybe I was just trying to help my husband’s family recover their stolen property because I’m good with cattle.
” I step back, creating distance between us.
“But if you can’t see that, if you’d rather believe your father’s paranoid conspiracy theories than give me the benefit of the doubt, then we have a bigger problem than cattle theft. ”
A car pulls up beside us. Caroline’s sleek black sedan. She lowers the window.
“Get in,” she demands. “Both of you. This is not a conversation for a hospital parking lot.”
“I’m not—” I start.
“Get. In.” Caroline’s voice leaves no room for any argument. “Unless you want to give Marshall more ammunition by having a public screaming match that ends up on social media.”
She has a point. Several people have stopped to watch our argument. The last thing this family needs is a video of Sebastian Drake and his new wife fighting outside the hospital where his father is recovering from a gunshot wound.
I climb into the back seat. Sebastian hesitates, then gets in beside me, his long legs cramped in the small space. It would have been comical if I was in a better mood.
Caroline pulls out of the parking lot in silence. No one speaks for several miles, just the hum of tires on asphalt and the air conditioning running.
“Dad’s wrong,” Caroline finally says. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re the leak.”
I look up, surprised. “You don’t?”
“No. His theory doesn’t make sense.” She glances at me in the rearview mirror.
“If you were a plant, you’d be less competent.
You’d make mistakes that gave them the advantages.
Instead, you’ve been annoyingly helpful.
Smart thinking about the cattle recovery.
Even last night during the ambush, by all accounts you acted like someone trying to survive, not someone who knew it was coming. ”
“Thank you,” I say quietly.
“Don’t thank me. I’m just being logical.” She turns onto the highway heading toward the ranch. “But Dad’s not wrong to be suspicious. Someone did leak our plans. Someone on the ranch had access to the raid details. And until we figure out who, everyone’s a suspect. Including you.”
“So what am I supposed to do? Submit to an interrogation?”