Chapter 27 #2
Ambrose turned to one of his men. “Bring the other one down.”
“Leave her alone!” Cressida shouted, straining at the rope around her wrist.
One of the men took her by the shoulder and shoved her until she was sitting down on the couch.
“You listen to me right now. You leave her alone. She has nothing to do with any of this. Whatever Ronan did to you doesn’t involve Etta in the slightest.”
“Oh, but it does,” Ambrose said as Etta was carried into the room and dropped on the couch beside Cressida.
Tobin headbutted the man standing behind him, getting free, though his wrists were still bound. He crossed the room to Etta, dropping to his knees in front of her, leaning close enough to whisper things Cressida couldn’t hear.
Maybe if she could keep Ambrose and his men distracted, Tobin would be able to get Etta out of there.
But there was no way of knowing how many men were outside.
“That’s the last time you’re going to do that,” Ambrose said, pulling out a gun and aiming it at Tobin’s head. “Now, since you were living with Ronan, you want to tell me where he was going?”
“I don’t know.” Tobin turned, keeping himself between the gun and Etta. “He didn’t say. All I knew was that he was going to be leaving.”
Cressida turned to Conrad. “You. You’ve been in on whatever this is for a long time, haven’t you?”
“Ronan isn’t a good man. If it took getting close to you to get him to back off, well, I thought it for the best,” Conrad said, his tone the same sickly sweet one he used when he was trying to win over some of the vicious little old ladies in town.
“Ronan is a good man,” Cressida said, her voice coming out in a hiss. “You’re nothing but a manipulator.”
Ambrose chuckled. “As much fun as it may be to see you defend the man responsible for allowing the man who caused your sister’s accident to walk free, I don’t have time for this.”
Cressida’s head snapped to him. “What are you talking about? How would you even know about the accident?”
“It wasn’t really an accident. More so, a string of accidents—if you can call them that.
” Ambrose kept the gun trained on Tobin, his finger wrapped lightly around the trigger.
“The funny thing about lawmen is that they don’t like it when people get too close to the truth when there are things they’re trying to hide. ”
Was that why Ronan was so quiet? Why he kept to himself? Were there things he was trying to hide?
There had to be if there was a criminal and his men in her home looking for him. Ronan might not have done something terrible, but somehow, he had a connection to Ambrose.
“He and his partner, Evander…Well, they didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things,” Ambrose said, smirking as he looked at her. “And one thing led to another. Evander hit a woman while he was out riding after an argument with Ronan. His horse got spooked. Trampled her.”
Cressida’s mouth went dry. How did he know about that? It was impossible. Ronan had never mentioned being in town before.
Ambrose smirked as he looked at Etta. “In fact, that woman who was trampled was you.”
Etta gasped, her gaze flickering to Cressida. “Is that true? Is that really what happened?”
Cressida pressed her lips together, tears in her eyes. For so long, Etta had forgotten what happened. The doctor said she might never remember, and all Cressida had ever told her was that it had been an accident with a horse.
She hadn’t known about Ronan being tied to the man who had trampled Etta, though.
“He rushed you to the doctor. His horse was out of control.” Cressida swallowed hard, memories of that night flooding back to her.
She had run to the doctor’s office after one of the women in town had been sent to fetch her. She run there as fast as she could. Her lungs had been on fire, and when she saw the state of Etta, she hadn’t been able to stop screaming.
It had been a miracle that she was still alive.
“That doesn’t make this Ronan’s fault,” Etta said, her voice breaking.
Ambrose chuckled dryly, shaking his head.
“Oh, it does. Evander stole something. Hid it from me. Ronan didn’t know he had done that, of course, but after that, how could I let Evander walk free?
I was trying to draw him out, you understand, get him alone so I could take back what should’ve rightfully been mine. Really, I should be thanked.
Evander and Ronan may not have directly caused the accidents, but they were the reason for them.
We worked together once, all three of us.
I was a deputy, and while I thought there was room for forgiveness in the law, they clearly thought otherwise.
Innocent people were jailed. All those people were going to be grateful that I was putting an end to all Ronan and Evander had done. ”
Cressida’s stomach dropped to her feet, but there was some relief there, too. Ronan had done nothing wrong. He hadn’t been the one out there hurting people; he wasn’t the reason Etta was hurt.
He had just been doing his job, and Ambrose had done what criminals do.
But what if he did stage accidents with Evander for the sake of catching Ambrose?
Nothing about that felt right, and yet, people would go to unimaginable lengths when they were desperate.
Glancing at Etta, Cressida let out a breath. Her chest ached as she looked at her sister. Etta’s life was never going to be the same now that she knew the truth about what happened.
Ambrose drummed the fingers of his free hand on the arm of the chair. He toyed with the gun, turning it to one side and then the other, looking down the barrel like he was getting ready to shoot.
“Whatever you wanted can’t be this important,” Tobin ground out, his body practically vibrating with anger.
“It is.” Ambrose kept his gaze locked on Cressida. “I’ve been watching for a while. Ronan has what I need, and he seems to have a soft spot for you. What do you think he’s going to do when he finds out I have you tied up?”
“He’s not going to find out,” Cressida said, shaking her head. “He left, or did you miss that part? Nothing you can say or do is going to bring him back.”
“Evander came too close to the truth, and I know men like Ronan. They’re not going to stop until they find out what it is. He saw me with you, and he’s going to come looking for you. He’s going to want to play the hero.”
Ambrose grinned, flicking the hammer back on his pistol. “And if I get what I want in the end, he can be the hero all he likes. Until I have to dispose of you, that is.”
“What happened to letting us live?” Cressida said, sarcasm dripping from her words as she tugged at the ropes on her wrists.
Conrad sighed, his hand landing on her shoulder, rubbing circles like he thought it was going to be soothing. It only succeeded in annoying her more.
Only half of what they said made sense. She didn’t know what Ronan was protecting that Ambrose wanted. It would be easier to hand it over to Ambrose.
Surely Ambrose wouldn’t kill her until he got what he wanted.
But with the way he kept his hold on that gun, she wasn’t so sure.
“Ronan was always right by his side,” Ambrose said, eyeing Cressida with a sick smile that had her wanting to crawl out of her skin.
“Through everything. All those accidents. Innocent people arrested. He allowed Evander’s desperation to cross one line after another.
They trusted false information that one of my employees was feeding them. ”
Cressida said nothing, letting him rant.
“Ronan was sure to get rid of that man quick once I found out, though.” Ambrose shook his head, clicking his tongue. “Just goes to prove that you can never really know someone.”
Cressida’s heart plummeted back down to her feet, not that she was sure it had ever really left.
Ronan wasn’t the man Ambrose claimed him to be.
But there was still a sliver of doubt in her mind about the things Ronan had done, the things he kept from her.
He liked his secrets, and what if some of them were as dark as Ambrose claimed?
Could I still feel the way I do for him?
She didn’t know the answer, and she wasn’t sure she was ever going to find out. Ronan was gone, without so much as a goodbye.
And maybe that itself proved part of Ambrose’s story about the kind of man Ronan was.
“This is all going to be over soon,” Conrad whispered in her ear. “Ambrose is going to get what he wants. I made a deal to get you and Etta in the end.”
“You what?” Cressida whipped her head around to glare at him. “You can’t own people!”
Ambrose laughed, shaking his head, his gaze turning to Conrad. “It’s rather pathetic, don’t you think? You keep trying to make her love you, and it’s clear to me that she’s never going to love you.”
Conrad cleared his throat, seemingly unbothered. “We’re going to get out of this, Cressida.”
“You’re the one who put us here.” Cressida pulled away from him.
He gave her a smile and shrugged. “Either way, soon this will be done, and we’re going to have our happily ever after.”