Chapter 30
Ronan stared at the cell next to him, Ambrose sitting on his own bed and grinning at him through the bars. He knew he should’ve told Cressida the truth before Ambrose tried to use it against him.
“Shame your little friend isn’t here,” Ambrose said, getting up and pacing over to the bars. “You would think that she would want to face you after learning all the things you’ve done.”
“I didn’t do anything that wasn’t well within the law,” Ronan snapped, pacing his cell back and forth, his hands curled into fists at his sides.
“No, but your friend sure did, didn’t he? At least, that’s what that woman thinks. She thinks that your friend was laying traps for me. That innocent people were getting hurt in the name of trying to fabricate evidence against me.”
Ronan wanted to scream. He wanted to call the sheriff back in here and make sure that he knew who the right man to charge was.
At least they had already taken Conrad out of the cells and were transporting him to another town. Too many people here would be eager to see the mayor walk free despite the fact that he was working with a known criminal and had participated in holding three people hostage.
Ronan had been able to hear Conrad crying through the wall only a couple of hours prior, telling the sheriff about all the horrible things he had done. Bribery, intimidation, holding hostages, fraud. The list seemed like it was never going to end.
But it did, and now there was only Ambrose left to deal with and Ronan’s own freedom left to win.
“Evander followed the law to a flaw. He never would’ve tried to pin anything on you he couldn’t prove.” Ronan turned to Ambrose, crossing his arms.
“Shame that you and he had to stage all those accidents to build a case against me.” Ambrose sighed and shook his head, but there was a hint of a smile playing at the corner of his mouth.
“I didn’t do that.” Ronan gritted his teeth, trying to remain as calm as possible. “You staged them. You tried to make it look like we had instead, though. You were the one who hurt people.”
“And you were the one who arrested innocent people who were just doing what they had to do to survive,” Ambrose said with a shrug, that smirk growing wider.
“I did not! Those people were criminals by the very definition of the word. They hurt others to get what they wanted, just like you do.”
“Now, Ronan, this temper of yours is about to get the best of you, isn’t it?”
Ronan’s jaw clenched so hard he was sure he was going to crack a tooth.
His temper was reaching a boiling point, but giving in to that anger wouldn’t do him any good.
Especially if Cressida did come to visit him.
He would be able to tell her the truth about everything, and though she might not forgive him for everything, at least she would have the entire truth.
At least she would be able to make that decision herself.
Ambrose got up, slinking over to the bars that separated them. “I could make this all go away if you just give me the watch.”
“I don’t know what you want with it in the first place.” Ronan stopped pacing, facing Ambrose. “It’s nothing but a pocket watch. A broken one at that. Hardly worth risking sitting in jail for the rest of your life.”
The look in Ambrose’s eyes made a chill race down Ronan’s spine. Ambrose leaned back against the bars, his arms crossing over his chest. He sighed and shook his head, humming to himself for a moment.
“If you think about it for a moment, you could give me the watch and the things Evander hid inside it, and you could walk away from this. Conrad would drop all complaints against you. I’d see to it.”
“You can forget that right now.”
The door to the cells opened, creaking on its hinges, footsteps whispering across the floor, a pair of heavy bootsteps following.
Ronan went to the bars facing the hall, letting out a deep breath when he saw Cressida. She looked like she was seconds away from running away, but Tobin was at her back.
When Ronan’s gaze dropped down her body, making sure she remained unharmed, he saw the note he’d sent gripped tight in her hand.
Ambrose moved closer to her as well. “You should listen to me, Cressida. I told you that he’s a dangerous man, and yet here you are.”
“I’ve had enough of the things you say,” Cressida snapped, glowering at him as Sheriff Bothwell came through the door, keys jingling.
“Ambrose Flint, time for more questioning,” the sheriff said, deputies flowing into the office behind him. “You’re going to head with us now and leave these people to talk without your influence.”
“You shouldn’t leave them alone.” Ambrose nodded to Tobin. “He’s been working with him since the beginning. They’re likely going to get him out of here, and then you’re going to look like a fool for letting a criminal escape.”
Sheriff Bothwell opened Ambrose’s door, and deputies went in and escorted him out of his cell. The sheriff said nothing, just nodding to Cressida before leaving.
Tobin cleared his throat, leaning back against the wall. “Tell her the truth.”
Cressida pressed her lips into a thin line as she looked at Ronan through the bars. “He forced me to come down here this morning. I wasn’t sure I was going to. I don’t know what you did to instill such loyalty in him, but…”
She trailed off, the silence stretching between them as she seemed to search for her next words.
“But I don’t know if I can trust you, and I’m sure I can’t trust Ambrose, which means that the truth has to be somewhere in the middle, and I want to know what it is.”
Ronan held the bars, wanting to reach out for her, to see how she was doing.
There were dark circles beneath her eyes, her shoulders slumping.
A couple of loose strands of hair hung around her face as she looked up at him, her eyes glistening with tears, it looked like she was fighting to hold back.
He hated himself for putting her through this.
“I should have told you the truth once I knew I could trust you,” Ronan said, his voice gravelly.
“If I had, maybe we might not be here right now, but there’s no going back in time and changing my choices.
I am sorry, though. I should’ve told you about Ambrose and Evander once I knew the way I feel for you. ”
Cressida swallowed hard. “I don’t want to talk about feelings right now. I just want to know what happened from your perspective.”
Ronan sucked in a breath, his lungs burning, his heart aching in his chest. “Evander was my best deputy back when I was a sheriff, but he was also one of my oldest friends. He and I were working on building a case against Ambrose, but things started going wrong with the case. Somehow, Ambrose knew what we were doing.”
“He said that you made a man disappear.” Cressida’s voice cracked a little.
“I didn’t.” Ronan shook his head, his voice grating in his throat as he fought past the lump there to speak.
“I never would’ve done that. There was an informant, but once Ambrose figured it out, I moved the informant.
I paid him and his family, and I got them somewhere Ambrose would never be able to find them. ”
Cressida nodded. “I didn’t think you were capable of killing someone in cold blood. I understand that there might have been times doing your job where things might have happened, but just killing a man because he was no longer useful didn’t make sense.”
Perhaps there is hope for us if she’s willing to listen and consider my story. Maybe I have shown her enough of who I am for her to trust me.
It was the sliver of hope he needed. He was going to keep fighting for them and the future they could have together.
Ronan looked to Tobin. “You still have the watch, right?”
“I do.” Tobin’s chest puffed up, a smug smile crossing his face.
“Cressida figured out that the engravings inside were coordinates. The slip of paper said ‘underneath’. Didn’t take much once she decoded the coordinates to figure out that I needed to go to that place and dig.
Figuring out ‘underneath’ was a bit harder, but there was an old and broken toolbox on top.
I figured out ‘underneath’ might mean under the box, so I started digging. ”
Ronan’s gaze turned to Cressida in wonder. “Even after all that’s happened, you were willing to help?”
“I wasn’t about to let you sit in prison if you didn’t deserve it." Cressida’s mouth pressed into a thin line, her bottom lip quivering.
There was a pain in his chest. If he was allowed to walk free, he would spend the rest of his life trying to show her he adored her, and he would never put her through something like this again.
Ronan’s gaze fixed on Tobin. “What did you find when you went there?”
“All kinds of paperwork that will have Ambrose put away for a very long time.” Tobin smirked. “I handed it to the sheriff on our way in here.”
“That’s what you had?” Cressida shook her head, her gaze locking on Ronan. “I want to know the rest of the story. I want to know why he would say all those horrible things about you.”
“All of that paperwork, if I had to guess, is the work Evander and I had been doing before his death. We were building a case against Ambrose after his involvement and the eventual destruction of a case prior. Our attention was brought to him because of that, and once we started digging into him and his background, we found that there was more than just stolen money.”
“What else?” Cressida stepped closer to the bars, her fingers twitching at her sides like she was going to reach for him but was fighting herself not to.
“He was smuggling, committing bribery, and deliberate sabotage of old operations.” Ronan swallowed hard.
“Ambrose had been one of my most-trusted deputies, and for a long time, I overlooked the accidents he staged to cover his own tracks. I didn’t see them for what they were.
I just thought it was a string of bad luck. ”
Cressida’s bottom lip quivered a little. “Like Etta’s?”
“From what I remember of that time, Evander had been riding out here with the information to give to my uncle to store. I couldn’t trust any of my own men, and I couldn’t get away to deliver it myself.
When he came back, he told me about the accident, but not in so many details. It haunted him until the day he died.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared at Ronan. “The doctor said he sat outside until he knew she was going to live. He said that Evander was covered in bruises, too.”
“He was.” Ronan swallowed hard. “He died a week later. There was another accident, a different horse rearing on him, but there was nobody around to stop what happened.”
Cressida wiped her tears, slipping the note into her pocket. “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. I kept a lot of secrets from you.” Ronan sighed, resting his head against the cool bars. “I should’ve told you the truth about everything that happened.”
“Did you know Etta was the one Evander had the accident with?”
“No.” Ronan swallowed hard, his eyes stinging with the threat of tears that burned there. “No. You never mentioned what happened to give her the limp, and I never thought it could’ve been that. Evander never told me the woman’s name.”
Cressida blew out a breath, wiping more tears as she turned to Tobin. “He’s telling the truth? All those papers he says should be in those files are there? They prove all the things Ambrose has done?”
Tobin nodded. “That’s why I went out last night. After I checked the property, I went to go find the files. It’s all written there. Ambrose is going to spend the rest of his life in jail once the sheriff is done with him.”
“Why did you leave your home?” Cressida asked, glancing at Ronan again.
“It didn’t feel like home. I found out what kind of man Ambrose was, and my best friend died.
I needed to leave. I thought maybe if I restored the ranch, I might be able to figure out where my uncle hid the papers.
” Ronan sighed, lifting his head, staring at her, and hoping she could hear the honesty in his words.
The door opened, and Sheriff Bothwell came down, keys jingling and boots thumping. “You would be amazed at what a man is willing to admit to once the evidence of his crimes is laid out in front of him.”
Ronan’s hopes rose higher. “I’m free to go?”
“You’re a free man.” Sheriff Bothwell opened the door to the cell. “What are you going to do with it?”
“I don’t know.” Ronan stepped closer to Cressida, holding his hands out, hoping that she would be willing to forgive him.
Her hands slipped into his, holding on tight.
“I hate myself for not stopping Ambrose when I had the chance. I hated myself for not being able to find the files faster, for not figuring out the watch was a hint sooner.”
Cressida’s gaze locked with his, and in it was some of the warmth and affection he had grown fond of seeing. “I believe you.”
“I love you,” Ronan said gruffly, his throat thick, the stinging in his eyes getting worse.
“I have loved you for weeks now, and it never seemed like the right time to say it. Not with all I was still keeping from you. If you’ll have me, I want to spend the rest of my days sharing my life with you.
I want you to be there with me through the highs and lows, and I want to be there with you. ”
“What are you really asking?” Cressida asked, her smile spreading.
“Will you marry me?” Ronan knew it was a risk, but she was worth taking all the risks in the world for.
Cressida nodded, another tear rolling down her cheek. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Ronan smiled and pulled her into his arms, spinning her around before setting her down and kissing her.
Sheriff Bothwell laughed, cuffing Tobin on the shoulder. “I’ve been a sheriff a lot of years, and never have I seen a proposal in the cells.”
Ronan burst out laughing, his heart full as he looked down at Cressida. Love filled him as he brushed hair back from her face, tucking it behind her ear.
Cressida took his hand, smiling up at him. “Let’s go home.”