Blaze (Steel Brothers Saga 21)

“I’m sure you had a good reason why you didn’t give us the evidence at the time.”

“I do, although, looking back, it seems like an immature reason.”

“You were immature. You were fifteen years old.”

“Please.” I look down at my lap. “Please don’t try to make this easy for me. I don’t deserve that.”

“You didn’t deserve my anger either.”

“Maybe I did. Maybe I do. Maybe I do deserve your anger, and maybe, Donny, you deserve mine. If we truly love each other, none of this should be an issue. We all have backstories. Things we can’t change but wish we could.”

He shakes his head then. “Callie, you have no idea.”

I feel like I’m back in a damned cage.

Again those words haunt me. So much I don’t know.

“I’d like to level with you,” I say. “I thought this part of my life was over, but when Pat Lamone showed back up in town—”

“Pat Lamone? He has something to do with this?”

I nod. “It was him, Donny. He’s the one who spiked the hairy buffalo that night. And I do have the evidence, although it’s too late to do anything about it because I researched the statute of limitations. He can’t be held accountable at this point.”

“Want to bet?”

“Don’t go all vigilante on me. Please.”

“That’s not me. That’s Dale. That’s Brock. That’s Uncle Joe. Me? I’m a little more subtle.”

“I still have the evidence. That’s what was in the safe-deposit box in Denver.”

He lifts his eyebrows. “I see. Why did you have to drill the lock open?”

“Because someone stole our key. We buried it ten years ago, and when Rory and I went to dig it up a couple of days ago, it was gone.”

“And you think Pat Lamone…”

“Who else? He leaves town ten years ago and now he’s back? He’s telling you lies about me? And that’s not all. He got to Raine too. Told the same lies about Rory that he told you.”

Donny rakes his fingers through his hair, making it stand up so that he looks wild.

I glance around the restaurant. “Maybe we should go.”

He nods. “I can’t eat right now anyway.”

“Neither can I.”

“My mom and dad are at home. I assume yours are as well.”

“Yeah.”

“Then we’ll go to a hotel. I’ll book us a room so we can have privacy. If we get hungry later, we can order room service. But for now, Callie, we need to talk.”

CHAPTER TEN

DONNY

Homecoming night ten years ago…