Читать книгу Rodeo Daddy - B.J. Daniels, B.J. Daniels - Страница 14

CHAPTER FIVE

CHELSEA WINCED as if he’d slapped her. “I don’t believe you.”

He shook his head, his back to her.

“I know you, Jack. Look me in the eye and tell me you were only after my money, that none of what we shared was real, that you never loved me. Tell me to my face and look me in the eye when you do it.”

He turned slowly.

She felt her heart leap to her throat as his gaze came up to meet hers. In his eyes, she saw the answer. Her limbs went weak with relief. “You can’t do it, can you?”

“It doesn’t make any difference whether or not I was stealing your father’s cattle,” he said quietly. “I was sleeping with his daughter and I wasn’t good enough for her. That was a far greater crime than stealing a few bovines.”

“That’s not true. If you had stayed, I could have proved how wrong you were about my father and brother.”

He let out a laugh. “Chelsea, they’d already convicted me and were ready to slip the noose around my neck.”

“If you told my father, I know he would have—”

“He didn’t come out to the corral that morning to ask my thoughts on the rustling problem, Chelsea,” he snapped. “He came with a check for ten thousand dollars and the threat of the sheriff if I didn’t leave the ranch at once.”

She felt sick, knowing what that had done to a man like Jack. “If only you had come to me—”

He let out a snort. “You’re kidding yourself.” He narrowed his gaze. “Did your brother believe you when you told him I didn’t rustle the cattle? You did tell him, didn’t you?” He must have seen the answer in her face. “That’s what I thought. Don’t you see? It doesn’t matter if I rustled your cattle or not.”

“It matters to me,” she said defiantly.

He laughed. “Well, you’re the only one. Now that you’ve found out everything you came for—”

“I’m going to prove to my brother that you were innocent,” she declared. “I’m going to clear your name.”

He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe what she’d said and was amused by it. “Even if you could, do you really think it would change anything?”

“Yes. You’re trying to sell my brother short. You’ve already done that with my father and me.”