She slapped him.
He recoiled, touching his cheek in surprise. Then, he shook his head, the look on his face determined. “I deserve that, but I won’t change what I’ve done. Please. Please, Bethy-babe. I love you so much—”
“I don’t love you,” she said furiously. “How could you destroy me for your own selfish needs? That’s not love. That’s possession. Learn the difference.”
“I will,” he said quickly. “If you’ll show me.”
“Show you?” She laughed bitterly. “You’re lucky I don’t sue you.”
Allan looked truly astonished at her words. “I just wanted you to come back to me. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
Once again, she didn’t really exist to him, didn’t matter. He honestly did not understand why she was so furious. “You have spent thousands and thousands of dollars trying to sink me!”
“It’s worth it if I get you back,” he said quietly.
She shook her head. “You’ve tried to undermine the thing that I’m proudest of. I can’t ever trust you again. Won’t ever trust you again. I want you to stay the hell away from me. If you don’t, I’m going to tell everyone in town just why we broke up so they stop giving me those concerned looks because they just don’t understand.”
“Beth Ann, listen—”
“No,” she said violently. “You listen to me. I’m tired of being the bad guy to save your reputation. No longer! I did that to help you, to protect you because I still cared about you and we had nine years together. But if you can’t respect me even this little bit,” she said, snatching the coupon from him and ripping it in half. “Then all bets are off.”
He stared at her, aghast. “This isn’t like you.”
“I know,” she said, furious. “Ain’t it f**king great.”
His lip curled in an ugly sneer. “You even sound like that ass**le now.”
“That ass**le is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I love him. He supports me.”
Allan’s smile got even uglier. “You love him? Is it because he’s the Sunquist you can control? You had to go for the second-rate version?”
The conversation had just taken a bizarre turn. “Sunquist? What are you talking about?”
Allan laughed mirthlessly. “Did your little boyfriend lie to you about that, too? Bad enough he made you go through that whole bullshit weekend of being stranded just so he could nail your ass. And you fell for it.”
“What are you talking about?” she repeated.
“Your little weekend ‘stranded,’” he said, and made finger quotes in the air, mocking her. “Everyone’s been talking about it. You weren’t stranded that weekend. Ask anyone. He deliberately kept you out in the woods so he could seduce you.”
Her heart pounded in her chest, blood roaring in her ears. “You are lying. The river was flooded.”
“Am I? Did he show you this flooded river? Did anyone else get stranded out there?” At her silence, his mouth twisted in a hurt smirk. “No? Just you? And you don’t find that to be a coincidence?”
Beth Ann said nothing. An ache started in her chest, and her fingernails dug into her palms. He was lying. Had to be. Had to. Colt wouldn’t do that to her. He knew how much she valued trust.
Didn’t he?
Allan shook his head. “You fell for it. All of it. That brother of mine is a sneaky bastard.” He sneered. “No pun intended.”
“Brother?”
His mouth twisted. “Guess you didn’t know that, either. You’re f**king my brother. And I’m pretty sure he only wants you to get back at me.”
She didn’t know what to do. Beth Ann thought about going back to her salon, but she knew there would be no customers waiting there. She didn’t want to go back to her parents, or to Colt’s cabin. God, Colt. Allan had to be wrong. Had to be.
So she drove around the lake, trying to calm down. Trying to stop her heart from hurting so badly. She didn’t want to ask. Oh sweet heaven, she didn’t want to ask Colt, to find out her heart had been broken so easily again. She didn’t want to know that he’d used her. She loved him—more intensely, more deeply than she’d ever cared for Allan. His betrayal would devastate her.
But she had to know. She had trusted him.
Had she been betrayed all over again?
Beth Ann drove to the Daughtry Ranch. Sat in her car for a few minutes, trying to feel something, anything. All she felt was numb. Cold and sick to her stomach. She locked her car and entered the main cabin.
Brenna perked up at the sight of her. “Hey, girlfriend! You enjoy all that birthday cake?”
Her stomach roiled. Beth Ann was going to be sick if she thought about the birthday cake. But she gave Brenna a polite smile. “Have you seen Colt today?”
She could have called him, but this…she needed to see his face.
“Yup! He’s over in the spare cabin, fixing it up for his dad. Mr. Waggoner gets out of the hospital tomorrow.”
She nodded. Paused. “Hey…Brenna…”
“Yup?”
“You know that weekend I got stranded with Colt?”
Brenna suddenly looked uneasy. “Maybe.”
Her discomfort told Beth Ann everything, but she still needed to hear the words aloud. There was an enormous knot in her throat as she asked. “Colt told me that when we were stuck out there, it was because the evacuation team had already left, and the river was too high to cross. He told me we were stranded. Is that true?”
Brenna suddenly began typing, as if she’d just had a flurry of inspiration.
“Brenna?”
The assistant bit her lip. “You know, Beth Ann…I think you’d better talk to Colt.”
She was definitely going to throw up. “Thanks, Brenna.”
Beth Ann walked out of the main cabin, shut the door behind her. Moved to the small cabin. The door was open, and she could hear someone cussing inside. Heard a thump. Beth Ann moved into the doorway. Colt was setting up a single bed, neatly tucking the corners in. Military flat, just like he did their bed every morning. She flicked the light to get his attention.
He turned and the flicker of emotion that crossed his face was one of pleasure. “Hey, darlin’.”