Page 37 of August’s Cowboy Braxton

“You should have trusted me.”

A short laugh escaped me. “You locked me in a trailer.”

Her nostrils flared, and her gaze darted toward the door.

I touched the panic button once.

“You brought him.”

I didn’t answer.

She crossed to a file cabinet and pulled a key from her pocket. The lock clicked. My heartbeat pounded in my ears as she opened the drawer and pulled out the real photo album.

I finally had my proof.

She shook her head and looked at me with an expression I’d never seen before. “You were always such a good girl.”

I didn’t smile. “I’m not a girl anymore.”

“No.” Something cold settled into her face. She reached for the album. “You’re a woman who should have known when to leave something buried.”

CHAPTER 9

BRAXTON

Evie’s voice came through my earbud. “You’re a woman who should have known when to leave something buried.”

Every muscle in my body tightened.

Addison was inside the trailer with a woman who had tracked her, threatened her, stolen evidence, and used a little girl to lure her away from the crowd.

Everything in me wanted to go through that door. But that wasn’t the plan. Addison wanted Evie talking. She wanted proof, and I’d promised to trust her. So I stayed in the shadows along the back side of the trailer and listened.

That’s when houting erupted across the grounds.

“Fire!”

Two security volunteers took off toward the lot where Addison’s trailer was parked. Ruby’s voice crackled over my radio. “Possible emergency near the Airstreams. Security respond.”

I didn’t move. A distraction near Addison’s trailer was exactly the kind of thing designed to pull me away from her. I checked the tracker clipped inside her bag. She hadn’t moved.

Inside, Addison’s voice stayed steady. “I know what you did. I want to know why.”

Footsteps sounded. I moved closer to the rear window as Torin appeared near the announcer’s booth. I motioned him toward the front corner of the trailer. He nodded once and moved into position.

“You found something that was never meant to be found,” Evie said.

“The photograph?”

“The photograph was only the beginning. You would have taken everything you found straight to Morgan, then Claire, then every Kincaid and Hollister who thinks digging through a hundred years of other people’s lives gives them the right to decide what happened.”

“What happened?”

Silence stretched.

Then Evie said, “My family has been protecting Cedar Draw for generations.”

Addison waited.