Page 55 of Property of Legend

My chest aches like someone split it open with a crowbar.“You ever scare me like that again, I swear to God…”

I don’t finish it.Can’t.

Because behind those pretty green eyes, I see what she won’t say.

This land’s hiding something foul.And whatever it is, she plans to hunt it down.

She’ll put herself in danger if it means saving Paradise Falls.

Now it’s really war.

We got the bastard chained to a chair in the old root cellar behind the barn, what the locals used for keeping bourbon cool and secrets colder.Bullet’s pacing, Oaks leans against the wall, arms crossed.The air down here smells like mildew and old sins, most of them mine.

The man stares up at me, chin bloodied, nose crooked.He’s young, too damn young to be mixed up in something this dark.But I know that face.The two different colored eyes give it away.

“You’re Elijah,” I say, voice flat.“Reverend Crowley’s nephew.”

His lip curls.“Didn’t come to fight.Just supposed to scare you.Shake the branches.”

“You think tearing up Sophie’s colt and attacking her counts as a prank?”Bullet growls.

“I didn’t kill the horse,” Elijah snaps.“It wasn’t me.Something else did that.I swear on the Book.”

I crouch down, get in his face.“Then you better start talking.Real slow.”

He swallows.“The Reverend...he said the Lord wanted you to make things right.That you’d been marked.That if you don’t marry Becki, make her an honest woman, Paradise Falls will burn.”

My blood runs cold.

“You the same fella planting threatening letters around the property?”

He nods and looks away like is’ the worst of it.

“You tell Ezekiel,” I growl.“He can take his holy threats and shove ’em down his throat.I ain’t marrying no one to save my soul.Especially not Becki.”

I storm out of the cellar, rage coiled tight in my chest.

Later, I find Sophie alone in the tack room, curled on a bale of hay, staring out the window like she’s watching specters ride through the dusk.She’s wiping her hands with a horse rag like the blood will stick if she doesn’t.Her shoulders are squared, but her eyes are glassy.She’s still shaking, but only inside.

I shut the door behind me, slow.

She doesn’t look at me.“You don’t have to say it.”

But I do.

“I can’t keep putting you in danger,” I tell her, throat raw.“I signed up to protect you, Soph.And I’ve failed.Twice now.You almost died today.”

“You saved me.”

“Yeah, but what about next time?What about when it’s not just some scared church boy?The Reverend ain’t my only enemy.Once your farm’s safe, once the Derby’s over…what then?”

She finally looks at me.Eyes bright, unblinking.“You’re really gonna walk away?”

“I have to.You’re not safe with me.”

She stands like she sat on a pin.“You think I care about safe?You think I want tame?”

I shake my head.“You want to stay with me?You’d have to go through hell.Be marked.Carry weapons.Ride with men who’ve killed.Lie to the law.Bleed for this club.For me.”

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