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Face set, Denver curled his fingers around the sodden lapels of Colton’s jacket. “You want to settle this, Colt, then let’s settle it. Between us.”
“A fight?” Colt drawled, his face tight with pain but his hard smile flashing beneath his beard. “How chivalrous!”
“No!” Aghast, Tessa wedged herself between the two brothers. “Stop this right now! I had nothing, nothing to do with that fire—”
“Like hell!” Colton hissed.
“But maybe you did,” she went on defensively. “You didn’t have an alibi—”
“Are you crazy?” Colton asked incredulously.
“Leave her alone!” Mitch commanded.
Denver gave Colton a shake. “And get the hell out.”
“Not until she admits what she and her father planned—”
“No!” Mitch cried, shaking. “She had nothing to do with it!”
“Then who—” But the questio
n died on Colton’s lips, and Tessa, horrified, met Mitch’s tortured gaze.
“No—Mitch—”
Denver swung around, staring at Tessa’s brother.
“It—it was my fault.” Mitch’s voice cut through the anger simmering in the air.
Tessa couldn’t believe her ears. Wouldn’t. “No, Mitch—”
“It’s the truth, damn it!” Mitchell’s face was pale, his eyes clouded with self-loathing.
“What the hell?” Colton said as Denver dropped his hands.
“I altered the books,” Mitch admitted slowly, “I—I was ripping off the ranch.”
“No!” Tessa cried, walking to him. “Don’t—”
“It’s true.”
“I won’t believe it.”
He turned pleading eyes to Tessa. “I’m sorry, Tess. So sorry.”
“Don’t even say it,” she whispered, disbelieving. Not Mitch—not the brother who had helped pull her out of her own emotional rubble.
“It’s true, damn it!”
Colton’s eyes fixed on Mitchell.
“I was in trouble—gambling debts—and so I started taking some money, a little here and there. Denver’s father was catching up to me. I didn’t mean to start the fire—it was an accident.”
“You bastard! You lying, cheating, murdering bastard!” Colton growled, starting across the room.
Denver held him back. “Let him finish,” he said, but his voice was harsh, his blue eyes frigid.
“Don’t do this,” Tessa whispered, “You don’t have to—”
