She had known that she was going on to something better, at least.

But this didn’t feel like that. It didn’t feel good or better. “I have something for you,” he said. He took a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her. “In a couple of days, you go there. To that address. When you go into the cabin, lift up the floorboards beneath the window in the back of the living area. What you find there... It’s for you.”

“Okay,” she said, feeling numb.

And then, with darkness still ensconced in the cottage, her outlaw disappeared through the same door he’d come in. Just as suddenly.

But this time, the hole was in her. And she didn’t think that it would ever fully heal.

THE SUN WAS just rising when he walked into the sheriff’s station in Copper Ridge. “I’d like to speak to sheriff Eli Garrett,” he said.

“He just got in,” the woman at the front said.

He cleared his throat. “Tell him that Clayton Everett’s here to turn himself in.”

The woman’s eyes went wide. “I will.”

She scurried away, and a moment later, a tall, broad-chested man in a tan uniform came walking toward him. “Clayton Everett,” he said. “I’m Sheriff Eli Garrett. I hear you have something you want to talk to me about.”

Clayton nodded. “There are warrants out for my arrest.”

“I know,” he said. “I tend to remember the people in the area with warrants out. Given that we don’t have a whole lot of crime around here. I have some for your brother, Jake, also.”

“Yeah. You would. Listen, Sheriff. I could’ve hidden from you. But the bottom line is, I’m in love. With a woman. And I need to clear all these decks if I’m going to have a hope in hell at a future with her. If that ends in prison... Then so be it. But I’m not consigning her to a life with a man on the run. I’m not making it so that she’s looking over her shoulder all the time. When it was just me, that was fine. But I want everything with her. A real future. I don’t expect you to believe everything I’m going to tell you. But trust me when I say I haven’t been involved with the Everett family business for more than a decade. I was raised in it. And I’ve done some shit. I’m not going to lie to you.”

“You’re in love, huh?”

He nodded. “With a better woman than I deserve. But I want... I want to be the best I can be. For her.”

Eli appraised him, slowly. “Well,” he said. “I’m betting that we can make some kind of a deal.”

CHAPTER TEN

IT WAS A COUPLE DAYS before she could bring herself to investigate the address that Clayton had left for her.

When she finally did drive her car over to the little cabin, she was surprised by what she saw. It was small but well-kept. Cleaner than she might have thought.