I shook out my hand. Then I twisted the ring off my finger and threw it at him. It hit the ground. Light glinted off the diamond, and he dropped to his knees to retrieve it.

A voice came from behind me, just loud enough to be heard over the cicadas. “What the hell?”

I stepped back without a word and turned to find Clem standing there in her black combat boots, eyes narrowed as they skipped from me to Nate to the woman by the car. Nate stood, one hand clutched around the ring and the other cradling his face. The woman grabbed her purse and took off down the alley.

“You’re lucky Irene’s the one who found you,” Clem said as she looked him over. She narrowed her eyes and cracked her knuckles. “If it had been me…”

Nate slid into the front seat. Blood dribbled down his chin. He pulled the door shut as he fumbled with his keys. The engine roared to life and he took off.

Clem wrapped her arm around me as he sped away. “Let’s get out of here.”

The rest, of course, was history—even if Irene couldn’t remember it—and she sure as hell wasn’t going to let Addison repeat it.

Chapter 3

Kaden

There are exactly five things that make a bourbon more than just a whiskey, and Kaden Bonner had learned them before he could read or write or count. When other children said their prayers before bed, Kaden had repeated the laws of bourbon back to his mother as she tucked him in to sleep.

As much as he’d tried to erase them from his mind over the past twenty-five years since he fled his hometown, it wasn’t the type of thing you forgot, even if, like a religion, it was something you desperately wanted to leave behind.

1. Bourbon has to be made in America (not specifically Kentucky, even though everyone knows Kentucky bourbon is the best bourbon).

2. Corn must make up 51 percent or more of the grain used.

3. It must be aged in new charred-oak barrels.

4. The liquor can’t be distilled at more than 160 proof. It can’t enter the barrel at higher than 125 proof, and it can’t enter the bottle at less than 80 proof.

5. Nothing can be added to it but water.

Even now, as he sat at the dive bar down the street from his apartment, the laws played on a loop in his mind. He’d planned to spend the night with a good book and a beer, but he’d opted for something stronger after listening to his mother’s voice mail. How she found his number after all this time, he had no idea, but hearing her words crackle through the speaker had ruined any chance of enjoying his book.