Her bottom lip trembled and suddenly she couldn’t not look at Stephen. He sat to her right, handsome as always in a black power suit and steel-gray tie. His face utterly unreadable.
“Ms. Walker? Why would he do all that?”
She shook her head again. She had no answers. Because he was interested in her? Wanted to spend time with her? “I don’t know,” she said, staring right at him as tears trickled down her cheeks and dripped onto her hands. “He told me he’d look into it. He said…he told me not to worry about it.”
“Do you believe everything people tell you?”
Yes, she thought, she did. Her brothers were right to treat her like a child.
“Did you set the fire in your barn?”
Her eyes shot to the attorney’s. “No.”
“Maybe you did it out of spite? When you found out your lover had betrayed you?”
“No.”
“Do you have a horse, Ms. Walker? A personal horse?”
Hannah tried to swallow against the knot looking at Stephen had left in her throat. “Yes.”
“And what’s that horse’s name?”
“Winnie.”
“And where was Winnie during the barn fire?”
She wiped at her cheeks. “She was out.”
“Could you speak up? I didn’t hear you.”
“She was out. In the pasture.” And Hannah had been nothing but grateful for it.
“Why was your horse not in the barn?”
“I decided to leave her out for the night.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. It was…it was a nice night and I thought I’d leave her out.”
“Were there any other horses left in the pasture?”
“No.”
“So on the night of the fire, your own special horse was the only horse not in the barn? Is that correct?”
Hannah looked down at her hands. “Yes.”
“I left that horse out.” A deep voice carried through the room.
Her head jerked up to see Stephen standing, eyes blazing.
“I left Winnie out that day,” Stephen said again.
The judge banged her gavel. “Sit down or I will have you removed.”
The ADA stood, slipping through this opening. “Are you saying Ms. Walker is lying?”
“No. I’m saying she forgot. We went for a ride and I left Winnie out.”
But he was lying. Why would he do that?
The gavel continued to bang until he sat.
His own defense attorney turned on him, visibly angry. “No further questions.”
—
Stephen exited the courtroom for recess without even getting a glimpse of Hannah. Her brothers had her so locked down, he hadn’t seen her since that day in his office. His stomach still hurt. He’d never forget the pain and betrayal he’d seen in her eyes. He’d been afraid of her trust, afraid he didn’t deserve it, didn’t know what to do with it. And now he’d lost it.
But Dave hadn’t told her everything. Unless she’d left out that part, Dave hadn’t told her the truth he’d feared. Instead he’d filled her head with lies. Lies he hadn’t gotten the chance to dispute and, seeing her on the stand, torn to pieces, he couldn’t blame her for believing them.
God, he needed to talk to her. Hold her. Watching her on the stand, struggling for composure, had damn near ripped open his heart.
“Stephen.”
He turned at his attorney’s voice.
“What the hell do you think you were doing in there?”
Trying to save the woman he loved. “What the hell do you think you were doing?” He got in the man’s space. “This isn’t about making an innocent girl look guilty.”
“It is if it saves your ass!”
Stephen crowded his attorney back another few steps. “You work for me. Remember that.” No way was his high-priced lawyer going to pin this on Hannah.
“Oh, I do. And that’s what I’m doing.”
Stephen gritted his teeth. “Don’t do it like that. Not again. Or I will perjure myself all the way to jail and this will be your first loss.”
“You’re insane.”
No, I’m in love. “Are we clear?”
“Crystal.”
Stephen scrubbed his hands over his face, ran his fingers through his hair, wanting to pull it out over this entire mess.
Matt and the oldest McKinney brother, Tony, broke through the crowded hallway. “How you holding up?” Matt asked.
Stephen met his brother’s eyes, knew what he was thinking and not saying. This being the first time he’d set foot in a courtroom since the guilty verdict had been read against Tracy’s killers.
On top of that, he was being accused of something he didn’t do. The woman he loved thought their entire relationship was a lie. And he’d just lied in the courtroom and was prepared to do it again under oath. “Not so good.”
—
Thirty minutes later they filed back in, taking the same seats. Except for him. It was his turn in the hot seat.
The ADA wasted no time. “If Ms. Walker had gotten her way, the city wouldn’t have sold, correct?”
“I assume,” he answered.
“And if the city hadn’t agreed to the sale, your company, you specifically, would have lost a great deal of money in predevelopment for your project, isn’t that right?”
“I don’t know anything about that. I had no plans.”