“Ty,” she all but pleaded, her voice soft, wrecked even.
A world of hurt was delivered with that one word, one syllable. “You told me you’d answer my questions if I came down to the barn. I’m here. Hold up your end of the bargain, Malone.”
Chewing on her lower lip, she silently wrapped her arms around her middle. Hands restless, she finally fisted her shirt’s loose flannel, clutching it so tightly her knuckles bleached out. Still, she stared at the floor and refused to look at him.
The longer she stalled, the more frantic his imagination became in filling the silence until he couldn’t take it anymore. His worst fear manifested itself in a burst of terror-driven accusation. “You don’t want me. You’re not here formeor my recovery and well-being. You’re only here to protect whatever bullshit arrangement you crafted that would let you get your hands on Gizmo.”
Her chin snapped up. Eyes wide, she spoke in a whispered rush. “I didn’t talk you into anything.”
“I might not remember the accident, Kenzie, but IknowI didn’t offer to partner with you.” Chest heaving, muscles weak, he still forced himself to kick his feet free of the stirrups, swing a leg over the saddle and stand. He wouldn’t square off with her sitting down like some invalid.
“You don’t remember! There’s no way you can be sure.”
His stomach plummeted at her desperate attempt to turn this back on him. He wasn’t having it. “I may not be sure, but you have no proof.”
“I have my word.”
“If you did what I think you did, your word’s not worth anything anymore, Mackenzie.”
“What are you getting at, Ty?” she choked out.
“Did you lie?” he demanded. When she didn’t immediately answer, didn’t offer a vehement denial, he thought he might be sick. Swallowing convulsively, he asked again. “Did. You. Lie?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“What?” The question exploded from him on a broken gasp. His heart plummeted. Unreliable thing that it was, the muscle-organ didn’t bounce when it hit the inner heel of his left boot.
The damn thing shattered.
15
INSTINCTURGEDKENZIEto salvage the situation, to explain why she’d done what she’d done, then make it right between them. One look at Ty’s face, though, and she knew with absolute certainty that that was no longer an option.
Fury slowly bled over his countenance, replacing the raw, unadulterated shock of her initial admission.
She’d always intended to tell him the truth. Every day that passed had made it harder, though. Her realization only an hour before that she loved this man had totally thrown her and scattered her good intentions to the four corners. Understanding and despair collided in her and left her reeling, exposed and terrifyingly vulnerable. Worse, she’d been a fool, had never expected him to call her out like this, to use her promise to talk about Michael to garner an admission of guilt from her. “Ty, I—”
He sliced his hand through the air, cutting off her explanation. “Don’t.” Breathing so hard he was nearly panting, he gripped his shirt and yanked it away from his chest. “Just...don’t.”
She stepped closer, hand outstretched. “Are you having a panic attack?”
His movements were almost spastic, uncoordinated even, as he pushed off the wall and shuffled toward the barred tack room door. Shoving things out of the way with total disregard, he wrenched the door open and gasped, breath condensing on the rush of cold air. “You don’t need to pretend anymore.”
Her mind slowed, comprehension warped by the tendrils of panic spreading through her. “Pretend?”
“I get it, Kenzie. Your dad’s been after me for more than two years, trying to get me to stud Gizmo out to the Malone Quarter horse empire.” He barked out a bitter laugh, and she recoiled. “You know, I just realized that’s about the same time you showed up in my life.” He shot her a hard look. “Was that what this was all along? An attempt to get me to fall for you so I would sell Gizmo’s baby batter to you? Because you realized you couldn’t beat me in genetics otherwise?”
Kenzie stood still as death while inside she figured she more closely resembled a crash-test dummy—arms akimbo, head at an odd angle, one foot twisted the wrong way. She should answer him. She knew that. Yet words eluded her, refusing to coalesce into any semblance of coherent thought. Her mind was a landfill of expired good intentions and discarded hope. So she stood there, silent, and bore the wrath of the man she would have done anything for—had doneeverythingfor—cringing when his smile grew brittle, hard but breakable.
“I think the worst part of this is that you used my memory loss to your advantage to gain the thing you wanted most from me.Gizmo.” He spat the horse’s name like a vile curse. “He’s all that mattered to you. And the second you saw an opening, you took him under the guise of a false partnership.”
“I saved him,” she objected.
“You saved him so you could use him,” Ty countered.
“I did what—”
“What you wanted, Mackenzie,” he shouted.