Hosed (Happy Cat #1)(57)

I’d been too late. Helpless.

In that second, I got a glimpse of what it would be like to live in a world without her, and it was…terrifying. A flat-out fucking nightmare.

Blake pinches his lips together and nods, as if he’s reading my mind. And knowing he was right…the bastard.

“I know what else is going on,” Olivia suddenly interjects with a frustrated huff. “Steve set the fire and nearly killed one of my favorite people in the process, that’s what’s going on.”

I suck in a breath through my nose, and the acrid scent still lingering on my clothes taunts me. “What?”

“Steve set the fire,” Olivia repeats slowly. “And if you don’t listen to me and get on Team Cassie right now, I’m going to dunk your head in a toilet and call you terrible names that I have never called anyone in my entire life.”

There’s a giant, gaping hole opening in my heart, widening with every word. “Steve set the fire.”

“Shocker,” Blake says pleasantly.

“Cassie saw his shoes going out the window,” Olivia insists. “But he’s poker buddies with the sheriff. Savannah says that’s why he didn’t get charged with assault of a farm animal. Also, Cassie got a phone call from a creepy voice threatening to frame her and Savannah for all the bad stuff at the factory if she didn’t meet him there. So that’s what she did. She went to the factory, and she saw Steve’s shoes going out the window. She was framed. And she needs you. And if you don’t help her, I’ll create an aromatherapy spritzer that will leave you impotent for life, O’Dell. And if you think I won’t use my goddess-given powers for revenge, then you have another think coming, mister!”

Everything in my brain is buzzing. Everything in my chest is buzzing.

And none of it in a good way.

Because every last cell in my body recognizes the truth.

Blake’s right. I never should’ve doubted Cassie.

And if Olivia’s right—if Steve did this, then I have fucked up so badly I might never know true sunshine in my life. Not ever again.

“I’m a dumbass,” I mutter.

Blake winks at me. “Happens to the best of us. You just took a long time getting around to your turn.”

Cassie’s never going to forgive me.

Hell, I wouldn’t forgive me if I were her. But I have a more pressing matter to take care of than begging for her forgiveness.

I need to make sure she’s safe. “Do you know where she is?” I ask Olivia.

“At the bakery. Maud’s the only person in town the sheriff’s afraid of.”

I leap up off my seat on a new adrenaline high.

I’ve let her down too many times already.

This time, I’m going to get something right.

Her life might depend on it.





Twenty-Nine





Cassie





* * *



“Here, honey.” Maud Hutchins sets another fresh blueberry cupcake with extra cream cheese icing on the table in front of me. “It’s okay to have two on days like today.”

“Or three,” Gerald grumbles from the other side of the bakery’s cheery—and abandoned—counter. Everyone’s too busy milling around the farmers’ market in the square, gossiping about my “latest” arson attempt to have time for cinnamon rolls and sugar cookies.

But Maud and Gerald have made it clear that I’m welcome here. Even Gerald, Sunshine Toy’s most passionate detractor, believes I’ve been framed. Even Gerald, who thinks I’m part of a deviant conspiracy to steal decent women away from their husbands with battery-powered orgasms, is on my side.

But Ryan just…walked away.

He made sure I was alive, shook his head at me like I was the one who’d broken his heart, and. Walked. Away.

No looking back.

Tears rising in my eyes for the tenth time since I left the hospital, I dig into my cupcake with my already icing-sticky fork. Better enjoy sweet treats and my freedom while I have them.

By the end of the day, the sheriff could have a warrant for my arrest.

“Don’t cry,” Ruthie May says, patting my hand from across the table. “We’re going to take care of this. Savannah’s lawyer is the best in the state. You know that. That’s how she got away from Steve with all her money still in her bank account.”

“Deborah’s a shark,” Maud agrees. “She’ll take care of you, honey.”

“But she’s not a criminal attorney.” I sniff hard, refusing to start sobbing again. My lungs are strained after all the smoke inhalation, my throat raw, and my eyes itchy enough without adding tears to the mix. “She’s just coming to chat as a favor to Savannah. I’ll have to find someone else to represent me if I’m actually arrested.” I press my lips together, throat working as I fight for control.

But the fact that the words “warrant for arrest” might soon apply to me is too much.

I’m a rule follower. A law-abiding nerd from way back. I’ve never had so much as a parking ticket. And now, thanks to Savannah’s evil ex, I might be going to jail.

“And I don’t even smoke,” I whisper. “I’ll have nothing to trade for protection in prison.”