He placed a finger beneath her chin. “Because you’re a beautiful, dynamic woman, the best damn thing that ever happened to me, Stacey,” he said, meaning it. He couldn’t love her, but he appreciated her kindness and goodness, and her unflagging love for him.
“Then, you do love me a little?”
He smiled down at her and, for her sake, said, “Hell, girl, I love you a lot.”
Her eyes glistened with tears. The radiance with which her face shone made her almost pretty. “Thank you, Junior.”
Angus suddenly leaned forward and pointed toward the horizon. “My God, that looks like—”
“Smoke,” Reede grimly supplied, and floored the accelerator.
Chapter 47
“Sarah Jo!” Alex cried. “What on earth are you doing?”
Sarah Jo smiled placidly. “I followed you here from my house.”
“Why?”
Alex’s eyes were on the knife. It was an ordinary kitchen knife, but it didn’t look all that ordinary in Sarah Jo’s hand. Always before, her hand had looked feminine and frail. Now it looked skeletal and ominous around the handle of the knife.
“I came to rid my life of another nuisance.” Her eyes opened wide, then narrowed. “Just like I did back in Kentucky. My brother got the colt I wanted. It wasn’t fair. I had to get rid of him and that colt, or I could never be happy again.”
“What… what did you do?”
“I lured him into the stable by telling him the colt had colic. Then, I locked the door and started the fire.”
Alex swayed in terror. “How horrible.”
“Yes, it was, actually. You could smell burning horseflesh for miles. The stench hung on for days.”
Alex raised a trembling hand to her lips. The woman was obviously psychotic, and therefore, all the more terrifying.
“I didn’t have to start a fire the night I murdered Celina.”
“Why not?”
“That idiot man, Gooney Bud, had followed her to the ranch. I met him on my way out of the stable. He scared the living daylights out of me, standing there in the shadows so quiet. He went in and saw her. He fell down on top of her and started carrying on something awful. I saw him pick up Dr. Collins’s knife.” She smiled gleefully. “That’s when I knew I wouldn’t have to start a fire and destroy all those lovely horses.”
“You killed my mother,” Alex stated tearfully. “You killed my mother.”
“She was a trashy girl.” Sarah Jo’s expression changed drastically, becoming spiteful. “I prayed every night that she would marry Reede Lambert. That way, I’d get both of them out of my life. Angus didn’t need but one son, the one I gave him,” she cried, thumping her chest with her free fist. “Why did he have to keep that mongrel around?”
“What did that have to do with Celina?”
“That stupid girl let herself get pregnant. Reede wouldn’t have her after that.” She clenched her teeth, distorting her delicate features. “And I had to watch when Junior stepped in to take Reede’s place. He actually wanted to marry her. Imagine a Presley marrying a lowlife with an illegitimate baby. I wasn’t going to let my son ruin his life.”
“So, you looked for an opportunity to kill her.”
“She dropped it into my lap. Junior left the house that night, disconsolate. Then, Angus made a complete fool of himself over her.”
“You overheard their conversation?”
“I eavesdropped.”
“And you were jealous.”
“Jealous?” she said with a musical little laugh. “Good heavens, no. Angus has had other women for almost as long as we’ve been married. I might not even have minded him having Celina, so long as he set her up out of town and away from Junior. But that silly bitch laughed at him—laughed in my husband’s face after he had poured out his heart to her!”