Backing away, Caitlin twisted to scan the roof of the trailer.
“Y’alright?” Booker called, scrambling to climb down.
From the left of them, Nathaniel ran over, rushing Seth and checking him for weapons.
“I’m fine,” Caitlin gasped.
As soon as his boots touched earth, she bolted for Booker, nearly leaping into his arms.
“You got it,” she breathed, kissing him firmly. “You knew what I was doing.”
Booker grinned down at her, broad palm resting on the side of her neck.
“’Course I did,” he said. “Y’never call me Jack when you’re truly pissed at me.”
Relief made her giddy and Caitlin pressed her lips to his, eternally grateful the man could read her like a well-loved book.
“Addin’ the ‘jackass’ at the end helped too,” he told her. “Might as well be your version of ‘darlin’.”
A raspy laugh escaped her, and Booker pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“Like I said, songbird,” he whispered. “Y’tell me in your own way.”
Grunting as he was pulled to his feet, Seth glowered at them.
“Tell the others we need to have a meeting,” Nathaniel said. “I’m going to make sure Seth here is comfortable for his sentencing.”
As he dragged him off, Seth glared at Caitlin.
“You’ve made a mistake,” he whispered to her. “A huge mistake.”
“Save it for someone who shares your delusion,” she retorted.
Taking her by the hand, Booker rubbed away the lingering sensations of Seth holding onto her.
It had been a small price to pay for the win they desperately needed.
Chapter Fourteen
“What the hell are we going to do with him?”
Luna scowled down at Seth where he sat in the middle of the outdoor gathering area, surrounded by the people he’d betrayed.
“He committed murder,” Caitlin said. “What do you think we should do with him?”
“Technically it would be manslaughter,” Scott countered with a hesitant glance in her direction. “His actions caused the deaths of over a dozen people, but he didn’t kill them himself.”
Nicole frowned at her husband. “And what about Donna? She was turned before the fire.”
“Did he confess to killing Donna?” Luna asked.
Nathaniel shook his head. “Only to setting the fires. And now he’s not talking at all.”
Seth shifted on the rusty metal bench they’d forced him to sit on while they discussed his fate, but didn’t respond. He hadn’t spoken since they’d dragged him back to the other’s announcing his guilt.
With a curt grunt, Booker strode forward, going to stand in front of Seth.
“Wanna give us the run down?” He asked, staring down at him.
When Seth only glanced up and smirked, Booker’s expression darkened. Squatting down, he pegged Seth with a glare sharp enough to cut glass.
“Y’wanna know what I think?” He started, tone even but no less lethal. “I think y’didn’t have the balls to kill Donna. Settin’ those fires in the middle of the night, while e’r’ybody slept, that was as yellabellied as I’ve ever seen. Kinda man that’s gotta sneak around to do that ain’t gonna have the guts to take a person’s life while lookin’ ‘em in the eyes.”
For a moment, Caitlin thought Booker’s provoking would work. The fire in Seth’s stare begged to be set loose, but he kept his mouth shut.
Booker knew better than to ease up though. A man would always crack under the right circumstances.
“Bet ya did a lot of sneakin’ around, huh?” Booker narrowed his gaze on him. “Y’like watching people, Seth? Like peerin’ around corners and through windows, lookin’ at people while they ain’t payin’ attention?” Shifting his weight forward, Booker leaned his elbows into the tops of his knees. “Y’like watching people in bed together?” he asked with a threatening whisper. “Pretendin’ it’s you being touched, you with your hands all over a woman, makin’ her feel good, when y’know you’d never get to have her.”
Seth’s resolve broke.
“You don’t deserve her,” he snapped, grabbing Booker by the front of the shirt and shaking him. “You’re just some dumb hick! She’s too good for—”
In two long strides, Caitlin was behind Seth.
Yanking her revolver free from the back of her jeans, she pressed the muzzle to the back of his skull and pulled back the hammer with a menacing click.
“Get your hands off my husband,” she ordered.
Seth froze.
“Now.”
Releasing his hold, Seth lifted his hands in surrender.
Booker simply smirked and brushed the wrinkles from his shirt.
“I got the rope,” Max announced, running towards them.
Booker stood up. “Just in time.”
Caitlin didn’t lower her weapon until Seth’s wrists were securely tied.
He was lucky she didn’t have the inclination to commit murder herself that day, or his brains would have been blown across the wintry ground.
Coming to stand at her side, Booker asked quietly, “Y’alright?”
“Yeah,” she said, unsure how true it was yet. “Told you someone was watching us that night.”
“Mhm. Put two ‘n’ two together pretty quick.”
Seth went back to sitting in silence after that. He wouldn’t admit to any other crimes, but that didn’t sway people from believing he was capable of the rest.
After another discussion regarding exactly how to handle him, Luna and the other elected officials decided to call for a vote.
The options were simultaneously simple and wrought with repercussions.
Exile. Imprisonment.
Or death.
Sister Agnes refused to cast her vote, saying she wasn’t comfortable trying to outrun the Lord’s will.
Caitlin didn’t realize she’d voted until her hand raised and she glanced around at the others who thought as she did.
The majority ruled.
Seth would be put to death for his actions the next morning.
* * * * * * *
Caitlin couldn’t sleep.
She stared up at the peeling laminate of the trailer ceiling, listening to Desi’s shallow breaths as she slumbered between her and Booker.
Something nagged at her—a frayed end
