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“I know.” His voice was shaking now, tears streaming down his face. “I know, and I hate myself for it, I do, but I didn’t take nothin’ of hers till I was desperate. Till I didn’t have anywhere else to turn. And I told myself I’d pay her back someday, I told myself⁠—”

“Stop.” I held up a hand, my head spinning too fast to hear any more excuses, even if some small part of me understood exactly why he’d done it. “Just stop talkin’ for a second.”

He did, pressing his lips together hard, his chest heaving like he’d run a mile to get down here instead of just a flight of rotted stairs.

I looked around that cellar again, really looked this time, at the careful way everything was organized, labeled almost, like he’d kept some kind of ledger in his head of who it all belonged to and what it might be worth. It didn’t look like the work of somebody cruel. It looked like the work of somebody scared half out of his mind, clawing for anything solid to hold onto.

“How much,” I said finally, my voice gone quiet and tired, “is all this worth?”

“Enough,” he said. “Enough to get us somewhere else. Enough to start over, if we’re careful about it. We can’t pawn it all in the same place, but if we do a little at a time, nobody will ever suspect a thing.”

I let out a breath that shook on the way out, scrubbing a hand down my face. “And you just weren’t going to tell me until tonight, huh? After all this time. After Marcus offered you a job, after that cookout, after everything.”

“I didn’t know how,” he said, and the misery in his voice was real, I could hear that much even through the pounding in my own ears. “Every day I didn’t tell you felt a little worse than the day before it. And then your daddy came in tonight and said all that, and you said we could leave whenever I was ready, and I just... I can’t stay here any longer, West. I thought maybe we could save up like normal folks and leave town when we were ready. An anonymous tip would lead Marcus to all this stuff and nothin’ would come of it. But we can’t stay now, not with your daddy on a rampage. He’ll make our lives a livin’ hell.”

I stood there a long moment, staring at those heels of Dolly’s sitting there so casually on the shelf, like they were waiting on her to come fetch them herself. I thought about all those people that had been harassing Marcus day and night, the dark circles under his eyes, and the way Xavier told us it was eating him alive. So many people had been suffering because of Rhett, scared that Sagebrush was no longer the safe little Texas town they’d grown up in. He was doing more damage than any of this was worth.

“And what do you think would happen if Marcus found all this here?” I asked, my fury melting into pure disappointment. “What would happen to Dolly if everyone found out her cellar had all the stolen stuff in it?” I paused for a long moment, letting my words sink in. “This would ruin her, Rhett. They’d all think she’d done it.”

“Nobody would think that of Aunt Dolly!” he retorted, brows furrowed. “She’s the nicest person in town!”

“Look at all this, Rhett! This would at least get her taken down to the sheriff’s station. After that, nobody would stop talkin’ about it. Her business would suffer, folks would stop comin’ in, and the whole place might not shut down tomorrow, but it could in time when there was no better explanation.” I just shook my head. “Did you even think any of this through?”

Rhett flinched like I’d struck him, and for a second I almost wished I hadn’t said it, even if every word of it was true. He wrapped his arms around himself, shrinking down smaller than I’d ever seen him, like he was trying to sink into the earth of that old cellar and disappear forever.

“I didn’t think about it like that,” he said finally, voice cracking. “I swear to God, West, I never thought about Dolly gettin’ blamed. I just needed somewhere nobody would look. She doesn’t ever come down here. Hasn’t in years.”

“Well somebody oughta have thought of it,” I snapped, and immediately hated the sharpness in my own voice, even as it kept coming. “‘Cause it’s her name on that lease, her diner, her whole life she built up from nothin’. And you just went and used her like she was a hidin’ spot instead of a person who loves you.”

“I love her too,” he said, and his voice broke clean in half on the word love. “You think I don’t know what she means to me? She’s the only family I got left in this whole world, West. I didn’t do this to hurt her. I did it so I wouldn’t have to keep dependin’ on her charity my whole damn life. So I could give her somethin’ back someday instead of just always takin’.”

“By stealin’ her own things right out from under her?” I said. “That ain’t givin’ back, Rhett. That’s just more takin’, dressed up different so you don’t have to feel bad about it.”

He didn’t have an answer for that. He just stood there with his arms wrapped around himself, looking so much like the hurt boy I’d grown up with instead of the man I’d fallen in love with. I wanted to go to him, wanted to pull him in and tell him it was all gonna be alright, same as I always did whenever something ate at him. But my feet wouldn’t move. Not with all those shelves sitting there between us, loaded down with everything he’d taken and everything he’d lied about.

“I love you,” I said, and my own voice sounded strange to me, hollow in that dark little cellar. “I meant that this mornin’, and I mean it now too. But Rhett, I can’t just... I can’t look at all this and pretend it doesn’t change things. You lied to me. Not just little lies neither. You sat across from me at Dolly’s table, you let her feed you, you let her stand between me and my own daddy with a knife in her hand to stick up for you, and the whole time you knew exactly where her things were.”

“I was gonna tell you,” he said weakly.

“When? After we loaded up the truck and drove off with it all?” I shook my head, something sick twisting up in my gut. “You put her in danger, Rhett. Real danger. And you put me in danger too. What do you think would happen to me if Marcus caught you with all this? He’d think I was in on it too. You thought about that?”

He hadn’t. I could see it plain as day on his face, that realization crashing into him for the first time, his eyes going wide and glassy all over again.

“I understand why you did it,” I said, quieter now, because the anger in me had burned down some, leaving something far more tired in its place. “I do, Rhett. I know what it’s like to feel like you ain’t got nobody, like the whole world’s stacked up against you and you gotta claw for every little thing you get. And I know ranch hands don’t get paid enough to keep their phones on, much less pay for an escape to a new life. I ain’t blind to that. But understandin’ the why behind it don’t make it right.”

“So what do you want me to do?” His voice was small now and full of fear. “Just tell me, West. I’ll do whatever you say.”

I looked around that cellar one more time, at all those lives packed up tidy on shelves like canned preserves, and felt the weight of the decision settle down on both our shoulders at once.

“You got two choices,” I said finally. “And I ain’t gonna make this one for you, Rhett. This one’s gotta be yours.” I took a step forward and placed my hands on his shoulders. “You can return all this stuff and stay in Sagebrush with me while we save up.” I paused, letting my words sink in. “Or you can sell it and leave here. Alone.”

His blue eyes found mine, a shuddering sob escaping his lips. “West… you… you don’t mean that.”

“I most certainly do, Rhett.” I lifted a hand to his cheek, but stopped myself before I touched him and took a step back. “You’re on your own with this one. Make your choice.” I shook my head, stepping toward the stairs. “I love you so much. You’re my best friend. But I can’t build a life with a thief, especially not one that steals from his own.”

“West… West wait…”

“No, Rhett,” I said softly, heading up the stairs. “Make your choice.”