Protection

Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Bliss knocked on Clint’s door later on that day, carrying a glass of water for him.

He told her to come in, and she opened the door.

“How’re you feeling?” she asked him.

“Fine,” Clint smiled at her with a shrug.

Bliss loved seeing that smile on his face.

“Need more pillows or anything?” she asked him as she handed him the glass of water.

Clint shook his head. “I really am fine.”

Bliss nodded.

“Sit down, I’ve gotta tell you something,” Clint motioned to a chair near the bed that he sat up in.

Bliss took the seat and pulled it close to the side of the bed before taking a seat.

“What’s on your mind?” she asked, crossing her legs and leaning her chin on her palm.

“It’s about your mother,” Clint’s expression clouded over. “Joe revealed it all to me.”

Bliss leaned forward. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. What did Daddy mean when he said that my mother was Kassidy Klaine? He must be mistaken.”

She had convinced herself that she had simply misunderstood her father earlier, but the look in Clint’s eye told her that what he had to say next wasn’t good news to her.

“He wasn’t mistaken. My brother’s boss, Kassidy Klaine, quit the gang because she had to move back here to Arizona to spend time with her baby girl. She talked about her all the time, called her Dottie a lot…”

Bliss interrupted Clint’s words with a gasp.

“Momma used to call me Dottie Belle all the time… it’s where the ranch got its name. It was her way of teasing me about the freckles on my nose,” Bliss smiled as tears stung behind her eyes. “I loved that nickname.”

Clint held his hand out to her before he continued. Bliss slipped her hand into his and he squeezed it tight.

“She told me and my brothers that she had buried the money somewhere out here and made up a fake map. I guess it was her way of protecting the people of Destin from my brothers. There was never any money. Kassidy returned the money to the bank in Destin and never told the boys about it. This happened after I ran away. I never even knew she had been killed.”

“So it’s true? My mother really was an outlaw.” Bliss felt her hand begin to shake.

“I’m afraid so,” Clint told her.

Bliss set back in her chair. The words didn’t sting like she thought they would. “This explains why my father had those newspapers of Kassidy Klaine and her robberies. They were like souvenirs.”

Clint shrugged.

“And his knife being on the top of Almighty where Momma died… did he…? No, I refuse to believe that,” Bliss shook her head.

Her father wouldn’t do that. There was no reason for him to harm Momma in any way.

“You don’t have to, because your father had nothing to do with that murder,” Clint assured her.

“Murder? So she really was killed on purpose?” Bliss asked.

“Yes, but your father didn’t do it. Joe did.”

Bliss stared at him. “J-Joe? Seth? I… I don’t understand…”

“He claims that it was an accident. He was so angry that he hadn’t gotten his share of the money that he acted on an impulse. That belt buckle we found was just the remains of the item that he had choked her to death with. He threw her over the edge to make it look like she jumped. After falling from that high up… there wouldn’t be much left to examine.”