Nina Reyes's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Nina didn't sleep that night. She sat at her kitchen table with the note spread flat, reading it over and over until the words blurred. By morning, she knew what she had to do. The stranger had given her a location, but going to the canyon now would be reckless. She was wiping down the tap handles when the sheriff walked in just after noon. He hadn't set foot in the bar in over a year. His boots clicked across the floor and he slid into the corner booth, the one with cracked pleather and cigarette burns scarred into the wooden table. Nina kept her face blank and grabbed a glass of water. She touched the rosary under her shirt — her father's cross, smooth from years of his fingers working the beads — and walked over. The sheriff didn't waste time. He set a pink velvet box on the table between them and flipped it open. Inside sat a ring with a stone that caught the light wrong, too bright to be real. "Your father's land," he said. "The deed's still in probate, tied up in legal hell. I can make it yours by Friday. Clean title, no questions." Nina's breath stopped. That land had been in her family for two generations. "All you got to do is marry me. Simple as that." Nina looked at the ring, then at his face. He was watching her like a man who'd already won. The land meant access — to the canyon, to Ruiz's property line, to everything she'd been circling for three years. But it also meant belonging to him. She thought of her father's hands on that rosary, the way he'd taught her to wait for the right moment. This wasn't it. She picked up the box and snapped it shut. "I don't need your help," she said, and set it back on his side of the table. The sheriff's smile went cold. He stood and pocketed the box. "You will," he said, and walked out. Nina watched him go, her heart pounding. She'd just made an enemy who knew she wanted something — and now he'd be watching to see what it was.