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She was easily disarmed, however, and we soon had her face down in the flour that she’d slashed.
She was practically making snow—or flour—angels in the shit.
“Sit still. I don’t want to hurt you,” I muttered darkly.
“I will not!” she hissed.
I cuffed her and then rolled her over onto her back, causing her to grimace when her hands dug into the concrete floor uncomfortably.
She fought for all of a few seconds before she sat there passively.
Her lip quivered and I realized that she was about to cry.
Great.
I sat her up onto her butt and leaned her against the wall before dropping down to her level and staring at her with narrowed eyes.
I felt Foster and Bourne move to my back, listening, but not interrupting.
“Why were you here tonight?” I pinned a glare on Moshe.
Moshe swallowed. “I was told to.”
My brows rose. “You were told to.”
My voice must’ve sounded as incredulous as I’d meant it, because her head drooped more.
“Yes, I was told to.” She drew in a shaky breath. “My husband and I can’t afford the house anymore. Not without me having a job. He paid me…”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said as I held up my hands in a stop gesture. “Slow down, start from the beginning. Tell me where this all started.”
I just knew that she was involved in some way with Kerrie.
Knew it with every beat of my heart.
And I wanted to know exactly how and why.
“Four months ago, we were about to lose everything,” she said stiffly. “My husband lost his job because he… he just returned from the war. Something happened over there, I don’t know what, and now he lashes out and is so freakin’ mean.” Moshe wiped at her eyes that were leaking continuous tears. “I never meant to get this deep. I just thought that I could help him.”
At first, I was swept under by her words, but then I saw her surreptitiously glance up through the part in her hair to see if I was buying her explanation.
And, had she not looked up at me, I would have.
I would have fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.
Except she’d fucked up.
She’d messed it all up with one single contemptuous look through her hair that made her actions and her words not match at all.
It was then I realized, in all of her explanation, she never really said anything about why she was here. Who paid her to be here and why she would’ve gone to such extremes.
“What happened after your husband lost his job?” I asked, not being swayed by his veteran status like I was earlier.
She sighed and straightened, her head coming up and her eyes going hard.
“My husband decided that it would be more fun to continue not working, making my lifestyle have to change.” She smirked. “But it all worked out in the end. My husband checked out, became focused inwardly, and I found a very nice man willing to give us a house if I only spied on a certain blonde chick that he had the hots for. In the meantime, we fucked like bunnies.”
My brows rose.
“What else?” I wondered.
“What else?” She laughed. “I was once again proven to be second best. My husband has his nightmares, and Kerrie has Dillan.”
Moshe said ‘Dillan’ like it was the nastiest word in the English dictionary.
“What did she ever do to you?” I pushed.
“What did she do?” Moshe sneered. “She had everything that I wanted, or at least, she could have. But she shoved it all away because Kerrie wasn’t the right guy for her. What kind of bitch does that? He’s rich. He’s successful. He has his shit together. Unlike my husband.”
“That still doesn’t explain what she did to you,” I said. “She was nothing but nice to you. Offered you a job. Kept you hired on. Gave you chance after chance despite you doing everything that you could to make her fire you.” I paused. “That’s what you wanted, huh? You wanted her to fire you.”
She shrugged. “I didn’t like telling Kerrie everything about her. It was awful. I wanted him to see me, and he only saw her.”
“So you started to call the health department on her,” I guessed. “Stopped showing up for your shifts on time. Pretty much, you made her life a living hell. All for a man that tried to strangle her. That’s how you knew he tried to strangle her, too. Were you there?”
Moshe looked away.
“I followed him,” she admitted. “But…” She narrowed her eyes then. “I didn’t see what happened. The alley was too dark, and he blocked her. I thought they were having sex. So I called the cops.”
“That’s why they were there so fast,” I guessed. “You lied and said she was getting attacked when you thought they were having sex. You saved her life.”
