I gaped at her, speechless for a long moment. “I thought you killed him ... and set me up.”
“Uh-huh,” she said, slipping her phone back into her purse. “I know that’s what you thought.” She threw me a crooked smile and left.
Still shaken, I walked over to Billy Ray and Colton. They were having a tense, whispered conversation that didn’t promise anything good.
“Billy Ray,” I said, touching my brother’s arm, “would you give me a few minutes alone with Colton? I’ll be right out.”
“You’re kidding me, right? C’mon, sis.”
He wasn’t happy about it, and made that quite clear with grumbling and a head shake, but eventually walked away. Colton and I were the last ones left in the courtroom.
He reached out to touch my face, and I pulled away. “No,” I said coldly. “Was it you?” Blinking away tears, I kept seeing Winston’s body in those crime scene photos. The blood on his face. His hand, reaching out for help that never came. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
Colton looked at me without saying a single word, his blue eyes clouded with darkness. The same darkness I’d seen before. The same darkness that had chilled my blood and haunted my days since this ordeal had started.
My chest swelled with anger and pain, and a sense of betrayal like I’d never felt before.
“You knew I was here in Vegas, didn’t you? You saw me in that newspaper, after Tony Vega’s article came out.”
He took a tentative step toward me. I stiffened and glared at him. “Hattie, you were the one for me,” he whispered. “You still are. I never gave up on you. On us.”
His words ignited rage inside me. “You framed me for murder, Colton! I could’ve been executed for something I didn’t do.”
“No ... I would’ve never let that happen.” He took a step closer and put his hands on my shoulders, staring at me intensely, maniacally. “You see? I knew I could get you off the murder charge.”
I pulled away. “Don’t touch me, Colton.” I stared at him, my eyes pinned on his, wondering if he could tell what was going on in my mind. If he cared about all the pain he’d caused me.
He plunged his hands into his pockets. “I love you, Hattie.”
I clenched my fists, resisting the urge to pounce on him, to claw his eyes out. “Tell me what happened. From the beginning. How did you find out I was here, in Vegas?”
He looked away for a moment. “It was that article, the one you paid Vega to do. But I didn’t know for sure it was you. I didn’t knowan Olivia Taylor, and she looked like you, but I hadn’t seen you in ten years.” A sad smile fluttered on his lips. “I needed to be sure.”
“So, instead of calling me and leaving a message at my hotel, like everyone else was doing, you sent Jack?”
“Who?”
I frowned, frustrated. “Frank the Tank, remember him? Your enforcer?” Surprise widened his eyes. “Don’t worry, I know who you work for.”
The lines on his forehead deepened into a frown. “Yes, I sent my investigator to find out about you. To get me some pictures. And, after I’d realized it was you, to keep you safe.”
“Why not call me? Why not come to see me? Jack knew where I was, all the bloody time.”
“I wanted to, but he said you were meeting with a man. Dating him. Winston Donovan, no less.” His eyes veered away from me. “He told me things were getting serious between you and this man. Thismarriedman.” His jaw tightened for a moment. “Then one day Frankie called me to say Donovan was planning to propose to you. Another guy had followed Donovan, tracked his movements, and learned about the engagement lunch reservation with the entire restaurant blocked and the fountains show and all that. It destroyed me.”
He stopped talking, staring into thin air. I waited awhile, then pressed on.
“What did you do, Colton? When your investigator told you I was getting engaged?”
“I drove there myself and watched it happen. I was inside the restaurant, on my way to talk to you, to stop you, when he proposed.” He ran his hand over his face as if trying to rip a veil of darkness into shreds. “You lit up, Hattie! When he put that ring on your finger, you lit up. It ripped the heart out of my chest.” He shuddered and looked away. “You used to smile at me like that. You lit up like there was a fire inside you.”
He turned away from me, as if unable to look at me anymore. He seemed deeply distraught, but I felt no empathy ... nothing but seething rage for what he’d done. I got in front of him, searching his eyes.
“Then what did you do, Colton?” I asked in a tense, fearful whisper.
His eyes glistened, his jaw tightened. “I followed you, thinking you were going home, and I could talk to you. But no. You met with a private eye, and that threw me off. Then with that man’s wife. I snuck along the wall of the house and listened in on your conversation, hidden behind the lemongrass shrubs.”
My hand flew to my mouth. “You were there?” He must’ve been only a few feet away while I’d waited for Claire to return with the money.
