“Not really.That’s the funny thing.He was using her to getto his next job.I actually don’t think he would have married her.I think hewas deeply intimidated by how competent she was at her job.Scott is the kindof man who needs everyone to look up to him.He won’t be with a woman whopotentially outshines him, and he knew pretty quickly that he wouldn’t get pasther parents when it came time to get serious.”
“Then why would he come back?”Garrett asked.
“Because that’s what assholes who figure out the world isnot actually their oyster do.When they find out the oyster is poisoned andwill kill them, they jog right back to the person who made them feel thesafest.He’s decided the world is too much for him and he wants the easy life,and Olivia Barnes-Fleetwood represents that life.He thinks he can slide rightback in because that’s what other women have taught him.”
“Why would he start a fire?”He had to complete this puzzle.He had the worst feeling that Olivia might be in actual danger.
“I don’t know that he did,” Ruby admitted.“I followed up onhis alibi and it’s solid.He was seen coming into the motel at two in the morning.Security doesn’t show him leaving again until eight a.m.Someone took out thesecurity cameras at the office but not the motel.I don’t see how he could haveleft without a camera catching him.I’ll be honest, it feels like a somewhatprofessional job, but one where they didn’t want to cover it up as anaccident.”
“Why?”He couldn’t see the point.
“A couple of reasons I can think of.One we talked aboutbefore—to scare her.To send the little woman running into big strong man armsbecause she can’t handle all this stress.”
Garrett rolled his eyes.“Yeah, she handled it fine.Two?”
“To set her up.To make it look like she did it forinsurance or some other reason.Three is the easiest explanation in the world.Money, or covering up something.Arson is often the blanket used to cover upsomething else.The question is what.”
He thought about Gladen.“Would Gladen be dumb enough tothink she wouldn’t back up the evidence she had against him?”
“Gladen is desperate,” Ruby said.
That was when he saw a man and a woman slowly making theirway to the parking lot.
“He can be desperate, but that doesn’t make evidence goaway.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be a lawyer?”
“I specialize in contracts.I’m not an expert in criminals,”he admitted.Except he did know a bit about it.“He’s trying to bring inreasonable doubt.He can claim she made up the evidence because she was ascorned woman.It’s thin.”
The woman seemed drunk.She had an arm slung around herpartner’s shoulders as she stumbled along in the shadows of the bar.The manseemed to try to pick her up, but she pushed at him.
Someone had too much to drink.He was happy Olivia didn’tsee the need to go too far.When he left she was on her second margarita of thenight, and that seemed to be her limit.
Because she wanted to play.
“But it’s something, and I think that he’s looking foranything to save him at this point,” Ruby continued.
He watched as the man tried to get the woman to comply, butshe kept attempting to move away from him.
Then she turned slightly, and he saw her face.
Olivia.
“Ruby, I have to call you back.”He took off, running towardher.
ChapterTwelve
Keane paced the floors of the Willow ForkMedical Clinic and wished there was some way to get Olivia back to Dallas.Hewanted all the best doctors watching after her.The Willow Fork Medical Centerwas tiny, and the nurse who checked them in had seemed bored until she foundout the patient was Olivia.Then she seemed to feel the need to be on her phonerather than doing her work.
Olivia was back there, and he wasn’t sure what washappening.He fucking hated this.He hated being out of control.But she neededhim to stay calm.
Garrett walked up carrying a Styrofoam cup of hospitalcoffee.Keane took it, drank it down for the caffeine.“Any word?”
It had been half an hour since Garrett picked Olivia up offthe parking lot ground and they rushed her to the hospital.Keane got a text tomeet Garrett, that it was an emergency and he was climbing into the cab ofGabe’s truck and racing to the hospital before he could think to give herfriends a heads-up.
He texted them to find Olivia’s purse and her phone sinceboth were missing and to secure whatever she’d been drinking, though hecouldn’t be sure she’d been roofied.It seemed the only real theory tocontemplate.She’d been obviously intoxicated, and she only had two margaritas.He talked to her before he joined Miranda on the dance floor and she’d beenperfectly fine.
“Nothing yet,” Keane said, nausea rolling through him, buthe wasn’t giving in.She needed him to be strong.
