Page 107 of Taken Away

“She benefits.”

“Mercer benefits,” Bennett snapped. “Not Vanessa.”

“Oh, so now there’s a difference?”

“Yes.” He crowded another step closer, anger rolling off him. “There’s a damn big difference.”

Aubrey refused to step back, even though every nerve in her body lit up at his proximity.

“She had access to Blackwood. She knows the contracts. She knows the buyers. She knows how much chaos Mabel’s death would cause.”

“She was at the funeral,” Bennett said through his teeth. “She cared about Mabel.”

“People kill people they care about all the time.”

His eyes flashed.

“Vanessa didn’t murder Mabel.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know her.”

“You knew Mabel too,” Aubrey said, her voice dropping before she could stop it. “And somebody who knew her put a pillow over her face.”

The office went dead silent.

Bennett’s expression changed so fast she wished she could take the words back.

Not anger.

Pain.

Raw and immediate.

Then the walls slammed down.

His voice went flat.

“Get out.”

Aubrey swallowed.

“Bennett—“

“I said get out.”

Her grip tightened around the binder.

For one awful second, neither of them moved. She was acutely aware of the distance between them—two steps, maybe three. Close enough that if she reached out, she could touch his chest. Feel the thud of a heart still carrying Claire, Mabel, and more grief than one man should have to hold.

Idiot, she thought. Not about him.

About herself.

She’d meant to talk about contracts.

Instead she’d gone for the one wound they shared.