Page 76 of Taking What Was His

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He grabbed hold of her arm, making her cry out. “I think you know more than you’re telling me.” He started dragging her down the basement steps.

“What are you doing?” she asked and tried to push his hand away from her arm.

“I’m going to show you something.”

“Evan, slow down.”

He pulled her over to the block wall.

The first thing she noticed was the hole Roman had shown her the day before. “What happened to my wall?”

He gripped her face hard enough to leave bruises. “You fucking know already.”

She tried to push him away from her. “I don’t know anything,” she cried out.

He smacked her across the face. At that moment, she knew things were going downhill.

She pressed a shaky hand over her injured cheek and held her other one out in front of her. “Evan, this isn’t like you.”

He started pacing again, his agitation growing. He continuously ran his hand over his head, mumbling to himself.

She sucked in a shaky breath. “What do you want from me?”

He stopped suddenly. “I want you to tell me the truth.”

“I have! What do you think I’ve lied about?”

“Every fucking thing.”

“I don’t know how to convince you I’m telling the truth.”

“You’re not,” he yelled in her face as his spit sprayed her.

She raised her hands to cover her face and flinched away from him, only to have him jerk her back to him.

“You’re going to get me my stuff back.”

“How? I don’t even know where it’s at or who took it.”

“Your boyfriend took it. Jesus, woman, if you had just fallen into place like you should have, none of this would have happened to me.”

Her brows snapped together in confusion. “What does that mean, fallen into place?”

“After Rick was gone, you were supposed to fall in love with me.”

“What? You had it all planned out after he died?”

“No, you stupid whore, before he died.”

She stumbled back but caught herself in a post. “What? You didn’t know he was going to die. You couldn’t have.”

He sneered at her. “God, you’re so fucking stupid.”

Her hands covered her face, and tears filled her eyes. “Evan, tell me what you did?”

“Your husband was a goody-two-shoes. All I wanted to do was make some extra money. When he found out, he was going to turn me in.”