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“Luke told me you withdrew your story about Monica. Roland Kendall obviously threatened you in some way. What did he do?”
“Nothing,” she said. “I lied about what she said.”
“You did not.”
“I did. I lied about it because I was always jealous of Monica. But in the end, I couldn’t live with it. It’s just that simple.”
“You’re lying to me,” he said, hearing the shock in his own voice.
She shook her head and moved carefully to her desk to sit down. Her gaze fell to her hands as she twisted them together.
“You’re lying.” He couldn’t imagine why it hurt, but it did. “Why?”
She shook her head again.
“Wow. You know what? It doesn’t matter, anyway.”
She blinked, looking startled at the anger in his voice. Eric was startled, too. He hadn’t realized he was furious. “What do you mean?” she whispered.
“You don’t know?”
She finally looked up. “Know what?”
“The D.A. had enough evidence to charge Monica regardless. They didn’t need your story anymore. So I don’t know why you lied, but you could have saved yourself the trouble.”
Her face went startlingly pale. “They arrested her?”
“No. When it got to that point, Kendall agreed to deal. He’s going to cut off funding to Graham.”
“Oh.” She looked vaguely ill.
“Beth, what did he do?”
“Nothing,” she insisted. “I lied. That’s all.” Her eyes filled with tears.
“Tell me what happened, damn it!”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me. You lied to me and you did something that might have ruined this case. So it matters to me!”
She shrugged, and the fury inside him broke open and spilled out.
“What was he going to do? Get you fired from this great job? Wait. I know! Maybe he was going to ruin your reputation!”
Her gaze sharpened at the sarcasm in his words. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Did he pay you off, is that it?”
She stood up. “What did you mean about my reputation?”
“You know what I meant.”
Too late, he saw the pain in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said in a rush. “That was really insensitive. I was pissed and I… With the column and the classes and all this…stuff…” He gestured toward a stack of sex toys on one of the shelves. His fury was receding now, though he was still reeling over what she’d done.
“You meant my reputation is already ruined, so who could possibly care about that.”
“I don’t think your reputation is ruined. What are you talking about? I just meant that you have a reputation for being edgy. Sexual. It wasn’t like the guy was going to set you up for a scandal.”
