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ChapterTwenty-Six
Ariana stared in disbelief at the screen. “He has some nerve!”
“Boone’s a good actor,” Damon said. “He’s been fooling us the entire time we’ve lived here.”
“I always knew he was a jerk. Rita made that more than clear. But this … I have no words.” She turned her attention back to Boone’s performance on the evening news.
It was award-worthy.
He wiped tears away again and sniffled into the mic. “I just can’t believe she’s dead. This whole time we’ve been searching, I never once lost hope of finding her alive.”
Ariana swore at him and looked for something to throw at the TV. Though she’d be better off waiting until he got home, when she could actually hit him with something that could hurt.
Nothing would be more satisfying than that. Even if he hadn’t been the one to kidnap Rita, he was still at fault. That jerk had pushed her away. He’d treated her like a possession rather than a wife, and he’d had the nerve to openly cheat on her. Not once did he worry about what she would think or if anything he did or said would hurt her.
And now he was convincing the world that he was a broken husband, that someone had wronged him. He had the alibi, the cover story. Could pretend to actually care.
If there was any justice in the world, the police would find enough evidence to arrest him for something. Blackmail was illegal, though Ariana had no idea what the consequences would be. If anything. Some people got away with anything — including murder — and Boone could easily be one of them.
He needed to pay for his part in this. If nothing else, than for the horrible ways he had treated Rita.
And if she really was dead, Ariana would find a way to dole out justice if the authorities failed. She could find a way to mess with his head, make him think he was going crazy. That was what he’d done to Rita at first. But then she woke up to what was really going on.
Boone had spent the entirety of their marriage gaslighting and controlling her. It wasn’t a huge leap to believe he would hurt her.
He’d been willing to burn down her bar and grill out of jealousy.
The man needed to be exposed.
But they’d signed those stupid NDAs. She needed to read the fine print, find out if there was any loophole out of it.
If she’d been thinking straight, she would’ve had a lawyer look it over first. But she hadn’t been. Not with Rita missing. Not with Boone threatening her — and the cops hadn’t even cared about his threats.
Did he know someone on the inside of the department? Was that how he got away with so much?
That was the only thing that made sense.
Ariana leaped up and paced the room, muttering.
Damon gave her a sympathetic glance. “Do you want to search for her?”
“Where?”
“Near where the shirt was found.”
“I’m sure the police have the whole area blocked off.”
He got up. “We won’t know unless we try.”
“They aren’t telling anyone where they found the shirt.”
“I recognized a building in the background of the picture the detective showed us,” he said. “It was blurred out when shown to the public.”
Ariana’s breath hitched. “Where was it? Why didn’t you say anything before?”
“I didn’t put it together until just now. At first, all I could think about was the blood.”
“What was the building?”
