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He blinked, rattled by my words. “I do trust you, Gypsy. I fucked up by ever doubting you. And I want you to know I’ll never make that mistake again.”
My lips brushed against his, and I smiled. “I know you won’t.”
“Let me go with you,” Lucian said. “At the very least, just let me do that if you have to go.”
“You can’t,” I argued. “You’re supposed to be resting, for one. And for another, I’m shopping for your birthday present, so you can’t be there.”
His eyes clouded over, and his voice was hoarse when he spoke. “Birthday present?”
“Yes.”
“That’s what Amazon is for,” he said. “Besides, I already have everything I need. I have you.”
I kissed him again. “True. But I still want to get you something.”
A knock sounded on the front door, and I heard Ace clear his throat behind us as he entered.
Lucian squeezed me as he looked at Ace. The threat was already on his lips when Ace smirked. “I’ve got this, brother. She will be safe in my care. You never have to doubt that.”
“Straight there and back?” Lucian pleaded with me.
I nodded, reaching up on my toes to kiss his cheek. “Now go get some rest.”
Detective Taylor sat down on the sofa, arranging our file and his pen on the coffee table in front of him. “I just have a few more things I’d like to go over.”
They’d been saying that for the past four weeks. Lucian was exhausted and weak, and I really didn’t want him doing this right now, but I also knew he just wanted it to be over. He took my hand in his, squeezing gently to let me know I didn’t need to worry. But I was worried. For the past month, we’d been answering questions while the detectives dug through every facet of our lives.
“According to your statement, you believe Nolan Clark gained access to your home that night with the alarm code, is that correct?”
“Yes,” Lucian answered. “As I’ve told the other detectives before, he was a close friend of mine. I’d given him the access code for emergencies.”
“Ironic,” Detective Taylor mumbled. “And nobody in your home heard him come in that evening?”
Lucian remained steadfast in his responses. “It was the middle of the night. We were all asleep.”
The detective flipped through his notes, reading over a paragraph before scribbling something down and returning to his questions. “Gypsy was in the bedroom, and you were in the office at your desk?”
“Yes,” Lucian grunted. “Where I had fallen asleep.”
“And it is your belief that Nolan took your phone from your desk—where you were sleeping—and locked the house from the inside before disabling the smoke alarms.”
Lucian rubbed at his tired eyes. “That’s the only logical conclusion I could draw, considering my phone was gone when I woke.”
“What woke you?” Taylor asked.
“The sound of the fire.”
“And can you describe to me what happened then?”
“My first instinct was to get to Gypsy.” Lucian looked at me, flinching as he recalled the events of that night. “But when I got to our bedroom, the fire blocked my entry to her.”
Taylor’s eyes scanned over the previous notes, probably checking to make sure that the story was the same. “And what did you do at that point?”
“I gave Gypsy instructions to shut the door and hold tight, so I could come in from the outside.”
“But you didn’t make it outside?” Taylor looked up.
“No.” Lucian shook his head. “I didn’t make it to her, but she got out on her own.”
“Because you encountered Nolan in the hall at that point?” Taylor questioned.
“Encountered isn’t the word I would use,” Lucian responded in a low voice. “He hit me in the back of the head with a gun.”
“And then he left you there?”
“Yes.”
“But you managed to get outside on your own when you regained consciousness?” Taylor asked.
“Yes,” Lucian repeated.
“At which point of the house did you exit?”
“The front door.”
Taylor paused to check the notes. “And then you tackled him to the ground where a fight for the gun ensued, which ultimately resulted in Nolan’s death?”
Lucian hung his head. “That’s correct.”
“It wasn’t Lucian’s fault,” I interjected. “Nolan pulled the trigger himself.”
Taylor studied me. “After the first shot, you mean?”
“Yes.” I glared. “After the first shot. Right before Nolan almost killed me.”
Lucian’s hand found my back, rubbing the tension from my shoulders.
“Okay.” Taylor nodded. “Is it still your belief that Nolan was motivated by the current state of his finances?”
“Yes,” Lucian replied quietly. “That’s the only thing that makes sense. I knew he’d struggled with a gambling addiction over the years, but I didn’t realize how bad it had become.”
“That might be the case, but it’s quite an elaborate plan to fake your death, convince everyone you were dead, and then come back to try to kill you all over again,” Taylor noted.
