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“Believe it or not, I don’t want to destroy you. I understand being raised with very little and having to fight for attention and resources. We both got to the same place—that law school—and figured out different ways not to squander the chances we had.”
Part of Jessa hated finding this common ground. Holding on to the anger and being able to insult Gabby, both in silence and to Faith, had become habit. A more comfortable and familiar choice. “You constantly judge me.”
“Maybe I do. That’s fair. I didn’t agree with your methods, and I still worry about how easy it is for you to lie, but my real problem was that you’ve always pretended your achievements were based on merit, and we both know that’s not the truth.” Gabby shrugged. “Then you abandoned me. When I said I was going to marry Baines during our last year of school, you cut me off.”
“I don’t want to be that person anymore.” That was the bottom line. The words Jessa said but didn’t act on, but she meant them. Here, she did.
“Then help me.” Gabby’s voice grew louder as she made the plea.
Jessa motioned for her to whisper, or at least not yell. “I can’t.”
“If this group is willing to frame Liam, an innocent man, what else are they capable of?”
Jessa refused to think about that. More accurately, she wanted tostopthinking about that. Since meeting with Retta, the idea of being shoved into the role of scapegoat for this group was Jessa’s biggest worry. “Do you know Liam didn’t do it? Maybe it was a heat-of-the-moment thing.”
“He’s better than both of us. And Baines didn’t use the information about Kennedy against her, or Liam, or even against me in the divorce. So why would it have been such a big issue that it resulted in his death all these years later?” Gabby glared at Jessa as she said the words. And she couldn’t have been clearer.
“Damn, Gabby. Your life is as messy as mine.”
“Liam could go to jail. Hell, I could go to jail. Detective Schone made it quite clear I should support the allegations about Liam or risk something even worse.”
“All I know is what I was told.” Jessa sucked at tiptoeing through tough topics, but she tried. “No one I know had anything to do with Baines’s death.”
“Be specific. You’re saying the group didn’t order or arrange for his murder?”
“I’m not saying there’s a group. You never heard me confirmthe nonsense you’re spewing. Do you understand me? I will lie, cheat, and leave you flat if you try to say I did confirm.” Despite the carefully chosen words, Jessa blew past the point of plausible deniability. If Retta found out . . . Yeah, Jessa didn’t want to think about that. “But no hypothetical group I’ve ever hypothetically heard of killed Baines. You’re wrong about that theory.”
Instead of feeling anxious, Jessa experienced a pulse of relief. If anything awful happened to her, if she did end up being sacrificed for some greater good she still didn’t fully understand, Jessa knew the one person other than Faith who might question her end was Gabby. A woman who would fight this hard, risk this much, for an ex who’d spent most of a divorce trying to destroy her would fight for the truth no matter what.
“Retta’s husband and Baines were locked in some sort of business fight. Baines had stolen documents,” Gabby explained.
“I don’t know about that and don’t want to.” Jessa was already in too deep and breaking all the rules. “This conversation—the one that never happened—is over. We both said things that no one else can know.”
“Agreed.” Gabby rubbed her head as she stood up. “I know you won’t to listen to me, but get out of that group now. Feign an illness. Fake some sort of emergency. Whatever you need to do. Save yourself before it’s too late.”
Jessa heard the concern in Gabby’s voice and knew it was genuine. “I have it under control.”
Gabby shook her head. “Neither of us believe that.”
Chapter Sixty-One
Gabby
The next day, Gabby hurried back to Liam’s house. She rushed inside and dropped her keys on the entry table, not expecting to see him standing in the middle of the family room. “Why didn’t you wait? I came to the police station to get you.”
She’d lost count of how many rounds of questions he’d answered. This time, his lawyers had stopped the meeting and shut off access. The next move belonged to the police and prosecutor, which meant they could drag him away at any moment.
“I needed to get out of there,” Liam said. He still didn’t move. His disheveled appearance, with his tie undone and hair sticking out here and there, suggested the questioning had not gone well.
“What’s your lawyer saying?”
“The police are mistaking coincidences for evidence.”
“Okay, well, that sounds promising.” Not really, but he looked rough enough without her adding to his anxiety. “I guess.”
She could see a storm raging around him, inside of him. Hisusual unruffled, can-handle-anything demeanor faltered. His slumped shoulders pulled at her. She debated going to him, hugging him, telling him they’d get through this, but all affection carried a taint now. Could she touch him without creating an odd vibe between them, or worse, reigniting whatever feelings they once had for each other? Neither of them could afford that, but they did need each other. He might not see it, but she did.
“You’re worried about the business, and I get it. But the news hasn’t leaked. I’ve been all over the Internet, and there’s nothing.” She skipped over Jessa’s offhanded comment at the charity auction because it suggested someone knew. Other lawyers. People in the courthouse. Someone with access to the prosecutor knew and had been whispering about Liam.
