AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He stopped staring at the floor long enough to shoot awhat’s the matter with youglare in her direction. “Do you really think my lawyer and PR team can contain the scandal forever? Everyone will think I killed Baines. My own brother.”
Detective Schone all but promised that. Gabby blocked that thought. It invited trouble, and they had more than enough of that right now. “No one that matters.”
“Kennedy.”
Her greatest weakness and his. She closed her eyes as pain whipped through her. She understood the reason for his self-punishment now. He’d just found out he had a daughter, all brokenhearted and really ticked off, but he had one, and she might believe the unthinkable and pull away forever.
Gabby had to pretend that wasn’t a possibility for his sake and for hers. “She won’t believe it. I know you didn’t kill Baines and you would never hurt me.”
Gabby held on to that. The evidence pointed one way, but the man she’d known for most of her life had never been a man who could kill for personal gain and without one ounce of remorse. Maintaining that trust took all her energy. The medicine bottle . . . planted. She also had once thought of Baines as steadfast and honest, but he’d turned. She’d watched it in real time. Lived through it.
Liam was different. He had to be, and she had to believe it. Anything else would destroy her, shatter any possibility of finding normal again.
Forgetting the what-ifs andwhat could happenissues, she started to go to Liam, desperate to offer comfort and steal a tiny bit in return.
“My sister,” he said.
Gabby stopped, all thoughts of finding a moment of peace gone. “Natalie? What about her?”
He folded his arms in front of him and faced her. No more looking around or seeming dejected. His expression was unreadable and not at all open. “Detective Schone suggested Natalie’s death may not have been an accident.”
Oh no...The anxiety simmering inside Gabby ratcheted up, bringing darkness and panic with it. “She’s reaching. It’s what the police do. They find pieces of your past and try to make nothing seem like something. It’s... I mean...”
“You’re babbling.”
His flat tone touched off a renewed round of alarm. She struggled to keep her voice even, not letting the outside mirror the terror inside. “I’m upset.”
“About what?”
Pivot, pivot, pivot.The word screamed in her head. “How can you ask that?”
“Detective Schone told me you knew more than you were saying about Natalie’s death. That you have information you were hiding from me.”
Not this. Not now.Gabby tried to hold on. “I don’t know what she’s talking about.”
He didn’t move. “Tell me the truth about the fire.”
Chapter Sixty-Two
Jessa
Jessa was in hour four of running through scenarios and case examples with Retta. So far, getting invited to full membership with this group was harder than getting through law school.
They’d been locked in the office Retta and Earl shared at their home for most of the afternoon. Not the most enjoyable way to spend a Saturday, but Jessa couldn’t exactly say no. Retta insisted this was part of the process for a potential new member of the foundation behind the Foundation, or whatever the group’s official title was. Jessa was too tired to ferret that out.
Retta left to take a call with her sons. Something about a family trip over the holidays. The break trapped Jessa in a room full of books when she really wanted to find the kitchen and get something to eat.
Talking with Retta burned through Jessa’s reserves. The granola from this morning was long gone. The anxiety and fear of being wrong stole her energy. So did the control needed to not ask about Gabby and Baines.
Gabby.Jessa wanted to put her old law-school chum and her problems in a box on the shelf and forget them. Gabby’s problems were not her problems... but they did overlap. Sort of.
If the group called for Baines’s death, a solution Jessa believed should only be used for the most extreme cases, she couldn’t make the choice make sense. Retta lying about it only made her want to dig for more details.
Damn it, Gabby.
Jessa glanced at the open door to the hallway then back to the desk. No. She couldn’t. She didn’t even know what she’d be looking for. But still...
She walked around to the desk chair and pulled it out of the way. Another look to the doorway, but no one stood there. She listened, straining to pick up a hint of footsteps or talking. When she didn’t hear either, she brushed her hand over the top of the desk, shifting one stack of papers then another. Looked like trade magazines and other nonsense but nothing important.
