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Then she ripped away, pushing at me. “Ty, stop. Please.”
I stilled and shook my head, breathing hard. Her eyes were shining with tears and a kick of self-recrimination went throughme. Fuck, I hadn’t meant to make her cry. I just wanted to get to the bottom of whatever the hell was wrong.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m just worried. You’re not yourself.”
“How would you know?”
“Lia,” I said and took her face in my hands. “I know. I can see it in your eyes. Please, I care about you, so tell me what’s wrong.”
Lia only looked away, and my hands fell to my sides.
I took a few steps away, wondering if maybe this had something to do with Hendrix bringing up her parents, and was about to ask when my phone buzzed. Pulling it out from my back pocket, I saw that Daniel was calling and that he had also sent several texts.
“What?” I answered.
“Are you home? Is Lia there?”
Tension filled me. “Yeah. Why?”
“She’s working for Hendrix,” he said, and I swear, the goddamn floor lurched beneath me. “You need to get rid of her, Ty.”
“Explain,” I heard myself in a rough, hoarse voice; suddenly unable to turn around.
“She’s been off since I brought her to visit Mickey Weiss in the hospital,” Daniel said. “I knew something was wrong. She talked to the bastard, then threw up in the bathroom and said she wanted to go visit Sara, only she never fucking did.” My hand tightened around the phone. “She hooked up with Hendrix. They had a meeting downtown — and Flora said she found a phone charger in your bedroom for a burner. She knows what they look like.” A pause seemed to drawl out forever. “I'm sorry, Ty.”
I didn’t bother answering. I hung up and turned around.
Lia stood there, the purse discarded at her feet and a gun in her shaking hands.
And my goddamn heart, which I would’ve sworn had stopped working the moment my father brought me into his world, broke. A ragged gasp of pain escaped me, and I felt a burning in my eyes, a scream locked in my throat.
“Why?” I asked.
Mascara smudged around her eyes as tears trailed down her face. “You, Ty,” she said, and her voice shook. “It’s all because ofyou.”
Hatred flickered in her eyes, anguish too, and I could see the indecision in her beautiful face even now. I loathed that some part of me leaped up in hope at that — a part of me that I had to crush down since I’d have to crushher.
Folding my arms, I said, “Care to clue me in here?”
“You killed my mother,” Lia screamed, and my brain went blank with shock.What?“You were the one behind staging my mother’s murder as a suicide, just like you said you’d do to Mickey. You did that to her.” I took a step forward, and Lia walked backward. “How could you? Did you know that I would find her? Do youknowwhat you’ve done to me?”
That made me stop in my tracks. “You found your mother? Jesus.” Under the rage and heartbreak and shock, I felt a protective flicker toward Lia. “I didn’t know that.”
“Bullshit,” Lia said. “What was this, Ty? Was it just another way to get back at the cop who was onto you? Did you fuck her daughter to getmorerevenge?”
That made me laugh, a hollow and empty sound. “Is that what you think of me? Really, Lia? After everything, you think I’m the kind of sick bastard who would do something like that? So, what, you’ve been pretending to see the good in me and fall in love this whole time?”
“Don’t you dare twist this around,” Lia said.
“No, I’d like some clarification,” I said. “Since this is the first I’m hearing of all of this, and the fact that youbetrayedme. You got that gun from Hendrix, didn’t you?”
“I’m… I’m going to kill you,” Lia said.
A cruel smile spread over my face, and I dug deep into my rage. “No, sweetheart. No, you’re not. You would’ve put a bullet in my head the second I turned my back on you.” I shook my head. “This is part of your guilt — punishing yourself for your mother’s death.”
“It was you,” she whispered.
“I haveneverkilled a woman,” I said. “And I sure as hell never ordered a female officer to be killed.”
