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“I was about to, and Buckner showed up. Later, I realized that had been his plan all along, but at the time, I gave into the panic. He told me I’d be arrested for murder and that he couldhelp.” Tessa squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, obviously trying to shut out the horrible images of that night.
“What happened next?” Rafe pressed, though he thought he knew where this was going.
“Buckner had me drive his Hummer from the house, and he hotwired Sandy Lynn’s car and drove behind me. We stopped at the deep part of the river, and he pushed it in. Then, when he got back into his Hummer, he had me move to the passenger’s seat, and he gave me a bottle of water. Drugged, I’m sure, because I started to feel woozy. He told me he was taking me to his place and that he’d then come back and dispose of the body. He said he could clean up so that no one would even know Sandy Lynn had been there.”
“And you believed him,” Bree muttered.
Tessa shook her head. “No, not really, but by then, I was fading fast. When I woke up, I was in Buckner’s bed, and he calmly explained he’d cleaned up my mess, that I had nothing to worry about. That no one would ever know. Well, as long as I stayed with him, no one would.”
Rafe cursed. If Tessa’s account of that night was true, and he believed it was, she had made a serious mistake allowing Buckner to help her. Especially since the man had obviously set it all up.
“How long did you stay with him?” Rafe wanted to know.
“Three months, two days,” Tessa replied. “I can give you the hours if you want. He kept me shut away at his gated estate. His prisoner. His trophy. His plaything. He’s a very dangerous man.”
Yeah, Rafe had figured that, too. “Did he kill his former employee, Dani Dawson?”
Tessa’s eyes widened, and she shook her head. “I don’t know. I knew Dani. I met her before that godawful night. But Ididn’t know she’d been murdered. Buckner’s certainly capable of murder. He’s capable of anything.”
Rafe was certain of that. “How’d you get away from him?”
“Pure blind luck. One night he forgot to lock the door to my suite, and I sneaked out. I didn’t have any money, no phone, and I didn’t want to go to anyone I knew because I didn’t want to be arrested for Sandy Lynn’s murder.”
He could see all of this playing out, and Rafe wished he’d been there to help her. He hadn’t been in love with Tessa then, but she had still been his friend.
“So, I went to a library and used the computer to transfer money from my trust fund to an account that I set up online,” Tessa went on. “Fewer security measures in those days. All I needed was the password for my trust fund. I used the new account to book a hotel room online, and I stayed there for a few days. Nothing fancy. A dive so that no one would question why I didn’t have an ID.”
She stopped again, and several seconds passed before she continued. “The clerk at the dive hotel accepted my jewelry as payment for a fake ID that would match the name on the new account. From there, I withdrew enough cash to get out of the area. I stayed on the run, always looking over my shoulder until I met Simon.”
Rafe sighed because even though she had wanted to keep Simon out of this, he’d have to know. So would Wade, and that would definitely be a bittersweet reunion. He had his daughter back, but she’d likely be going to jail.
Ironic, since Sandy Lynn’s death might have been ruled an accident or negligent homicide if Tessa had just called in the police.
“Tessa,” Bree said. “I’m very sorry for what you’ve been through. For what your father has been through by not knowingwhat happened to you,” she tacked onto that. “But you were right. I am going to arrest you.”
That had barely left Bree’s mouth when the attack started.
----- ??? -----
Chapter Fourteen
The house was suddenly filled with a series of rapid beeps as if all the security features had gone off at once. Every one of those beeps felt like a shout that something was very much wrong.
But what?
Bree spun around toward the monitors, but there didn’t seem to be any movement on any of them. Of course, it was pitch black outside, and the clouds had covered the moon and stars, making everything seem eerily dark.
She whirled toward another sound. The grinding of shutters being lowered over the windows. And the TV screen flashed out a warning. Two words with a red banner across the top.
Immediate threat.
Bree’s heart jumped to her throat, and she looked at Rafe for an explanation, but he had already turned, heading for a closet. He yanked out two Kevlar vests.
“Put them on,” he told Tessa and her, tossing them each one, and he took out a third for himself. “They have tracking devices on them if we get separated.”
She definitely didn’t like the sound of that and wanted to question what could happen that would cause them to beseparated. However, Bree wasn’t sure she wanted him spelling out worst-case scenarios right now.
Bree did as Rafe had said and put on the vest. So did Tessa though Bree wasn’t sure how they managed it since both of them were damn shaky.
