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“I did. I’m messed up over her. I have been for a while. Now that she’s in danger, it’s even worse. And I missed something that could have shut this down at the source. If I’d caught that tell at the bar—”
“She would’ve found another way to get to Teagan. We don’t believe this person is working alone. Whomever is after Ripper has a bigger agenda than some rockstars.”
“You don’t think this is about any of us then. Nor is she just some crackpot.”
“We aren’t best friends, and I’m not sharing my diary with you. But if I had to guess, Teagan was targeted because she’s the newest. The untested one. From all appearances, she’s guileless and malleable. The perfect way into a band firmly ensconced near the top echelon of Ripper Records.”
I clamped a hand on the back of my neck. “You think someone is fucking setting her up.”
He said nothing.
“Why would they do multiple things at once? Why set a fire she hopefully would be blamed for at the same time you roofie her drink?”
“If no one catches on to the tampering, it sets up a pattern of unstable behavior. Combined with her breaking a door at Purgatory the night of the fire, it doesn’t look good. The authorities might think she’d concocted a story to cover her whereabouts at the time the townhouse fire was being set. And she’s had a difficult past. One she’s mostly kept under wraps. They knew exactly how to get to her to make her run out of that club.”
“But how would they know she would go there?”
“I don’t think they did. They were watching her, and they adapted.”
My gut was churning so hard I had to get up and walk off the fury inside me. “And Pat?”
“The ex?”
“Yes. What’s his role in this?”
“Are you under the mistaken opinion we’re colleagues?”
“Oh, no.” I laughed bitterly. “I’d never think for a minute you viewed me as on your level. I know exactly where I rank in your hierarchy.”
“Do tell.”
“That will have to wait. I don’t much care how you see me right now, but Teagan thinks something is up with that woman.”
“If she drugged her drink, I’d say so.”
“Not only that. Teagan asked her some basic questions and made some comments and the chick responded incorrectly about things she should’ve known. Like her dog in high school.”
“It’s been nearly a decade since Teagan was in school with her. People forget.”
“About your own beloved dog? And about your long-term boyfriend’s name? She agreed when Teagan commented on Priscilla being Prom Queen, and she was not. You know how women remember that kind of stuff. Secret princess fantasies and shit.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
I sat down again and tapped my fist on the smooth leather arm of the sofa. This guy was a piece of work.
Noah had his own complicated romantic history, no matter how he pretended he’d only been about the job since the womb. But he acted as if he’d never dated anyone, never mind more.
Never mind losing what he had.
Maybe that was how he got through. I shoved a lot of bones in closets myself.
But I didn’t deny the past. And I certainly didn’t behave as if I was beyond it.
Maybe that act was just for my benefit.
“Anyway, she’s a place to dig. Quickly.” I started to say more, and then clamped down on my tongue.
I’d intended to tell him about the Priscilla meeting tomorrow, but after this conversation, nope. Not happening. If he had any doubt Teagan wasn’t on the up and up, I wasn’t sharing shit with him.
