AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bryan looks toward me, his face tired and worn.
I’ve done this to him.
My bullshit.
I’ve fucked with everyone.
With soft eyes, Bryan grips my hand in his. “Did you have something to do with this, Beth?”
Frustrated with my continued silence, Jack shifts into drive quickly and heads further up the mountain. I assume we’re going back to his place, but I don’t ask.
I don’t care.
I don’t care about anything.
I could open the door and roll out into the street, tumble down the side of the mountain, and sink into the lake with the moon, and that would be okay. At the very least, I’d be reunited with my baby boy. And maybe, more than anything, that’s where I belong.
Chapter Ten
Liam
“You don’t look good, man.” Dex taps on the door and lets himself in, slinking down in the back chair of the office. He wants to talk, but I don’t know if I have it in me.
“Just thinking about the list of shit we have to do when I get back to London. This asshole that’s working for me in the field is stealing money from the pot. He’s going to have to go. I called Jamie to deal with it, but he’s not answering his bloody fucking phone.” My jaw tenses as I stare toward the laptop screen. Thankfully, Dex can’t see it. I’ve googled Jack Ford a thousand times since I watched Beth pull out of the driveway. By the looks, he’s some ex-agent who burned out and was asked to leave the force.
“That’s not what I meant, man,” Dex continues. “You had feelings for her. I’m sure you still do. What are you thinking?”
Usually, I’m thankful for Dex. He pulls me out of my head and reminds me to see things that I tend to close off… like my son’s death. He stood next to me for years while I processed that in the worst ways possible. Hell, at one point the man pulled me out of the fucking lake. This, though, is too fresh to talk about.
“She was a mistake. I let my guard down. I shouldn’t have. We’re moving on.”
Dex stays quiet for a long moment. He stares at a painting of a horse being bridled on the wall. I saw he and Beth talking. They spent time together in bed. He was forming feelings for her too. I should ask him how he is. I should be the friend he is to me.
“How are you dealing?” My voice is rough and lined with more aggression than I’d planned for, but it’s out there.
Thankfully, he doesn’t make me repeat myself. Unthankfully, he has no trouble talking about his emotions. “It’s just… it’s been a while since I connected with someone like that.” His forehead wrinkles. “Do you really think she was lying to us the whole time?”
I roll my eyes and laugh. “Yeah. I think she was. I think she took the jewels, then used her sexuality to form bonds, so we’d be dumb enough to fall into her trap. She played us. Now, we play her back.”
His face crinkles and his hand bends over the back of his neck like he doesn’t believe what I’m saying. In part, that’s why I love Dex. He’s the kind of guy who believes the good in everyone, even when they don’t deserve it. I’m the best example of that.
“But we trashed her house. There was nothing. We also checked the bank for any recent transactions, and she doesn’t have a safe deposit box.”
I stare out at the dark night, watching as the moon lies on the lake. It’s a haunting scene, like a horror movie come to life. Tiny fractals of silver and white shimmer up from beneath the black, and shadows from large pines reflect onto the surface.
I think back to the conversations I had with Beth this week and wonder how much of it was true. She could’ve googled me when Patrick went missing and read anything about my son, then lied about the loss of her baby to form a connection. The entire weekend could’ve been a ruse.
I’m a fucking idiot for falling for it.
“She mentioned some trailer by a swamp. Apparently, that’s a good place to hide shit. Three feet under a swamp.” I laugh at the ridiculousness of that statement. “We’ll start there.”
“It’ll be a few days before I can get men here to do it,” Dex says. “Or we could dig ourselves. It won’t be clean, but it’ll be fast. We can put this whole thing behind us.”
“Fast is good. I want this over with. I want every memory of Beth Ford erased from my head. Get my jet here now. We’ll fly to Clearwater in the morning.”
Chapter Eleven
Beth
