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Stafford and Montgomery nod and hop up to stand next to me, flanking me like I’m the Queen and they’re my royal guards. I have zero idea what’s going on, but Anderson is not going to take no for an answer. He grabs Jack’s elbow and tugs him hard. Jack’s grip on me slips a little but remains intact.
“It’s okay,” I tell him, my curiosity getting the better of me. “Go ahead. I’ll be fine.”
Jack searches my eyes for a second, though I’m not sure what he’s looking for, then nods. “Okay. I’ll be right back.”
Chapter 24
Jack
“THERE ANYTHING YOU want to tell me, Jack?” Anderson asks as soon as we’re out of earshot. His use of my first name makes my eyes—which had been glued to Nora—whip over to him. He’s staring at me with his arms crossed over his chest, one eyebrow quirked up in expectation.
“Noah,” I begin, matching first name for first name so that he knows this is serious for me too, “how about you go first—tell me what it is that you think you’ve figured out.”
He assesses me, trying to get a read on whether or not I’ll break. I won’t. Anderson is my best friend. I’d take a bullet for him.
But Nora is my wife.
She will always take precedence over him. That’s just how it is.
“Look,” he finally says, “I get why you did what you did, heck, I’d have done the same thing if it had been Mel. Sure I was angry at first about you lying to us, but I came around as things developed and I realized you were protecting us as much as you were protecting yourself. You knew we could never send one of our own to prison, but that you’d be putting us in a difficult spot of having to cover for you. But hey, it did win you Nora back, so at least that was one positive about the whole debacle.”
My mind whirs, trying to catch up to what he’s saying. It’s almost as if he thinks I killed Ian.
“Yeah,” I say slowly, because let’s face it, I’d much rather he think it was me than know it was Nora. “You got that right.”
“Well I’ve got good news for you, bro.” Anderson is all smiles now. “Pretty sure you’re not actually a murderer.” He holds his hands out in front of him in a ta-da motion, but I’m not getting it.
Maybe because I already knew I wasn’t a murderer.
So I’m not sure what all of the excitement is about.
“Really? Not even a smile?” Anderson drops his hands. “I get it. You need details before you can relax. Here’s the thing, Reynolds. I got a very interesting call from the coroner on the way here. You know what he said?” He raises his eyebrows. “Cause of death wasn’t stabbing by a knitting needle, as we previously assumed.” He meets my eyes. “According to the coroner’s report the needle didn’t even hit a coronary artery—which, as you know, would typically be the cause of someone bleeding out. Turns out the actual cause of death was cardiac arrest.”
“Wait, what?” I rasp, unable to believe what I’m hearing.
“You heard me right.” Anderson grins. “Ian Wharfman died from cardiac arrest. And given what Nora just told us about Minoxidil being linked to congestive heart failure I’d say there’s a pretty good chance that’s what caused the heart attack. We’ll have to do a tox screening to confirm but I’m thinking chances are good that the findings will be in your favor.” He chuckles. “You stabbed a dead man, Reynolds. Not sure how you didn’t notice, but sometimes rage blinds us.”
I’m in shock. Cardiac arrest? That’s how Ian Wharfman died? Not from Nora stabbing him with a knitting needle.
A laugh bubbles in my chest bursting out of me in one loud breath. Nora isn’t a murderer. She’s innocent! Relief rockets through me propelling me into an anti-gravity like state. Am I floating? I feel like I might be floating.
“Oh good. You’re happy,” Anderson chuckles.
His words exert the smallest amount of force on my floating self; I’m not falling yet but the pull of the earth is getting stronger.
“Of course I’m happy. Why would I not be happy?”
“Oh well…” Anderson looks uncomfortable now.
“Well what?”
“Nothing. I really shouldn’t have said anything.”
“But you did,” I retort. “You did say something. So now you have to tell me.”
Anderson sighs. “Look, it’s probably nothing. I just…part of me wondered how finding this out would affect things with Nora.” He rubs a hand over the back of his neck, looking sheepish. “I mean, you two got married so fast. I didn’t know if maybe…”
“Maybe what?” I grit out, already knowing I’m not going to like what he’s about to say.
