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“This is such bullshit. She plays the poor concerned wife act, and you believe it. I know you did something Emma and I’m going to prove it.” There was a look of determination in his eyes that gave me pause.
“The same you proved it when you were a cop?” I shouldn’t have taunted him but there was something empowering about fighting back.
He lunged one last time before Sheriff Cross shoved him from the room and closed the door behind him, which wouldhave been good if it hadn’t left me alone with the angry Detective Massey.
“He seems convinced you did something.”
“Well Mark has never liked me. A wife and stepdaughter meant Alex wasn’t as quick to jump in and bail his brother out of financial trouble. In fact, I’d bet that Mark’s name is on those insurance policies you were so curious about.” I left the police station feeling better but also worried because in addition to the police, I knew Mark was going to be trouble.
He always was.
Chapter 14
Emma
Icouldn’t focus. I couldn’t concentrate. As I looked out the windshield my mind was fixed on Mark invading the interrogation room and the look in his eyes when they landed on me. It was equal parts determination and hatred, and I couldn’t stop thinking about what he might do and worse, what he would find.
There’s nothing to find, I told myself, but I didn’t know that without a doubt. Sure Slate and his biker brothers had cleaned the house thoroughly but who knew what was under the wood flooring? Who knew what was left over that none of them had thought to get rid of? Mark might’ve been a dirty cop but that didn’t mean he was bad at other parts of his job. I tried to think back, what could forensics find if came to the house? Sure, they’d find Alex’s hair, but it looked like Slate’s friends had cleaned up well, taking away the rug he’d died on. I tried to think back to that night, it seemed like forever, but it was less than two weeks ago.
In just nine days my life had changed beyond recognition.
It all made me so angry. Alex had made my life a living hell when he was here, and the one time I stood up for myself, it turned my life even more upside down. And instead of enjoying Ash’s childish laughter and her excited conversation with Slate, I was worrying about the Edwards men. I was starting to think I was destined to be a prisoner forever, one way or another.
The car came to a stop, and I glanced up to find us in the parking lot for a family friendly chain restaurant. The neon sign of a pirate riding a wolf flashed on and off. The place looked so happy, and I forced a smile on my face until I felt it permeate my entire body.
“We’re here, Mommy!” Ash’s excited voice was just what I needed to make the smile genuine.
“Yes we are, and I am starved.” Dinner was something normal. Dinner with my daughter was exactly the type of normal we needed in our lives right now. Everything was so upside down, so chaotic that this mundane activity was just what we both needed. Though spending time with Slate was a double-edged sword. While I loved his easy company, and found myself warming up to him, and not a little bit attracted—scrap that, alotattracted—it also brought home to me the fact that I was keeping things from him. Huge things.
Massive earth-shattering things.
“Me too,” she shouted. “Are you hungry too, Slate?”
He turned to face Ash and smiled. “I’m a man, I’m always hungry.” He laughed when her brows dipped in confusion.
“Men are always hungry? Why?”
A giggle escaped as we all exited the car and headed inside. “Men aren’t always hungry,” I told her. “They just eat all the time because they can.”
The bubbly hostess scanned the room for a free table, when two hands suddenly shot up near the back of the dining room. “Friends of yours?” she asked.
Slate nodded. “Yeah.” He motioned to where Diesel sat with his family. “Can we join them?” He flicked a gaze my way to see if it was okay.
I nodded. “It’s fine with me.” Leo was there which meant that Ash would have another kid to interact with and wouldn’t be bored the entire meal. Though I was a little disappointed it wouldn’t be just us.
He gave me a weak smile and a nod which made me wonder if he was thinking the same thing, before he turned to my daughter.Our daughter,I reminded myself. “Come on, Ashlyn. Let’s go say hi to Leo.”
She perked up. “Leo’s here? Yay!” She bounced up and down a few times in search of her new friend. “Where?”
Slate bit back a smile and pointed to where Diesel sat with Ellie and Leo, their adorable twin girls, Lucy and Lila, were in a stroller parked beside them. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
We got settled at the table while Ashlyn and Leo took off to the play area that was—thankfully—in full view of our table. My mind was full of thoughts of Mark, and I couldn’t focus on any single thread of conversation.
“What’s wrong?” Slate’s question was so low I wasn’t even sure I heard it. “Talk to me Emma.”
I shook my head, not wanting to get into it while we were out in public in case my emotions got the better of me. “Nothing.”
“Liar.”
