Page 54 of Loving a Billionaire

“Listen,” Austin continued, “one of the things she told me the day we argued was that she was trying to get money from other men, but they weren’t helping her.”

Gibbs and Tyrone glanced at each other and then moved their attention back to Austin. “What men?”

“She didn’t tell me their names. But if she played the oh-pity-me card on them, I’m sure they were giving her money, too. So why aren’t they here? Why are you wasting your time with me instead of finding the real killer?”

“Because none of those other men had the murder weapon in their house,” Tyrone said loudly.

“I’m going to ask you one last time,” Gibbs said, moving back around the table toward Austin. “Did you kill Kalama Kane?”

“And I’m going to repeat my answer... again. No! I did not kill my cousin. I had no reason to kill her.”

When Gibbs and Tyrone started grilling Austin about his collection of medieval weapons, Talia wanted to scream. Hadn’t they already asked him those questions? She knew the process of interrogating a perp, but why were they asking him the same thing?

What bothered her was that Austin hadn’t trusted her enough to tell her about his relationship with Kalama. Why? What could be embarrassing about a wayward cousin?

Kurt moved beside her and nudged her with his elbow. “We need to talk,” he whispered.

“No, we don’t.” She didn’t take her eyes off the men in the other room.

“I’ve been your partner for a year, and you’re not going to give me a chance to explain?”

Anger rose higher inside of her, making her head pound harder. Yet, at the same time, her heart was shattering slowly, the more lies she heard from Austin, and definitely Kurt. She didn’t know whether to yell or cry.

She turned and glared at Kurt. “Why would you want to explain? I’m not going to believe you.” She shook her head, not caring if the sergeant overheard. “You know, it hurts,” she placed her fist to her heart, “when someone you thought was a friend lies to you, but when someone you’ve known for so long, who is with you practically every day for a year, outright lies to your face, that’s when the world tumbles and crashes all around. I’m sorry, Kurt, but I can’t let you explain.” She took a deep breath. “You aren’t the person that I thought you were.”

She pushed past him and darted out of the room, running down the hall. She couldn’t get away from here fast enough, now.

NINETEEN

For three days, Taliacouldn’t bring herself to leave her apartment. She told Sergeant Feakes, she needed personal leave. Remarkably enough, he granted it to her. Now she wished Kurt would leave her alone. He came to see her several times, but she texted him to go away. He tried calling, tried texting, but she wouldn’t respond. The fact that he’d withheld that tidbit about Austin and Kurt being stepbrothers was just too much for her to handle.

And then there was Austin... Although he hadn’t told her the truth about being a billionaire, that didn’t hurt as much as him withholding his relationship to Kalama, which was a very important part of their investigation. Why hadn’t he told her? She knew why. Because it made him look guilty, especially after Kalama was killed.

Kurt had texted her to let her know that because of Austin’s solid alibi, they had released him. Obviously, his ancient artifact had been used as the murder weapon, but according to the members of his board that were interviewed, Austin had been with them around the time of day when Kalama was murdered. And because of that, it appeared as though Austin might have been set up.

Talia really didn’t know how to feel, anymore. She’d never cried so much in her life as she’d done these past three days. And all because of a man... two men, to be precise. Both men could have been the Prince Charming she’d been waiting for all of her twenty-five years. But in one night, she discovered that Prince Charming was a liar.