Page 167 of It Runs in the Family

Story was the key word.

“You lied to me.” My voice broke. “You used me.”

“No. I may have lied about still being a Ranger, but I never used you.”

“How can I believe you now?” I sounded like I was whining, and I hated myself for it.

He looked anxious as he cast a glance toward the doors, then turned back to me. “Come with me.”

“Come with you where?”

“I can’t be here when they show up, and they can’t know I was here. But if you come with me, you won’t have to lie.”

I was tempted. So tempted. But I had no idea where he wanted me to go. His motel room in Chaffney? Dallas? Timbuktu? And God help me, I was tempted.

He’d lied to me, though, and I was so sick of lies.

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

He gave me a sad smile. “I know. But I had to ask anyway.” Then he pulled me flush to him and kissed me. There was nothing gentle about it. It was hello and goodbye and everything in between, but it wasn’t enough, not nearly enough. He pulled me closer as though he couldn’t get close enough. I clung to him, never wanting the kiss to end.

But he pulled away, gave me one last look full of longing and sorrow, then sprinted into the shadows.

Had that really just happened?

I was no better than Selena, falling for a man who gave me promises coated in lies.

Police cars with flashing lights pulled in front of the bay doors. Officers piled out with guns raised.

I lifted my hands above my head.

As I waited for the deputies to approach me, I was already working out a story to explain who’d shot Voss.

I guess I had one more lie in me after all.

Chapter Forty

It didn’t take the deputies long to figure out I was the victim in all this mess. When they started to ask questions, I told them my name and asked for my cousin, Mesquite County Deputy Garrett Riggs. It turned out Garrett had gotten an anonymous call from a man who said I’d gone to Key Lane Park to meet Selena.

My car had been abandoned there after I’d crashed into a tree, and Garrett had immediately filed a missing person report.

It took him about fifteen minutes to get to the warehouse after the deputies notified him that they’d found me. He ran into the building, sprinting straight to me. I thought I’d fall apart when he gathered me in his arms, but maybe I was still in shock, because I clung to him, dry-eyed.

“I found Selena,” I said quietly.

His eyes widened. “Where is she?”

“She left with them.”

He understood who them was.

I gave a short statement, but I was beyond exhausted and desperate for sleep. I considered keeping everything about Selena to myself, especially since she’d tried to help me in the end. Sort of. But I couldn’t figure out a way to make that believable, so I told them that Selena had been missing, and I’d gotten a text saying she needed help. But when I went to pick her up at the park, I’d been ambushed and kidnapped. I told them Voss kept asking me for a flash drive, but I hadn’t known what he was talking about. He hadn’t believed me, but he’d decided to clear out because he was worried I might have told Garrett. He was going to kill me, only a man dressed all in black had tackled him. Voss had been shot in the ruckus. The man in black had disappeared while Selena untied me, then Voss’s whole crew had taken off, leaving me alone in the warehouse.

I was pretty sure I’d just committed a crime by giving them a false statement, but I couldn’t find it in me to rat Boone out. He’d saved me. Covering for him seemed the least I could do.

Garrett took me to his house and insisted I sleep in his room. He even changed his sheets. Then he told me he was taking two days off to make sure I was really okay.

I wasn’t.