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Liam sat beside her on the couch, but not close enough they could reach out easily. “What happened?”
“I was run off the road.”
“In my truck?”
She winced. “The other vehicle was big. I don’t know what it was. I never saw. It was too dark.” All she’d seen were headlights in the rearview. “The lights were really bright. They rammed the back of your truck a couple of times.”
“I know that,” Liam said. “It’s what you told the officer. Now tell me what you didn’t say. Like how you ended up around the back of the building.”
How was she supposed to tell him it was instinct? More than likely, nothing but a trauma reaction. For a moment, she’d been back in that car with Mark, back on that night when it was all supposed to end.
Roxie lifted one hand and traced the scar on her temple. “I think I shoved the door open.”
She set the mug down and looked at her stinging palms. She had grazes on her arms she hadn’t noticed. She’d refused medical attention because who wanted to be poked and prodded when they were trying valiantly to hold it together?
“I know I fell out.” She rubbed her hands together. Thankfully, she hadn’t broken skin. “I think I ran through the building, out the back door. The alarm was going off.”
“Why didn’t you stay in the truck and wait for help?” Liam shifted.
His curious expression made it clear he was trying to understand. But how could he?
Did he know what it felt like to be completely and utterly helpless? Terrified out of his mind?
Clare said, “When did you see him?”
“In the back. Outside.”
“You should’ve stayed in the truck.” Liam fisted his hands on his knees.
Everything in Roxie tensed. “I couldn’t form a thought or come up with a word. I wouldn’t have even been able to tell you my name. I didn’t have the judgment needed to conclude it was better to stay in truck, Lee.”
He only stared at her.
Gage said, “You were having a panic attack.”
She didn’t know Clare’s husband well. His dark features might seem threatening to some, but she saw understanding in his eyes and managed to nod.
“You fled the truck because that was what instinct told you to do.”
Roxie looked from Gage to her boss, who knew the whole story. “I had to get out. There was nothing else I could’ve done in that moment except get somewhere away from there.”
Liam sighed, so she took a break from Gage’s and Clare’s obvious sympathy for her situation and glanced at him. He said, “What happened between your going outside and me finding you?”
She remembered him grabbing her gun. “Did you take my weapon?”
He nodded. “You can have it back.” But he didn’t give it to her now. “After you tell me all of it.”
“He was there.” She grabbed the tea and took another drink of the bracing liquid. Enough to jog more words loose. “He stood over me, and he laughed.” Roxie ran her hands along her arms, rubbing some warmth into her limbs. “He said it wasn’t time yet, but he would kill me. After he destroyed everything.”
“Who?”
She couldn’t put it off any longer. “Mark Mills.”
Liam flinched. “I was at his funeral. He burned to death in a car accident, drove his vehicle off a cliff or something. He’s dead.”
Clare hissed a breath. Gage ran a hand through his hair.
Liam said, “I watched his family grieve for him. It was real. They buried a body in that grave.”
