Page 118 of Ruthless Regret

He moves away from the wall and comes closer to the bed. He pours water from a jug into a plastic cup and lifts it to my lips. The water tastes like heaven.

"Bishop's with her."

Relief floods through me, but it's quickly replaced by frustration as I try to piece together what happened after I blacked out. Everything's fragmented—voices, sounds, sensations that don't quite connect.

"The guy who attacked us—" Pain shoots through my side as I try to sit up again.

"His name was Marcus." Rook's voice is flat. "Professional. Been in the game a long time."

"Was?"

Rook's expression hardens. "Was."

The word hangs between us for a moment. I process this, turning it over in my mind. "You?"

He nods once, sharp and decisive.

"Did he say anything?" I need to know. Need to understand who sent him, who's behind all of this.

"Some." Rook pulls a chair closer to the bed and sits. "But it's complicated."

I close my eyes, fighting against the fog in my head. "Tell me."

"You sure you're up for this?"

"Just fucking tell me."

He gives a low laugh. “Glad to see you’re feeling better.”

“Stop stalling.”

"Alright, but I want to go on record as saying that I’m not sure how much of this you’ll remember once you’ve slept again.” He leans back on his chair. “Marcus was hired muscle. Someone paid him to take out Ashley, and make it look like you snapped—the ex-con getting revenge on the woman who put him away."

"They were going to frame me for killing Ashley?" I sound like an idiot, but I’m struggling to wrap my head around what he’s saying.

"That was the plan." Rook's voice is grim. "He spilled everything before he died. He admitted to killing Ramsey too. Made that look like suicide to cover his employer’s tracks."

My head spins as I try to connect the dots. "The same person hired him for both?"

"Yeah." Rook leans forward. "He was originally hired to kill Jason. Louisa got in the way, and he had no choice but to silence her as well. He also confirmed what we suspected. Ramsey buried evidence during the original investigation because he was told to. The witness who saw Louisa arguing with someone, the inconsistencies in the timeline.Allof it was covered up."

"By who?" The question comes out as barely more than a whisper.

“McFadden.”

I stare at Rook, my mind struggling to catch up.

The sheriff? McFadden? The man who was supposed to protect us, who was supposed to have our backs.

“Are you sure?” My voice is barely audible, the disbelief clear in my tone.

“One hundred percent. The murders, you being sent to prison, Ramsey's death—allof it. ”

“But …McFadden?”

Yet the more I think about it, the more it all makes a twisted kind of sense.

Why everything always seemed stacked against me, why every lead went cold, why there was no police presence at the house after the interview, why someone was able to attack Ashley, why Ramsey was killed.

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