Page 31 of Release You

“He’s working that angle. He thinks that it might create enough reasonable doubt to call for a retrial.” She looked down at her hands, biting her lip.

“But?”

“But that’s not what Lisa wants. She doesn’t want to be free. She wants to come home. Do you understand?”

I rubbed my eyes and exhaled. I might not remember the details of the trial, but I remembered how Lisa and Nikki had been treated during the entire ordeal. This town had turned all the love they had for my dad and my family into hate for the Morrow girls. At school, Nikki had been placed in a special classroom because she was jumped in the hallway by a group of kids. I’d tried to help her and ended up with a busted lip.

That had been my last day of school. My uncle had thought it would be prudent to send me to a boarding school in Tucson. Nikki stayed behind, and God only knew what else she had to put up with. All I knew was that when I came back five years later, she had decided to run away from foster care.

“She wants a fucking apology,” I said. “We’ll figure this out. I promise you.”

“But how?” She plopped herself down on the edge of the bed. “A scratch is all we have.”

“And Mom’s letter.”

“Neither of which can help Lisa.”

The air conditioner was on full blast in the room, while a spray of rain and a warm breeze blew in through the open balcony door. Finishing the last of her beer, she strolled to theterrace, her gaze on the starless night. I wanted to hold her. I wanted to fix this for her, erase all the bad in her life.

I turned to the murder board and zeroed in on the details. Why would anyone move Dad to the foyer? What had the killer been trying to hide? The tunnels? The family, especially Granddad, had always been very protective of that secret. I never understood if it had been out of pride because he didn’t want people to know the family fortune had come from bootlegging or because he wanted to make the manor a fun place for me. Was the killer really protecting the family’s secret?

“What are the odds that after all this time, evidence Dad was killed in the tunnels was still there?” I ran my hand over Dad’s photo.

Nikki turned to me, leaning on the iron rail, her cotton bathrobe clinging to her body. “That would make sense, right? I mean. There probably isn’t anything there anymore, but that has to be where your dad was when it happened. Why else move him?”

“Exactly.” I met her gaze from across the room, and the temperature went up a few degrees.

“Do you have any more beers?” She smiled at the ground.

“I have a cooler full.”

She wasn’t ready to talk about us. I had to respect that. To be honest, other than this all-consuming desire I felt for her, my feelings for Nikki were conflicted at best. One minute I wanted answers from her. Why had she moved on? Why hadn’t she come looking for me? The next I wanted to forget about everything and just make up for lost time.

“Let’s go downstairs and have a drink.” I gestured toward the door.

Not that the lack of a bed would deter me from having sex with her. God, I wanted to be with her. The only thing stopping me right now was her request to take it slow.

She didn’t bother to put on clothes, just followed me downstairs and made herself comfortable on the sofa. I brought her another beer and sat next to her.

“Thank you.” She took a long sip. With her gaze fixed on the bottle, she ran the tip of her tongue over her upper lip. That was her thinking hardtell. She smelled of fancy oils and soap. “I know he’s your uncle, and we both know he’s capable of pretty bad shit. But could he, you know? To his own brother?”

I hadn’t gone there. Yeah, my uncle was a greedy asshole, but was he a killer? “I have no idea. He’s had my mom for fifteen years. If he’s capable of killing, why is she still alive?”

“Good point.” She sat back. “Plus, if that was him back at the manor, why didn’t he send his men into the tunnel after us? Does he even know about the tunnels? I mean, how could he not?”

“You’re right. Do you think he let us go?” I met her gaze.

The same question bounced around in my head. Had Jonathan killed his own brother? Was that what I’d seen that day? A man leaving us in the dark, closing the faux panel that hid the access to the tunnel? The only thing clear in my mind was holding Nikki’s hand in mine so hard I was sure I had felt it crack. My chest tightened.

I took a long swig of beer and braced both arms on my legs. “We were playing in the tunnel that day. Do you remember?”

“Yeah. We came out, and we saw your dad in the foyer near the stairs. There was no blood, but then there was so much blood. And Lisa. She was screaming, trying to wake him up.”

“Do you remember seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, a man?”

She shook her head. “No. It was like it was tonight. Pitch black.”

I set my bottle on the coffee table and reached for her. She slid over and rested her head on my shoulder. Squeezing hertight, I kissed the top of her head. Nikki and I had so much that was still unresolved. All my family bullshit aside, we had to figure out where we stood after all this time. But I had no idea where to begin.

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