Page 89 of Billionaire Protector

The words pierced her heart like a sword of betrayal and shock. How could he not believe her? A gasp drew her out of her misery – she looked past Cole to the entire office staring at them. The deputies wore varying expressions of shock, disappointment, disgust and… suspicion. Every. Single. Person.

She grabbed her briefcase and every file they’d ever made for the arson case. “I’m going to work from home today. If anyone needs me, you know where to find me.”

But no one would, she knew, as she walked out of the police station into a gorgeous blue day that mocked the storm raging inside of her. Thanks to Cole, they all thought she was guilty. She was on her own.

She’d always been on her own.

But she would show them. She would take care of this, take care of herself. She’d never had anyone looking out for her, and she didn’t need anyone now. Even if she couldn’t stop Cole’s betrayal, she could still fight for herself. It didn’t matter that a greater betrayal lived in her heart…

She still loved him.

CHAPTER 18

Sarah Sloan’s Review

Betrayal:0 Stars

I should be strong. Brave, confident and invulnerable. To survive, I’ve had to portray the perfect façade, the girl no one could hurt, the woman no one could touch. And yet I broke my most important rule…

I let someone in.

She knew who did it.

It was so obvious, so clear. How had she not seen it before?

Sarah lowered the file and looked out the window as the last rays of the sun escaped. It was the crux of twilight, that perfect blue no sapphire could emulate. Yet in her mind, there was no darkness, but only illumination.

She’d started by studying the crime scenes, poring over document after document, trying to make sense of a nonsensical crime. For hours, she’d searched for missed clues, hidden messages that might give some elucidation as to the culprit’s identity. When that yielded no results, she made one last effort. She thought of every person she could, literally took out adirectory of Harmony Creek’s residents, and went down the list one by one.

And that’s when she figured it out.

Donovan.

She’d read his name quickly and moved on, but two names later returned. With an eyeroll, she’d moved on again, but came back a dozen names later. And that’s when she truly considered potential motives, possible reasons. There didn’t seem to be any, not until she considered who would benefit from her losing her job. And who would that be? The sheriff’s heir apparent.

Which Donovan might very well be. He’d been there longer than most of the deputies and had performed a reasonably good job. He’d remarked more than once how it should’ve been him. Not to her face of course, but loudly enough for her to hear. He’d been against her from the start, bringing up her past long before the fires started, claiming she didn’t deserve the job. With one brilliant plan, he could both overthrow her and gain a promotion at the same time. He’d been the one to find the earring, the one to implicate her.

All the other clues pointed to him as well. He knew her schedule and could arrange the fires at times she wouldn’t be around. He was the right size and shape of the man at the fair. He even matched her father’s description, proving that for once he had been right. The pieces of the puzzle fit together flawlessly.

That is, of course, except the part about Cole not believing her.

She pushed the infuriating man from her mind. Now that she’d identified the culprit, finding proof should be simple. She would confront Donovan, and hopefully he would admit it. If he didn’t, the doubt should be enough to save her job until she could find sufficient evidence.

New hope propelled her as she bolted from the sofa. She grabbed her belt from the table and donned it – this was officialpolice business, after all. She strode to the door and opened it to reveal…

Cole.

She tried to slam it, but although she was fast, she couldn’t compete with his military-trained reflexes. He shot a muscular forearm into the door and opened it wide. He resembled an avenging warrior, in all black, towering over her in muscular strength.

Well, he might be strong, but so was she. She didn’t have time to hear more of his accusations. “What do you want?”

“We need to talk.”

“We already talked, and you made your opinion clear. You’ll have to excuse me. I have an arsonist to catch. Bymyself.”

“We talk now.” And he walked in.

The fact that she was standing in the doorway didn’t really seem to matter.

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