Page 42 of Renegade

All this did was reinforce my thoughts on marriage. What pissed me off was the fact that Elizabeth was such a caring person. Hell, most people wouldn’t have ever talked to me again had their first encounter involved me in the middle of three-way.

Not Elizabeth though.

She’d pretended like the whole thing had never happened and was always quick to greet me when she came over. She took the time to get to know me—well, the me I could present.

The thing was, she could’ve been a complete bitch to me and I would’ve admitted that I deserved it. I may not have had any faith in modern day marriages working out, but there was one cause I was fiercely loyal to—my friends.

And I considered her one.

David shook his head, still staring down at the deck. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I was drunk and when I came to, she was there…said we’d hooked up. Jesus, you gotta help me.”

I stared at him with raised brows. “And how would you propose I go about doing that, David? Want me to write a letter to the past you and tell you that fucking your wife’s best friend is a bad idea? Maybe I could send myself back to knee you in the balls before you made a mistake? What in the ever-living fuck can I do to fix your mess? Bring John back? Jesus Christ, David, I’d do it in a heartbeat if I could. Your old man was one of the good ones.”

David kept his head down and pinched the bridge of his nose, nodding along with me. “I don’t know, Mike. I don’t even know where we went wrong. My dad wanted me to make her a priority and I failed at that. I thought by taking on more jobs, that it’d bring us closer.”

As I sat there and listened to him try and justify his promiscuity, I couldn’t help but feel a little grateful that my work with Grey had kept me from having much of a social life at all. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been punched in the face.

The next night, just as I was pulling into my driveway, David called. His voice was frantic. “Mike, someone broke into the house! Beth, she’s there alone.”

“Where are you?” I didn’t wait for his response; I’d already turned my truck around.

He stumbled over his words. “I’m up in Amarillo working a job site. Can you get to her? I’m on my way home now.”

I told him I was headed to his house and drove faster than was probably safe to get there before the police showed up.

Elizabeth was standing out on the driveway, shaking like a leaf, when I pulled up. Her eyes were wide with fear and it was obvious that she’d been crying.

“Alright, Elizabeth. Let’s get you back in the house.” I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and led her inside. She jumped when the door latched shut behind us and I had to guide her over to the couch.

I snagged a blanket off the back of it and wrapped it around her shoulders before joining her. Cam and Zane, two of LPD’s patrol officers checked the house and yard while we waited. I was anxious to be out there with them, but it was clear that Elizabeth was in no shape to be left alone.

I wondered if she’d been living like this the entire time David had been off getting drunk and fucking her best friend. I felt awful for her. I’d seen my mother go through the same thing with my father. Shit like that turned someone into a shell of the person they once were.

No relationship was worth that.

Cam came in through the back door. She ran her hand through her long red hair, brushing it back off her forehead. She glanced over at me and then sat down on the ottoman in front of Elizabeth. “Mrs. Greene, you’re sure nothing has been taken?”

“No, I don’t think so. I didn’t notice anything of value missing. I just came home and the back window was shattered.” Her teeth chattered together loudly and I tucked the blanket around her a little more.

Cam looked at me again, “Detective Sullivan, could I have a word?”

I knew what she was doing. Obviously, something hadn’t settled right with them, but I wasn’t about to leave Elizabeth alone in the state she was in. I draped my arm across Elizabeth’s shoulder. “Anything you’ve got for me can be said in front of her.”

Kyle walked back in with something rectangular in his hands. He held it up for me to see, “Does this look familiar?”

It was brief, but Elizabeth’s eyes sparked with recognition, immediately followed by panic. “That was the frame for a picture from our wedding day. Where’s the picture?”

Kyle wasn’t exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, so I cut in to ask, “Did you dust that for fingerprints?”

He gave me a pointed look and replied, “We did and recovered nothing. It was right outside that back window. We’ve checked everywhere inside and out, but cannot find evidence that anyone was here.” He turned back to Elizabeth, “We didn’t find a picture. Just the empty frame.”

After assuring Elizabeth that they would file a report and follow up on any leads, I walked both of them out to their car.

“What are you thinking, Cam?”

She shook her head and opened the driver’s side door. “Something’s off about this one. I felt like she was withholding information in there. If someone did break in, then it was someone either she or the husband knows.”

Jess.

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