Page 42 of The Pretender

“Whatever.” Damon waved off the concern as a big smile spread across his face. “Back to your hot girlfriend.”

Harris heard the footsteps then. He looked over his shoulder, following Damon’s gaze to see who was coming. There was Gabby, wearing jeans and an oversized white oxford. The outfit was simple and her long hair was tied back.

She’d never looked sexier.

She whistled as she got closer. “You’re talking about hot women? Anyone I know?”

“You do know how to sneak up on a guy,” Harris said.

“You’re not exactly quiet.” She stopped right beside Harris. “Like, at all.”

Harris shot Damon a quick glance. “So I’ve been told.”

Damon didn’t ease up on the whole leaning-there-trying-to-look-casual thing. He managed to pull it off because his personality came off as oddly relaxed. For a man whose personal history had all the calm of a cyclone, it was an interesting trait. “You’re just the woman I wanted to talk to this morning.”

“Really? You two seemed pretty intense there for a second.” She looked back and forth between Harris and Damon. “Should I come back?”

“We’re done.” Harris took her comment to mean she’d been watching. He should have known. The sensation of being under a microscope lingered on this island. “Damon here asks a lot of probing questions.”

Damon nodded. “They teach you that in investigator school.”

She pounced. “Speaking of that—”

“Nope.” Damon stood up straight. “We’re not going to sit around and talk about my credentials. It’s a nice trick, Gabby. The whole thing where you make me the subject, but no.”

Gabby’s eyes widened. “You’re a little paranoid.”

“Only a little?” Harris asked.

“Probably more than most.” Damon stepped back and opened the front door. “You should both come inside.”

All the amusement faded from Gabby’s face. She went from light and sunny to wary. “I... don’t...”

Before Harris could say anything, Damon jumped in. “Gabby, I’m not unsympathetic.”

She sighed at him. “Let me stop you because I sense you’re about to say something really annoying.”

“I can’t erase what happened in this house or how you feel. I honestly wish I could step back in time and make that afternoon never happen.” Damon kept holding that door open as he talked. “But it did and the only way I know how to help your sister now is to try to find the person who did this to her.”

A crackling silence followed his words. Harris knew Damon made sense and that Gabby was smart enough to see that. But sometimes what a person needed to do battled with what they could conceivably do. Taking this step, breaching the doorway and walking inside, asked a lot. Hell, he hadn’t been able to walk back the hallway and search the library yet, but he guessed that was about to end.

Gabby inhaled, doing nothing to block the loud sound of air whizzing in and out of her. She rubbed her hands together as she stood there so still. Her gaze traveled over the front of the house, up to the second-floor windows. Finally, she nodded. “Fine.”

Her voice was soft and a bit wobbly. Harris put a hand on her lower back for support. “Are you sure?”

“He’s right. You’re right.” She seemed breathless and gasping for air as she spoke. “I’ve been going over this and around it. It’s time to go through.”

Damon didn’t move away from that open door. “Any time you need to step out, you do it.”

“Thanks.” Still, she didn’t move.

Harris waited next to her, touching her. The house once meant something to her and her family. He didn’t know how to bring the good memories back. The bloodstain had been removed but the nightmare would linger, likely forever.

She took the first step. Then another. Her sneakers thudded on the porch as she walked up with halting steps.

Damon nodded in Harris’s direction. “You can also hold his hand if you want. That sort of thing doesn’t bother me.”

She glanced up at Damon as she passed him. “You’re an odd man, investigator.”

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