Page 94 of The Pretender

This confrontation was inevitable. Hell, he invited it when he went after Ted. He’d said too much, giving away too many details. It was no surprise Gabby picked up on that. Her intelligence was one of the reasons he loved her... and that might even be the right word. Watching her handle Ted, stand up when almost anyone else would have broken down, filled Harris with pride.

In such a short period of time he’d fought with her, ached for her, cheered her on and protected her. That was more commitment than he’d ever given any woman. The sick thing was he wanted more. Being with her made him want to stick around. The talking, the sex, just being together. It all fueled him.

He’d fought it for days. Used reason. Told himself he felt admiration and nothing more. Not enough time had passed and he didn’t have the ability to care about anyone else. Not on that level. But it was all bullshit. One more story he told himself to get through the day. The truth was he’d been falling for her since he started reading about her in the news. Fourteen months ago she’d screamed and it shot through him. They’d been connected ever since.

And now that her initial shock had worn off it was judgment time.

“You knew about the stab wounds.” There was no emotion in her voice.

He refused to turn around to see the hate in her eyes. He looked down at his hands instead. “They’re in the report.”

“You said she was alive when Ted left. You talked about wheezing and the carpet. The same carpet that’s no longer in the room. It was like you were there when she died. Only a person in that room would know those details.”

His mind shot back to that day. He’d listened to Tabitha’s last words. Watched her die.

He looked up at Gabby then. “Listen—”

“Tell me the truth right now or I will march out to the police and hand you over.” Her voice rose but it still didn’t reach past the two of them.

All the fight had gone out of him. He didn’t intend to deny this any longer anyway. He’d run out of room and out of chances. This was it for them, and he owed her as much of the truth as she could take. “Max Beckmann.”

She frowned. “What?”

He spun around, straddling the banister and facing her. “I came to the island to take the Beckmann painting.”

“Take?”

While he owned up to the rest of it he had to tell her the truth about this, too. She knew he wasn’t a detective. Now she would know what he was. It would be easier for her that way. She could run and not look back. Write him off as a bad experiment.

“Steal.” An ache started deep in his gut and moved up to his chest. “I’m my mother’s son.”

“A thief.” She shook her head. “I asked you directly if you were and you lied to my face.”

“I’ve never robbed a bank. That wasn’t a lie.”

“Convenient how you hold on to the tiny details when it comes to saving your ass.”

He took a deep breath and pushed on. “I planned to reappropriate the Beckmann, but the why doesn’t matter. The explanation doesn’t change what happened that day or anything between us. The point is I walked in on the crime scene. Your sister was on the floor. I realized she was still breathing and tried to perform mouth-to-mouth but it was too late.”

Gabby’s hands opened and closed at her sides. “But she was alive.”

He tried to find the right words but he didn’t know what those were. “I tried to save her.”

“Shut up.”

“I never would have let you be charged.” He was begging now. He could hear it in his voice. “I vowed to step forward if that happened. I’ve been watching...”

God, that sounded worse. As if there was a worse in this situation. Every act, every mistake he made, piled up until they choked him.

“Stop talking.” She held up a hand as if she could halt his flow of words.

The defenses and explanations rushed up his throat. He beat them all back. “Gabby.”

“You were with her when she died.” She said the words nice and slow, as if she was turning them over in her head as she spoke. “She didn’t die alone.”

He had to get the rest of the details out now. Listening to her, being this close and not touching her, killed him. It sliced him open and left him raw and destroyed.

“I waited as long as I could after I heard your voice. As soon as you were in the hallway I wiped down what I touched, which for the most part was Tabitha, and ran.” He took a deep breath to get through that memory. “That’s why there wasn’t DNA around the body and the rest of the evidence appeared to be corrupted. No one was trying to throw the police off, as the news said. It was me saving my own ass.”

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