Page 95 of The Pretender

She didn’t break eye contact with him. It was as if she thought if she looked away he’d run again. “The laptop?”

“I hacked it. Used the camera on it to track her movements. It’s how I stake out a place I plan to... rob.” God, he never said that word. Even now he’d had to spit it out. “I didn’t take it but people did do things on my behalf to cover my tracks.”

“Unbelievable.”

He didn’t even fight it. She deserved to know, even if it cost him everything. With the police right here on the grounds, he fully expected to leave in handcuffs. “It was me, Gabby. I fucked up the scene. Not on purpose, but it happened. I was the one who stepped in the blood pool and tracked it onto the lawn. I really did stop and try to save her, but it wasn’t enough.”

“No one believed me.”

“I know.” He wanted to get up and go to her but nothing in her body language said she’d welcome that. She was almost frozen except for the slight tremor that moved through her every few minutes.

She shook her head. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she said anything. “You let me take the blame.”

The words slammed into him. All that guilt he’d been trying to hold at bay for days swamped him.

He had so many reasons, most of which had to do with making sure he could keep the life he refused to give up even now that he’d supposedly gone straight. He refused to hide behind that or Wren’s protection right now. “I watched from a safe distance to make sure the accusations against you never got past the allegation stage.”

Her head shot back as if he’d slapped her. “How is that an answer?”

“I came back because this time I thought you were going to be arrested. That’s why I showed up on the island. I had a cover and stuck with it.”

“Am I supposed to be impressed that you finally stepped up, even if it was too late and too little?” Before he could answer, she moved on. “And Damon?”

“We both came here to get answers and to protect you.” He didn’t want to lie to her, so he said the rest. The part that truly made him an asshole. “To make sure nothing connected the murder to me or you.”

She stared at him. There was nothing blank about the look on her face now. Pure hatred thrummed off her. He’d been relegated to some sort of mental enemies list. He was just one in a long line of people who’d shit on her. She didn’t have to say it because he could read it in the way she stood there and the stark emptiness in her eyes.

“I didn’t know you back then, Gabby.” He meant it more as an explanation for his hesitation than a justification, but he knew it didn’t come out that way.

“So your excuse is that it was okay to rip my life apart because we’d never been introduced? Did your conscience only kick in because once we slept together it felt shitty to watch me go to prison?”

“It wasn’t like that. I slept with you because I wanted you.” He couldn’t keep away from her even though he bargained with his brain to try. But that answer was just as selfish as every other one he’d uttered, so he kept it locked inside.

“Get out.”

He stood up and lifted a hand to touch her, but she shrank away from him. “Please listen to me.”

“Don’t touch me.” She held both hands up as if to push him away. “Ever.”

“I care about you.” The words were so neutral when he felt anything but.

“Careabout me?” Her cheeks flushed.

“That’s the wrong word.”

“Get off my island. You have two minutes.”

“If you really want that.”

“I do.”

“Fine.” He slipped around her, careful not to touch her. When he stopped on the top porch step to look at her, to try to explain one last time, she was already gone.

Two hours later she found Damon walking in the fire pit area. It would have hurt to be there, in a place she’d shared with Harris, if fury didn’t hum through her. Rage still beat loud and strong inside of her and she didn’t want to turn it down. The sound blocked out the rest of the noise in her head.

Unwilling to cower for one single second, she marched right up to him, not caring who saw or overheard them. “Why are you still here?”

His head shot up at the sound of her voice. “I’m finishing up with the police.”

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