Page 75 of Dairy and Deadly

Ashley was too angry to nod. “Yes, we understand you’re a scumbag.”

The passenger door of the truck was already open. Martin motioned her forward. “You first, since you’re less likely to try to gut me while I drive.”

“Are you sure about that?” It was all she could do to keep her voice from shaking.

“I am. You’re a good person, Per—I mean Ashley. That’s why I fell in love with you.”

Love?“Then why are you doing this to us?” Nothing he did was adding up.This isn’t love.

Martin made Caro climb in next and slammed the door behind her.

“Just breathe,” Caro hissed while he walked around the truck. “We’re going to be okay.”

Ashley wanted to believe her, but Martin was holding all the cards right now. He shut the door and locked them in. It had a sound of finality to it.

Hysteria welled in her throat, making it harder to breathe. She struggled to recall her training as a police detective. They trained for stuff like this at the police academy — what to do and what not to do in the event of capture. At the moment, however, it was taking most of her energy not to throw up. She was definitely coming down with the flu or something, and the timing couldn’t have been worse.

Martin started driving. “Like I said in my card, I’m making things right.”

His words made no more sense now than they had the first time. “I think we have very different ideas of what that means.”

“Maybe. Maybe not,” he said cryptically. “I’ll try to explain. Your mother wasn’t supposed to die. Neither were the dairy farmers in Dallas or your partner.”

A moan of anguish escaped her. “Please, please,pleaseassure me you had nothing to do with their deaths, Martin.” Even though he was her ex, she couldn’t stomach the idea of having once been engaged to a man who’d ended the lives of so many people, two of whom had been very dear to her.

“I didn’t.” His mouth twisted. “Well, not directly. They made me believe I was part of a revolutionary research project. It was something I got recruited for back in college. It’s how I met your stepmom and stepsister.”

She already knew that. “Who recruited you?”

He didn’t answer.

“It was XAX, wasn’t it?

“Ashley,” Caro hissed.

Martin’s expression was one of reluctant admiration. “You figured it out, eh?”

Technically, the FBI had. “Why did you do it?” She glanced over her shoulder and discovered they were being tailed by a black SUV with tinted windows. He hadn’t been lying about that. She stifled a shiver. It blew her mind that he seemed bent on trying to convince her he was one of the good guys in all of this.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he sighed.

That wasn’t possible, but she didn’t argue the point.

“Initially, all they asked me to do was prepare some legal documents for them.” His voice held a note of pleading. “It was all above board, and the pay was good. I had some pretty hefty student loans to pay off, so it was a welcome side gig. But the money got bigger, and their requests got shadier. I tried to get out. I did.” The look he gave her was one of pure regret. “You claimed our relationship was never going anywhere, but that’s not true. The only reason I didn’t ask you to marry me was because I didn’t want XAX getting their hooks into you, too.”

“Oh, boohoo!” Caro clearly wasn’t impressed with his story. “If you expect her to feel sorry for you after the trail of bodies you dropped in Dallas?—”

“It wasn’t me,” he exploded. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

He was lying. Ashley knew that now. “You were there the night John Bench died,” she accused shakily. “The night I almost died.”

“Only after I figured out what they were up to! You have to believe me, Perk—Ashley!”

“She doesn’t have to believe anything,” Caro interjected coldly.

“But I’m the reason she didn’t bleed out,” he sputtered. “I’m the one who called the ambulance, and I’m the one who removed the drugs they’d planted on her.”

“Martin!” Ashley wailed out his name, knowing it also meant he’d failed to remove the drugs his associates had planted on her partner.

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