Page 140 of State of Retribution

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He shook his head.“I can’t.”

“Oh, is it confidential, then?”

“No.”

She came closer to him, rested her hands on his chest and looked up at him with trust, faith and affection.He wished he deserved any of those things from her.

“You’ve been so kind to me, and now you’re upset.I want to help you the way you’ve helped me.”

Overwhelmed by emotions he’d never experienced before, he dropped his head to her shoulder and then startled when her hand encircled the back of his neck.

“I want to be there for you.”

Agony filled his heart as tears flooded his eyes.“If I tell you, you’ll hate me.”

“What?No!I could never hate you.”

“Yes, you really could, and you will.”

She pulled back from him, forcing him to meet her gaze.“Tell me.”

He shook his head as tears rolled down his face.This sweet, beautiful woman had been kidnapped, beaten and raped because ofhim.She’d never forgive him.He’d never forgive himself.

She brushed away his tears.“Is it about me?”

He diverted his gaze because he couldn’t bear for her to see the truth.

“Archie… Talk to me.Please.I want to know.”

While continuing to stare unseeing at the window, he said, “Last year, we had a sniper killing people randomly.”

She blinked a couple of times as she thought about what he’d said.“I think I remember the news about that.”

“It was horrific.The city was on edge, and we were working around the clock to stop it before more people were killed.”He took a deep breath and tried to find the courage to continue, to tell her what she needed to know, to ruin the best thing to ever happen to him before it ever had the chance to truly begin.“Sam led the investigation.They were looking for people with the marksmanship abilities to hit the targets from a moving car, like this person was doing.That included investigating people within our department with that capability since it's very specialized.”

Archie stepped back from her and went to pour himself a glass of cold water.After taking a drink, he said, “They now think one of the officers we investigated is tied to your case and several others.”

“Why would he care about me?”

He forced himself to look directly at her.“Because I’d started to care about you.”

She shook her head.“Wait… So this happened to me because…”

Grimacing, he said, “He wanted revenge for me helping prove he was off having an affair when he was supposed to be at a conference.He wasn’t the sniper we were looking for, but he lost his rank, his wife and his six kids because Sam and I caught him in a lie.”

She crossed her arms as if she needed to protect herself.“I feel a little lightheaded all of a sudden.”

Archie moved quickly to put his arms around her and carefully guided her back to the sofa.He sat next to her but gave her room to breathe.“If you want to leave, I’ll take you anywhere you wish to go.”

“Do you know for sure it was him?”

“Not yet, but Sam and the others working on the case think it’s highly possible he was involved in this and several other ongoing cases, along with another guy we used to work with who was already facing felony charges.”

“Do you… Is there a photo of him that I could see?”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

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