Page 21 of Crossroads of Betrayal
Zeke threw his head back against the sofa and shut his eyes. “What kind of hell did I walk into?”
Needing to get off her shaky legs, she settled onto the chair and angled herself in his direction. She studied his face. So much had changed between them, yet he’d stayed almost exactly the same—except a few lines around his eyes and a crooked slope to his nose.
Had he broken it? Is that why he’d come here? Was it part of whatever injury had prompted him to leave Texas and settle in Tennessee? So many questions sat at the tip of her tongue, but she chose the one with the easiest answer. “Ruby staying here with you tonight?”
Smiling, he opened his eyes and brushed his palm over the dogs black and brown fur. “Yeah. As long as Tucker doesn’t buy into the hype that I’m a killer and want his dog back.”
She snorted. “How much does he know?”
He shrugged. “He picked up on Lincoln’s suspicion I’m somehow involved. Not sure if he’s heard any of the rumblings around here about what happened that night. Didn’t seem like it when we were talking before I found the ID.”
“Tucker’s a good guy. He wouldn’t take someone else’s word before gauging the situation for himself.”
“And what about the word of his friend and police officer? Lincoln didn’t come right out and say he thinks I had something to do with Tessa’s death, but I can read him like a damn book. And honestly, I can’t say I blame him.”
The heaviness of his words weighed her down. She’d been the cause of enough pain in his life. She couldn’t sit back and let him be dealt another blow when he’d done nothing wrong. “I can, and I will continue to blame him if he set his sights on you and doesn’t look for the person responsible.”
Staring at her with narrowed eyes, Zeke swished his mouth to the side. A habit from years ago that brought a smile to her lips.
“Tell me.” He had something he wanted to get off his chest but didn’t know how to say it. Hell, didn’t that describe their entire current relationship?
He sat straight and rubbed his hands up and down his jean-clad thighs. “Why do you care?”
She stiffened at the accusation in his voice. “What?”
“You left me, refusing to explain what had gone wrong. You ran away from me and everyone who cares about you. I show up at your job, something that shocked me just as much as it shocked you, and you made it clear you weren’t happy to see me. So why do you care if my world spins even further out of control? Damnit, Grace, you’re the one who shoved it off its axis to begin with.”
She swallowed past the lump growing in her throat. She couldn’t tell him everything she really wanted to say—that she’d left him because she couldn’t risk hurting him or anyone else she loved. That her impulsive nature had led to more destruction and heartache than any one person could take. That she cared for him so damn much it was killing her to sit across the room from him and pretend he was nothing more than a past mistake.
So instead, she’d do what she’d been doing for so long she almost didn’t remember how to act any other way. She’d tell him the littlest amount of the truth as she could and pad it with nonsense that would make him wish he were anywhere but near her.
Strengthening her resolve, she looked him dead in the eye and prayed he couldn’t see the real meaning behind her words. “I care because Lincoln won’t leave you alone until he knows what really happened to Tessa, and until that case is solved, I won’t be able to get away from you.”
He sucked in a breath, his face turned hard as a stone. “So my life and my reputation and my innocence don’t mean anything to you? Once again, all you care about is yourself.”
She bit her tongue to keep the tears building behind her eyes from falling and nodded.
“Fine. Then what do you suppose we do to make your life better?”
“Easy. You and I figure out who really killed Tessa.”
CHAPTERNINE
Grace flipped on the lights to her office and the florescent bulbs buzzed to life. She made a beeline to her desk, craving the comfort of normalcy and structure. Files were scattered on top of the sturdy surface, along with scribbled-on post-it notes and days’ old coffee stains she swore she’d remove eventually. Her laptop laid closed on her desk, and she opened the silver top and brought it to life.
“You’re still as messy as ever,” Zeke said with a small laugh and sat on one of the two chairs in the room. Ruby plopped on the ground beside him. “The only army veteran I know who isn’t driven crazy by all this.” He flicked his wrist, clearly alluding to the clutter all around her.
“Some habits are hard to break.” She chanced a peek at him and nearly swallowed her tongue. He’d shoved the arms up of his sage green thermal shirt, the color an exact match to his eyes. Corded muscles begged to be touched on his forearms, which rested on his thighs as he stared at her with a mixture of amusement and irritation—a strange and lethal combination.
“Good point. But enough about your inability to ever keep anything clean, tell me what you have planned, Sherlock.”
She rolled her eyes but couldn’t hide the tug of her lips. “Simple. Chances are high that whoever shoved Tessa off the cliff and caused the bruising on her neck was one of the campers.”
He frowned. “You can’t know that for sure.”
“True, but it’s the most probable so that’s where we’ll start.” Her lock screen opened, and she typed in the password. An image of her cat laying in a streak of sunlight on her bed popped up, a dozen or so apps littering the screen.
“Okay. Do you know everyone who was with us?”
