Page 82 of Sinful Seduction
“No! He didn’t cheat,” she whimpers. “He would never. It wouldn’t matter how much we’d fought, or how high he was, he loved me, Detectives. We never doubted that.”
“You’ve lost me.” Minka’s brows pinch close together. “Justin said Ben was cheating, but he wasn’t?”
“I think Justin wanted Ben all for himself, but he knew Ben wouldn’t commit to a complete return to that world for as long as I was on the outside, calling him back. Justin wanted his friend’s loyalty—all of it—and for that, he needed me to go away. I knew they’d hang out again, drink, get high…” She sighs. “I knew I’d eventually get that call again, to come hang out in the middle of the night. I knew, eventually, I’d see Justin. And when I did, I would?—”
“Shoot him?” Adrenaline squeezes my heart to a painful standstill. “You wanted to shoot Justin?”
“I wanted to warn him,” she grits out. “I wanted to point it at him and scare him. To send him away with his tail between his legs. Ben was capable ofamazingthings. He was better than the life Justin was leading him toward. So instead of listening to the crap Justin said about cheating—which I knew was a ploy to piss me off and break us up—I thought I could scare him away instead.”
“Ben called her,” Tori murmurs, shakily wiping an errant tear from her cheek. “He was smoking and hanging out with Justin. He was goofy and silly and horny and obnoxious.” She looks at Minka, tilting her head as she considers. “You test all that stuff during autopsy, right? You’d know he was high?”
“Yes. Eventually.” She allows a small smile. “Toxicology results are notoriously slow, which means cases are pended until everything comes back from the lab. I wouldn’t finalize my reports until I’d received all the data, which means the detectives,” she gestures toward me and Fletch, “wouldn’t close their case until they got the reports from me. These things take time.”
Thoughtful, Tori firms her lips and lowers her gaze, nodding while she processes this new information.
“He promised he was done with Justin,” Molly adds in the silence. “He swore. But I held on to Miranda’s gun anyway, just in case there was a next time. And then…”
“There was,” Fletch concludes. “He slipped and went right back to Justin.”
“I was just so mad,” she moans. “So frustrated, especially once Ben graduated. He had more time on his hands, and he said he was looking for a job. A real job. But I could tell when he became less talkative, less available, when he replied to my texts less often…” She sighs. “I could tell. I knew what he was doing, and I knew who he was doing it with. So when he called me on Monday, just like he had the Wednesday before, and the Sunday before that, I grabbed Miranda’s gun and went.”
“How did Tori end up in the car?” Fletch presses. “You wanted to go with her?”
“I—”
“She tried to tell me not to go,” Molly cuts in. “She said it was a horrible idea. That it was dangerous and dumb. She’s not an accessory, detectives. She was trying to stop it.”
“She was only planning to point the gun and scare Justin,” Tori insists. “Which, I know, is still a crime. But intent matters, right? She was trying to protect Ben. But when we arrived and Ben was his usual touchy-lovey self, and Justin thought Molly had brought him a friend to play with…”
“Justin is horny when he’s high, too,” Molly whimpers. “And he thought Tori was a gift or something. Like humans are athingto pass around. I got so mad when he grabbed her, so I pulled Miranda’s gun and I shouted at him to let her go.”
“It all happened so quickly,” Tori weeps. “She didn’t even, like…” She makes a show with her fingers. “She didn’t pull back the thing, or flick the safety or whatever. She didn’t doanyof that stuff. But Ben freaked and tried to snatch it away, and while they were distracted with that, Justin ran away, like the big coward he was.”
“The gun just went off.” Molly buries her face in her hands. “It wassoloud. Then I threw it. I don’t even know why, except it hurt my hand. And then it went off again, and I just…” She shakes her head. “I don’t know…”
“She got hurt first.” Tori mops at the tears on her face. “The first round got her. That’s when she panicked. That’s why she threw it. It was like…” She exhales a shuddering breath. “For a single second, Ben sobered. He wasn’t high anymore. His eyes changed, like he was scared.”
“I begged her to take it and run away,” Molly cries. “Itold her to do that. The police were already coming. I could hear the sirens. Tori was screaming, and she…” She shakes her head. “She didn’t want to go. But I made her do it. And then I just,” she drops her hands and swallows, “I laid with my boyfriend and held his hand. He said he was sorry. For everything.”
The door swings open behind us, the wind rushing across the room on a violent gust that brings me around and my hands down to my weapon. Then Grant Freemon bursts into the room. He’s a man possessed, a killer who won’t mind doing time in exchange for revenge. His eyes swing from me to Fletch. To Molly. To Tori. To Minka. His nostrils flare, and his hands flex by his sides. “What the fuck is going on in here?”
“Daddy.” Molly sits taller on her bed, brushing tissues off her lap and extending her hand like she wants him to take it. “Please just breathe and listen.”
“Get her a lawyer.” Minka pushes to her feet and steps out from between her chair and the bed. “Get her a good one.” Then she looks down at Molly. “Draft your defense and rethink the version of the story you’ll tell the detectives in a few days. That’s when you’ll confess to a crime.”
“Crime?” Grant’s jaw trembles. “Molls?”
“Don’t call them until next week at the least,” Minka continues. “And when you do, you sayonlywhat your lawyer says you can.” She presses her hand to the top of Molly’s, gently squeezing. “Ben deserved a chance to find his way back on his own. He shouldn’t have died for this.”
“It was an accident,” she sobs. “I was trying to protect him.”
“I know. So get a good lawyer, make a deal with the DA, and pay your debt to society. Then, when this is over, live a life that honors him. Make him proud. I truly believe he loved you, Molly. He was robbed of the opportunity to prove he could climb back out of that hole again.” Brave, stupidly so, she turns and squares up to Grant. “Don’t slip because of this, Mr. Freemon. Don’t do that job they want you to do, and don’t make a deal with men who live in the dark. Your job is to help your family. Ease their pain. Don’t make it worse.”
“We were never here.” I take Minka’s hand and tug her from between two different Freemons. One is terrified, and the other, furious. I drag her to me, and then I look at Tori. “You’re heading to law school next year?”
She gulps. Then she dips her chin. “Yes, sir.”
“Guess your education is starting early. Help them find a legal rep, then get one of your own. You’ll need it.”
