Page 53 of Forbidden Secrets
Sawyer shook his head.“Shook you for a minute, but you’re steady now.Tell me what Chase Bradford said when you talked with him Friday night.”
“How do you know about that?”
Sawyer nailed Gage with a look.“You didn’t tell her we’d talked?”
“No time.”He turned to Melanie.“I don’t like you going after the person who attacked you on your own.I met with the guys because you need backup.”
Her tone cooled.“Oh really.”
“Yeah, really.I planned to tell you about it but haven’t had the opportunity.”
She raised a brow.“There’s this thing called a phone, which you were using to text me the night before last.You couldn’t have included that tidbit of information sometime in that roughly one-hour period when we were texting?Or called when you were driving home?Or told me before you left here last night?”
“I wanted to talk with you in person and last night wasn’t the right time.”
“You screwed up, man,” Sawyer muttered.
Ire fueled Melanie’s clipped tone.There was nothing she disliked more than someone deciding they knew what was best for her.“Sawyer was at this important meeting.Care to share who else was there?”
Gage gave her a look.“Owen and Walker.”
“But not Keeley, or Delaney, or her sisters.Or myself, for that matter.None of thewomenwere invited to discuss my business, which you decided to freely share.”
Gage scrubbed a hand over his chin.He hadn’t shaved and his stubble made a raspy sound.“I admit I called the men together, and I know that sounds bad.I want a deeper investigation than what you can do on your own.Keeley figured out what we were doing and busted my chops.”
“You should’ve talked with me first, Gage.”
“Look, the guys have expertise the women in our group don’t have.Sawyer, Owen, myself, we all have years of law enforcement experience, and even if Walker doesn’t, he could take on the rest of us together and still come out on top.”
“It sounds like a tidy boys’ club.”
He sighed.“I know it looks that way, but I wanted their skillset, not their Y chromosomes.I fully intended to talk with you today, but Sawyer beat me to it.”
“Glad to help you out,” Sawyer grumbled.“Mel, tell me about Bradford.Gage says you asked him about the night of the bootlegger.”
She held on to her temper.Being upset over Gage’s methods didn’t mean she’d dismiss the help that might come of them.“I didn’t tell Chase about my plan to find who assaulted me and expose them.I simply asked what he remembered about the night I was attacked.My goal is to talk with every person I remember being at the bootlegger that night.I only started with Chase because I ran into him at the bank and he asked me out.It made it easy.”
“His response?”Sawyer asked.
She shrugged.“He acted upset and didn’t want to talk about it.”
“What exactly did he say?”
She tipped her head to the side, remembering.“He’d been relaxed up to that point but then tensed up.He said it was a long time ago and I should move past it and not let it bother me.”
Gage muttered an oath under his breath.
As she spoke, she rubbed at a blue streak on the table from a crayon.“Chase sat up straight, and his jaw was clenched so tightly I could see a muscle ticking.He said innocent people could get hurt if I stirred things up.”Her voice sounded tight to her own ears.“He used Walker as an example.He all but said that me reporting the assault is what got Walker wrongfully convicted.”She lifted her gaze.“That was hard because I already carry guilt over that.”
“Asshole,” Gage growled.
“Agreed,” she said.“Anyway, he said he had nothing to tell me about that night.Then he threw some money on the table and stalked out.”
“You don’t have any guilt where Walker’s concerned,” Sawyer said.She didn’t say anything.Her feelings were her own.“Gage has already done a preliminary background search on the people you listed on your spreadsheet.Why don’t you hold off talking to folks until we can do more digging?I’m with the department’s Special Investigations Bureau and have access to the files surrounding your case.Let me do that and then we can all meet and discuss our findings.”
She considered his comment but shook her head.“Honestly, Sawyer?While I trust you, I don’t have confidence in the sheriff’s department.When Sheriff Grafton was found guilty of framing Walker, they reopened my case.Nothing came of it then and I’m not expecting anything different now.We need to find new evidence.You can go through the files again, but I’m doing my own investigating.”
Gage and Sawyer shared a look that had her scowling.“I saw that.”She pointed between them.“It means you’ll talk later and decide what to do between you.You don’t get to do that.I’m not a little lady to be placated and pushed to the side.I won’t sit back and let bad things happen to me and my daughter.I don’t know who called in the child neglect claim, but they’re trying to mess with me.You can help me, but you’re not standing in my way.”
