Page 51 of Loving Lies (Granton University 3)

The coach huffed out a breath and crossed his arms over his chest, rolling his eyes while Jonah grew very pale. Both cops studied her a moment before they turned back to Jonah.

“Is that true, Mr. Abbott? Do you have amnesia?”

Jonah stared at the one who’d asked him the question for an overly long moment before he licked his lips and quietly said, “No. I don’t have amnesia. I remember everything.”

Tess covered her mouth with one hand and used to other to reach out and catch the wall to support her. She wasn’t sure how she remained standing. It felt as if her legs gave out and crumpled to the floor, but somehow she stayed upright.

Jonah didn’t look at her even though she willed him to with all her might to send her one glance, any signal: a wink, a smile, an apologetic wince. Something.

But he didn’t.

“And who’s this?” The other cop asked, motioning to her. “She your girlfriend?”

Still, he didn’t look her way. “No,” he said, ripping her heart from her chest. “She’s just some volunteer they had come in to keep me company. I never met her before I ended up here.”

“If you wouldn’t mind stepping out into the hallway, then, miss. This is official police business.”

She nodded, but felt too numb to move. When Coach Whitely glanced at her with a searing glare, she finally stumbled into reverse and pushed into the hallway. But the door remained open and didn’t fall shut. It let her stand there, just out of sight, and listen to everything being said inside.

“Did you know it was your gun that was used in the Granton school shooting, Mr. Abbott?”

This time her knees really did give out. Pressing her back to the wall, she sank to the floor in dazed shock as Jonah’s rough, choked voice answered with a terse, “Yes. I knew.”

She gulped, not certain she could sit here and listen to this, and yet unable to move as she soaked in every word.

“Did you give Anthony Morris the gun?”

“What?” Jonah exploded. “No! Hell, no.”

“Did you know he had your gun?”

“Yeah.” From his bitter tone, Tess could picture Jonah glaring at the officer who’d asked the question. “About two seconds before he aimed it at me and pulled the trigger. And I have no clue where he found bullets. It wasn’t loaded.”

Her chin trembled, and a tear splashed against her cheek.

“So, you didn’t give it to him, let him borrow it, show it to him at all?”

“No,” Jonah snarled. “I didn’t even know he kn

ew I had one. I never brought it up to my room. He must’ve…I don’t know…he must heard me talking about it on the phone or something. Or broken into my truck and found it. I don’t know! But I had it locked in a case under my back seat inside my locked truck.”

“If it was locked away so securely, then how could he have gotten to it?”

“Probably because he was my roommate. I hung my keys on a hook by the door. Both keys were on the same key fob. He could’ve taken it any time I wasn’t looking.”

“What the hell were you doing on campus with a gun anyway?” his coach demanded. “School policy implicitly prohibits firearms on campus. There are signs everywhere—”

“I target shoot,” Jonah cut in moodily. “Okay? I compete in target shooting competitions. And I usually keep my gun at a friend’s house. But I’d been to a competition recently, and I kept forgetting to drop it off again. I had honesty forgotten it was back there.”

“So, you’re saying Anthony Morris stole your gun?”

It was still so bizarre to hear Einstein called by his real name. Tess had only known him as his nickname until he’d gone crazy. Then she’d heard his real name spread all over the news and that helped ease the shock. She could almost pretend someone she’d never met before had done all that horrific damage.

“He had to have,” Jonah said, “because I did not give it to him. I would’ve never let that kid near it.”

A buzzing started in Tess’s ears. Huddled on the floor, she hugged herself and tried to digest everything that was happening. But it hit her like a tidal wave. She couldn’t believe he had his memory back; he remembered everything. Did that mean—?

She closed her eyes and tipped her head back to thump it against the wall behind her. With every kiss and touch and shared intimacy, he’d known she wasn’t really his girlfriend. Why had he played along then? Why—?

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