Page 111 of Proof of Guilt

Ivy got up, and with Theo in front of her, they stepped into the hall. Yes, it was her stepdaughter all right, though it was hard for Ivy to think of Lacey as any kind of daughter since they were practically the same age.

“You did this,” Lacey snapped the moment her attention landed on Ivy.

Ivy first checked on Nathan. He was indeed going to sleep, so once Jodi was back in the office with him, Ivy pulled the door shut so this wouldn’t disturb him. The trick, though, would be to keep Lacey’s voice in the normal range. She looked ready to start yelling.

Gabriel stepped in front of Lacey, but she just tried to go around him. “I want to have a little chat with Mommie Dearest. Because of her, the cops want to talk to me.”

“And I want to talk to you,” Theo snarled right back, and there was no shred of friendliness in his tone.

Lacey peered around Gabriel, and the moment she actually looked at Theo, her eyes widened a little. She didn’t smile exactly, but it was close.

“Theo Canton,” Lacey provided.

Because Theo’s arm was against Ivy’s, she felt him tense a little. “How do you know me?”

“I’ve made it my business to know you and anyone else associated with my dad’s wife. Your name and picture were in the papers. You were a suspect in the murders of Ivy’s parents.” The slight smile stayed on her face.

And Ivy knew why. Even though she’d never told Lacey about Nathan’s father, Lacey could no doubt see the resemblance. Of course, the papers that’d covered the murders had gone into the fact that Theo and Ivy had broken up that night and that was his possible motive for murder. It wouldn’t be a stretch for Lacey to do the math and realize that Nathan had been born nine months later.

“So,” Lacey said, dragging that out a few syllables. Her attention stayed fixed to Theo. “What’d you want to see me about?”

He went closer. “Someone tried to kill us. What do you know about that?”

Despite Theo’s harsh tone, Lacey hardly reacted. Instead, she turned to Ivy. “You put him up to this. You want him to suspect me of something I didn’t do so you can get me out of the way. Well, it won’t work. I’m not stopping the fight to get what’s rightfully mine.”

Ivy groaned softly. “Chad left everything to Nathan and me in his will,” she explained to Theo.

“Because you brainwashed him,” Lacey insisted. “I’ve filed a lawsuit to rescind his will and give me what’s rightfully mine.”

“Your father didn’t want you to have that money,” Ivy reminded her. This was old news to Lacey, but Ivy repeated it, anyway. “He thought you already had too much from your mother’s trust fund and that you needed to learn some responsibility.”

Lacey cursed. “You don’t know me, and you don’t have a right to say anything like that to me. He was my dad.”

“And he was my husband,” Ivy pointed out just as quickly.

“Are you here for your interrogation?” Gabriel asked when Lacey opened her mouth, no doubt to return verbal fire.

Lacey gave him a withering look. “By you? I think not. You’re Ivy’s brother. And not you, either,” she added to Theo. “I won’t have Ivy’s ex-boyfriend trying to pin something on me.”

“What about me?” Wesley asked, standing. “I’m not related to Ivy or Theo. And the sooner you answer questions, the sooner we can clear your name. Or maybe you’d rather I take you into custody now and drive you back to my San Antonio office.”

Maybe in that moment it occurred to Lacey that it hadn’t been a good idea to come storming into a sheriff’s office with wild accusations against the sheriff’s sister. She was almost certainly weighing her options, and considering her expression, she didn’t like any of them.

“I’m not talking to anyone unless my lawyer is here,” Lacey concluded.

“Then you’d best be calling him or her right now,” Gabriel said, and he added a glare to it.

Lacey glared back. Cursed. But she took out her phone to make the call to her attorney.

> “Get her into the other interview room,” Gabriel told Wesley and Jameson. “She can wait for her lawyer there.”

When Gabriel looked out the window, Ivy followed his gaze and realized why there’d been some urgency in her brother’s order. That’s because August had just gotten out of his car and was making a beeline for the sheriff’s office.

Round two was about to hit.

Wesley and Jameson had barely enough time to get Lacey out of there before August came waltzing in. Ivy braced herself for August to unleash some anger on Theo. After all, August had always said that Jodi and Theo hadn’t done nearly enough to help clear their father’s name. But unlike Lacey, there was no anger on August’s face or in his body language.

“Ivy,” August greeted. “Welcome home. It’s been a long time.”

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