Page 163 of Piece You Saved

“Why would he kill her? And how?” I eventually ask.

“We were late coming home.” When Dariel meets my eye for a moment and then looks away, I know I’m about to hear something painful. “Kade and I were fighting a lot back then.”

“She played favorites,” Aden says quietly. “Particularly between Dariel and Kade. They didn’t argue so much here, but they were doing it more at the bar.”

“We were arguing that day. Again.” Kade crosses over to drop into the seat beside me at the table and flashes me an empty smile. “Guess who started that one?”

I take his hand and squeeze it.

The fracture. There it is. I wondered at the source, and this is it.

I catch Dariel staring at our joined hands with a hunger I’ve never seen before. Before I can wonder at the reason for it, he speaks. “She’d called to say we needed to get home because she had to tell us something, but couldn’t do it on the phone. We did. Too late.”

“Someone stabbed her.” Kade nods toward the back garden. “Out there. She was bleeding badly. We got her inside and tried to stop the bleeding, but—”

“She died.” Dariel looks at his hands now. He must have tried to save her the way he tried to save Aden. And failed. “She died right in front of us. If we’d gotten home sooner...”

“Garrett turned up. He said Nica had called him, and he started accusing us of killing her.” Kade takes over telling the story of an event that nearly broke them apart. “He took her to a hospital, I think. Later we tried to give him money for her funeral. He refused, so we held a wake for her at the bar.”

The photo.

Why do I think that someone took the photo I saw in Aden’s apartment then?

I frown. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t Garrett accuse you back then?”

“I imagine it might’ve been because if they were at work, they’d have witnesses to testify they were working and not here stabbing Monica. The next person the cops would look at was him if he was throwing around accusations.” Detective Morgan’s gaze is somber. “According to the statement he gave back then, he found her bleeding out, tried to save her, and failed. Clearly, that wasn’t the case.”

“We tried to figure out who did it,” Dariel continues. “I think we spent more time blaming each other. None of us thought it could be Garrett because he’d been so distraught, and he stopped by the house so often that his scent was all over. Eventually, Kade and Aden moved out.”

And you stayed here. Alone.

My heart aches at what it must feel like to not only have someone stab you, but for that person to be someone you loved and thought loved you back.

“Why do you think he did it?” I ask quietly.

Kade squeezes my hand and shrugs. “Don’t know. Maybe he’d told Nica he didn’t want her to live with us anymore, and she refused. Maybe she didn’t want him stopping at the house anymore and he thought he was losing her.”

First Rylan with his mate Alexis, and now Garrett with his sister Monica.

I sit back in my seat and ponder love, hate, destruction, and how they can become so interwoven. “What is it with guys killing the women they profess to love?”

“Love is a powerful thing,” Dariel says, drawing my gaze. “It can make you lash out at those you care for the most. But it also…”

I can’t be the only one studying him so intently, waiting for him to finish.

“Also, what?” Aden asks.

Dariel doesn’t look away from me. “Has the power to change you, to make you whole, and heal you in a way nothing else can.”

We stare at each other, arestillstaring at each other, when a soft knock at the front door pulls my focus from him. Kade releases my hand and disappears out of the kitchen.

“Who is it this time?” I ask, frowning.

“Sam! You look good,” I hear Kade say.

“No, I look like shit, but I’m getting there.” Sam snorts, appearing in the doorway.

Sam is wearing a pair of blue jeans, a white long-sleeved top, and a pair of brown ankle boots. She’s also sporting a few more bruises on her jaw and nursing a black eye I don’t remember her having before.

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