Deploy, Part One (Rawlings #1)(36)
“Saving you,” he said, taking her hand and making her run with him.
He didn’t stop until they were halfway to her house. Then he called 911. “Yeah, hey. I have an emergency!” he said in a panicked tone. “I was on the porch with my girlfriend, and we saw her daddy’s shop glowing in the distance—it’s on fire, and I can’t get him out!”
Justice stared at him with her mouth wide open. She didn’t understand what was wrong with the truth. Why the cover-up? But she didn’t really understand much right then. Numb. Stunned.
He wasn’t dead, he was going to come out of there and beat the hell out of her. He was. Her fear told her was.
Moments later Murdock was off the phone and shining the light of the screen in her face. “We’re going to tell them this is from you trying to get in the shop to save your dad, we’ll say you slipped.”
“What the hell?” she yelled as she reached to wipe the blood she did feel on her lip away.
“Listen to me,” he said, getting in her face. “Yeah, there are rumors in this town that says he drinks, that he has a temper. But there are far more people who think he’s a saint. Who he has helped long before this disaster week. Your grandmother? Yeah, she might could say he knocked you ‘round, but what is she? A scorned widow? Someone who wants her property back? I’m telling you, Justice, we have to make it look like an accident, or they will put you away.”
She pushed him back. “I was defending myself!” Her cagy glance moved to the shop. She thought she saw movement, was sure her dad was coming for her then.
Murdock filled her vision once more, taking full advantage of her fragile state.
“You were standing over a dead man holding rebar in your hand!” he yelled back, now desperate to get her on board with his plan. He gripped her shoulders. “Listen, I’m telling you, this will not go over well! He spent all afternoon with the f*cking mayor! Do you really think anyone is going to believe he came home and beat you for the hell of it?”
“Do you?” she asked with another shove against his chest, pushing him out of her face. “And what reason would I have to hurt him? Exactly.”
Murdock stood back, shocked at her audacity but determined all the same. His entire life rested on the fact of her going along with this. As far as he was concerned it was her fault he was in trouble in the first place. She was the one who f*cked around with a Rawlings. Her father sent him to deal with it. The lie came out like it was meant to be the truth. “He asked me if you were with Declan.”
Justice gasped, making Murdock regret Declan’s death a little less, not much, but yeah. Even right now, seconds from killing her own f*cking father, she was still fangirling over that asshat.
“That’s right. I was coming over here to make sure you were okay. You were gone so I talked to him a bit, calmed him down. I left my f*cking jacket here and came back.”
He raised his chin. “If I knew he was asking about you and Declan then I can’t be the only one. He had to have told my dad, too.” He pointed at her and bellowed, “You had motive.”
“What kind of motive! Declan’s gone. Why would it matter?”
Yeah, he was. Declan Rawlings was never coming back from his watery grave, Murdock thought.
“Try this on for size. Your daddy hears you were hooking up with Declan, confronts you, and makes sure you know he’s not only going to Declan’s recruiting officer but getting the mayor to contact his drill sergeant to let him know Declan Rawlings committed statutory rape and he’s pressing charges.”
Justice jarred back, not from the explosion of the shop that chose then to erupt, but from shock. “He wouldn’t!”
“Oh, he would,” Murdock said with a harsh glare, knowing he had found a sweet spot. She was going to go along with this story. He was going to make damn sure of it. “He told me as much. I’m sure half of it was bullshit, but then again I don’t really know. But I’m sure all of his buddies would have plenty of motives to strap to you. Not only you, but all the Rawlings—you think Chasen Rawlings or his oldest Tobias, any of those f*ckers, would let your daddy or anyone threaten their precious military careers? Who’s to say they would not twist this even further and your dad’s friends decide to take down you and as many Rawlings as they could in one swoop.”
Tears came then. She couldn’t believe him, then again she could. She had not only seen and heard her father and his buddies spin stories, but watched them destroy lives—watched them take over property because of some loophole in the law, and make cash off the development of land that had been in families for years. They were all cold, vindictive, and cared more about how they were seen than how they were.
“Yeah, that’s good. Keep those coming,” Murdock said with a nod to the tears that soaked her face right along with the rain. “An accident is your only way out of this clean. You and me were snuggling up and shit and we saw a fire—done, over. You’re a grieving daughter, and I’m the boyfriend here to make you feel safe—who feels like shit because he could not save your father for you. I feel bad. You do. That’s our truth.”
Justice didn’t care about getting in or out of anything clean. But she knew the last thing she was going to do was allow her drama to suck in the Rawlings’— to suck in Declan.