A Profiler's Case for Seduction(62)
Mark appeared shell-shocked. “I actually came to ask you about Melinda.”
“Melinda?” Dora looked at him blankly. She backed up a couple of steps and when her legs hit the sofa she sank down. “What about Melinda?”
The anger that had sparked in his eyes when he’d first approached her on campus, before her diatribe on her past, was back. “When were you going to tell me that you and Melinda Grayson were sisters?”
“Probably never,” Dora replied truthfully. Everything was out of kilter. She felt like she’d just laid her heart, her very soul, bare for nothing, and his only response was to ask her about her sister. “It’s not something I broadcast. We aren’t close and I never wanted Melinda’s star to be tarnished by me.”
“Her star? I’m trying to take her down for the murders of those three men,” Mark replied.
Dora gasped in shock. “What are you talking about?”
“I believe she staged her own kidnapping with a partner and then while she was supposedly kidnapped she and her cohort murdered those three men.”
“You’re crazy.” Dora stared up at the man she thought she knew, the man she’d fought not to love. “Melinda would never be part of something like that. She’s the one who saved me. If not for her and my brother Micah I’d still be in a gutter somewhere in Horn’s Gulf drinking my life away.”
“I’m telling you, Dora, she’s in these murders up to her neck. It would have been nice if you’d told me about your relationship with her. The fact that you didn’t makes me wonder what other secrets you have.”
Dora laughed, an edge of frantic hysteria rising up inside her. “I’d say I’ve pretty much spilled all of my secrets now.” He’d come here to ask about her relationship with Melinda and she’d given him every piece of her squalid past. “The only thing you might not know about me now is that I was born Isadora Grayson. But, I’ve always been Dora.”
“What I’m trying to figure out is how we missed this when we ran a background check on Melinda. I believe she is involved in these crimes and I’m going to work my ass off to prove it.” He raked his hand through his hair. “And now I’ve got to enter you into the murder mix. You should have told me, Dora. You should have been up-front with me from the very beginning when you knew I was in town to solve the crimes.”
“I should have done a lot of things differently,” Dora replied with a sudden onset of bone weariness. “Get out, Mark. I think we’re done talking now.”
He didn’t hesitate. He turned on his heels and left the house, slamming the door after him.
Dora stared at the place he had stood, a wealth of emotions welling up inside her. Grief ripped through her heart, the easiest emotion to identify.
He’d never said a word while she’d spewed the sordid details of her past. His expression had never changed. There had been no hint of compassion, no spark of any understanding. There had been absolutely nothing at all.
He’d shut down, turned off, and he hadn’t even been here about her past. Another burst of hysterical laughter blurted from her and she shoved her hand against her mouth to stanch it as tears began to fall.
She’d worried about how their relationship would end, afraid that he was getting closer than he should, that it was going to hurt to let him go.
Now she didn’t have to worry about any of that anymore. She hadn’t let him go. He’d run from her just as she suspected he would if he ever found out about the woman she’d once been, the woman she vowed never to be again.
She curled up in a fetal position in the corner of the sofa. Mark thought Melinda had something to do with the murders. That was impossible...wasn’t it?
She had to admit that Melinda’s assistants probably knew Dora’s sister better than Dora did. Even though Melinda had appeared with Micah a little over three years ago to rescue Dora, Melinda had been distant, cool, and had made it clear that she was disgusted with Dora’s state and was there just to do what had to be done.
When Dora had finished her rehab stint, it had been Melinda who had picked her up from the rehab and brought her here to Vengeance to start fresh with a new life plan.
Throughout the time that Melinda had guided her through the paperwork of scholarships and class choices, she’d remained cool and disconnected, obviously not interested in pursuing any kind of relationship with Dora.
The cool professionalism had been part of the reason Dora had decided not to tell anyone on campus about their relationship, because there was no relationship except in the accident of their births to the same people.