Keep Her Safe(51)

“Abe was set up. He was made to look guilty.” Jesus. There, I said it. I can’t take it back. I exhale deeply, my breath ragged.

“What?” Gracie’s face pales. She couldn’t look more shocked had I slapped her across the face. “You said . . . You lied to me?”

Dina grabs my shoulders, pulling my attention back to her. “Jackie must have said something, if they’re coming after me again. What did she say?”

“Who’s coming after you again?”

Her lips press together, and she glances around. “It wasn’t him. But . . . it was him,” she whispers.

“Who, Dina?”

Another glance around. “Why is he coming after me again, Noah? All the way out here? I told him I didn’t have the video.”

“No one’s coming after you,” I say as gently as I can, hoping it will calm her growing agitation, even as I try and process her rambling words.

A man was looking for a video, and he thought Dina might have it?

What’s on this video? Something that someone didn’t want seen?

By the way she’s reacting, I’m going to take a wild guess and say the person looking for it wasn’t too casual about it the first time around.

Did Abe have this video? Was what was on it serious enough to get him killed?

“I’m not going back in that room.” Dina’s limp hair swings as she shakes her head furtively. “I’m a sitting duck in there. I’m telling you it was him. He wants—”

“Okay. Let’s get you somewhere comfortable and safe, where we can talk. We can figure this out, together.”

“No, I can’t tell you. He said if I talked about it with anyone again—”

“No one’s going to do anything to you, Dina.” I grip her hands within mine. “You’re not alone in this anymore.”

That seems to calm her a touch.

I scoop her up as gently as I can and start moving for my Cherokee. She’s so small, a collection of bony limbs within my arms.

“Noah!” Gracie hisses, grabbing onto my arm, her nails digging into my bicep. “She can’t leave. Look at her! She’ll be hunting down a hit by tonight without her meds.”

“Then find that doctor and get what you need.” I keep walking.

“You have no idea what you’re dealing with here.”

“You’re right, I don’t. But trust me, neither do you.” I unlock and open the back door, and settle Dina in. She startles at the one-eyed dog perched next to her. “Sit tight. The motel is five minutes away.” Shutting the door, I head for the driver’s side, intent on getting out of here and dealing with Gracie’s explosive anger in the privacy of our rooms.

But Gracie shoves me against the back of my SUV with surprising strength. “You don’t get to swoop in, lie to me, and then take control!” Her small fists slam against my chest.

“Not here, Gracie.”

“Yes, here, Noah. I want the truth!” she hisses.

“I don’t know what the truth is. Honest.”

“You obviously know a hell of a lot of something that you’re not telling me!” Her eyes shine as she fights against her tears. She’s furious with me, and I don’t think picking her up and tossing her into the passenger seat will work.

“Okay, fine.” I drop my voice to a whisper. “The night my mom killed herself, she was blind drunk and rambling all kinds of nonsense about how someone set up Abe and about how he was a good man and she needed you to know that.”

“Why wouldn’t you tell me that when I asked?”

“Because I don’t know what’s true and I didn’t want to get your hopes up. Besides, there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“Who says?”

“My uncle, who’s also the district attorney.”

“Well, good! If he’s the DA then he can make the police reexamine the evidence, right?”

“That’s the problem; there isn’t any evidence to reexamine!” I quickly explain the incineration mishap.

By the time I’m done, tears of anger are streaming down her cheeks. I reach up to brush them away, but she jerks her head out of reach.

“I’m sorry. I thought it might do more harm than good, telling you.”

With rough strokes, she rubs her tears away. She backs away from me. “I’ll go and see what Dr. Coppa will give us, if anything.” Her voice has turned steely, a mask for the simmering rage hiding beneath.

And the hurt.

I watch her march for the hospital doors, feeling the chasm between us widen. Getting her to trust me at all again will be an impossible feat. I can’t worry about that right now, though.

I need to focus on finding out what Dina knows.





CHAPTER 22


Grace

Noah’s SUV bounces over the speed bumps into the motel’s parking lot, jostling me in my seat. “I’ll see if there’s an extra charge to bring him in. You should carry him to your room, though.”

“Does he look like a dog that lets people carry him?” I snap. I haven’t said a word to Noah since I climbed into the passenger seat, my mind too busy replaying all of his words, trying to pick out fact from fiction. What else hasn’t he shared with me? What other lies might he have told?