The Cunning Thief (Stolen Hearts #6)(3)

The paramedic looked at her skeptically, but he didn’t argue. “I’m sure the detective in charge will be here soon.”

As if on cue, an older cop approached them. He wasn’t in uniform, but the badge clipped onto his belt and his holster were visible whenever he took a step forward and his jacket fell open. The winter breeze at St. Pete Beach wasn’t exactly cold, but it was chilly enough to require something. Which was why Shae pulled the blanket tighter around her as she prepared herself to give her statement.

She mentally went through the events of the evening, trying to get her story straight. She’d been finishing up a tough day’s work, getting the new floors in, when the brick had crashed through her window. There hadn’t been a note with it. That’s why she didn’t call the police. They would’ve never believed her when she said it was Blackthorne who was threatening her, but she’d had enough phone conversations and angry letters to know that they were escalating their demands for her to leave.

She’d angrily called the Blackthorne office, but the secretary had just given her the runaround. No, she wasn’t going to make a stupid appointment to tell them they couldn’t throw bricks through her window. All they would do was tell her again that she needed to sell the property or else. So Shae’s temper had gotten the better of her, and she’d angrily found herself driving south until she got to Blackthorne’s latest pet project—the new resort he was having built, so tall it was sure to be an eyesore on the coast. And right as she’d been about to lob that brick right through one of the windows, Damask’s men had grabbed her.

At first, she’d been terrified they were going to call the police. She didn’t have a police record and had no idea what would happen when a vandalism charge showed up. But then her fears escalated drastically when, instead of calling the police, they bound her hands and feet and threw her into a supply closet.

As the detective approached, she squared her shoulders and ran her fingers through her hair, only to be stopped abruptly by the tangles that had taken over after the whole ordeal. So she might have to give up looking nice, but she could still try to be charming. The detective nodded at the paramedic in a subtle dismissal. She nodded a thanks to the young man as he disappeared and then turned to fully face the detective. “Hi. I’m Shae Grant.” She held out her hand, which he looked down at but didn’t take. That wasn’t a good sign....

“Ms. Grant,” he said in a disinterested voice. “I’m Detective Perlman. I hear you got yourself into a spot of trouble tonight.”

She was almost confused how he could sound so condescending in so few words. “I got myself into a lot of trouble tonight?” she said. “I have no idea what those men would’ve done to me if the police hadn’t shown up.”

“Ms. Grant, do you want to tell me what you were doing here tonight?”

Shae knew that she had come here with the intention of breaking the law, but she had no idea why this cop was acting so accusatory toward her. It’s not like he knew that.... Did he? “I came here because Blackthorne has been trying to buy the house that I’m working on right now. They have been getting more aggressive, and I was hoping to have a reasonable conversation with somebody. I called the office, but nobody answered.”

“So you were trespassing?”

Shae’s eyes widened, and she tried to figure what she had done so wrong so quickly to get this interview going downhill so fast. “I was barely on the property when the guards picked me up. And besides, if I was trespassing, they should’ve called the cops. I was thrown into a closet and tied up. Why don’t you ask me about the men who did that?”

“Now, when you were in there, was there anybody else with you?” he asked, pointedly not asking about the men who’d assaulted her.

Once again, her temper reared its ugly head, and Shae had to ball her hands into fists. She had never once punched a guy she just met, but now she was damn tempted. “When I was thrown into the closet, it was empty.”

“And it stayed empty the whole time?”

Shae frowned. He wasn’t interested in her. He was interested in the man who had been with her. The one who’d abandoned her. But how would he know? “Were you able to catch any of the men on the property?”

“Except for you, the building was deserted when we got here.”

Shae knew that was a lie. When they’d gotten there, all the Blackthorne men had gone running. She’d heard the panicked footsteps. More disturbing was that if none of the men had been caught, there should be no way for this cop to know that she wasn’t alone in the closet. So if none of the bad guys were caught, and she hadn’t told anyone about the other guy, and the other guy was long gone, there was only one way Detective Perlman could have been getting this information.

Shae didn’t lie. He was asking questions he already knew partial answers to. “There was another guy who was thrown in there with me. He was the one who knocked down the door, but it was too dark for me to see his face. He said his name is John, but I’m pretty sure he was lying.” As far as she knew, he’d lied about everything. Until the police had come in, she’d been half convinced that he was one of Blackthorne’s men sent to interrogate her. That would explain why he left so quickly.

On the other hand, the only reason the cops would’ve shown up when they did must’ve been because he called. So was he the man who abandoned her, or was he the one who saved her?