Keep Me Safe (Slow Burn #1)(70)

Eliza dipped her head at Dane, who quickly closed in on Caleb while Eliza hung back, her gun trained.

“On your knees,” Dane commanded.

Numbly Caleb slid to his knees.

“Hands behind your head.”

Slowly Caleb laced his fingers together at the back of his head. He flinched when the cool metal handcuffs surrounded his wrists, clicking into place. He lifted his gaze to his brother, who stood there staring at him, tears in his eyes.

Beau looked . . . ​devastated.

“Let’s go,” Dane said, pushing Caleb to his feet. “Get in the car.”

Eliza opened the backseat door and Dane unceremoniously stuffed Caleb inside while Beau got back into the vehicle he’d been driving. Dane and Eliza slid into the front seat of the vehicle he was riding in and slammed the doors.

Dane peeled away, causing Caleb to bump his head on the window before righting himself.

“Damn it, Caleb. You don’t have anything to say for yourself?” Eliza said in disgust.

“What am I supposed to say?” Caleb asked wearily, some of the shock finally wearing off. Anger was quickly replacing his bewilderment but at the same time, dread gripped him by the balls, squeezing the very life out of him. “I wake up to find Ramie gone, blood covering the bed where she slept. Two men supposed to be guarding the house are dead. I can only assume the third one is as well. It seems to me that you need to be the ones talking and fast,” he snapped.

Eliza turned sharply in her seat, her brows furrowed as she stared hard at Caleb.

“What do you last remember doing before you woke up?” she asked.

Caleb was silent a moment as he thought back through the night before.

“Ramie and I went to bed early. We were both tired. And then I woke up a few minutes ago and Ramie was gone and blood was everywhere.”

“Jesus,” Eliza muttered. “Could he really not know?”

“Maybe he blocked it out,” Dane said, his jaw ticking with fury. “I know I sure as hell would if I’d done that to an innocent woman.”

A prickle of unease skated down Caleb’s spine. An elusive memory taunted him, so close and yet out of reach. Why did his head hurt so goddamn bad? Had he been drugged?

“Blocked what out?” Caleb demanded. “Goddamn it, talk to me and stop speaking in riddles. This has gone on long enough!”

Dane slammed on the brakes and turned in his seat to level his furious stare at Caleb.

“Tell me what happened last night, Caleb. Tell me why you did it.”

Caleb stared down at his hands, red with dried blood, the smell sickening. He just wanted it off. He rubbed his palms up and down his pants leg but the blood remained. Was this what it meant to have blood on your hands literally?

“Dane, where is Ramie?” Caleb asked, fear curling through his stomach and clenching his insides.

“Not here,” Eliza said in a low voice. “We don’t need him going bat-shit crazy and bailing out.”

Dane punched the accelerator and roared down the winding road on the back end of the subdivision toward a more rural area of the county. Away from the city.

It just didn’t make sense. Why had Caleb cracked? How could Dane have so grossly misjudged the man he worked for? The man he gave his absolute loyalty to. Worse, why wasn’t Dane driving him straight to the police station so he could be taken into custody? Sorrow was etched in Eliza’s eyes as she stared sightlessly through the windshield.

Dane’s cell phone rang, and he glanced down to see Detective Ramirez’s number pop up on the screen.

“Shit,” Dane swore. “We’re busted. They must have gotten to the house already.”

“They may have,” Eliza said, “but they can’t know we’ve been there. He likely just wants to know if we’ve seen Caleb. Not many guys are going to hang around the crime scene and wait to get busted.”

“It doesn’t add up,” Dane bit out. “He’s not stupid. And I can’t have been so wrong about someone. What did he have to gain? Why kill her?”

“Kill who?” Caleb said flatly. “I want some goddamn answers and I want them now.”

To Dane’s relief, they were nearly to one of the many off-the-grid properties he owned. This would buy them some time, and hell, if Caleb was guilty, Dane would turn him in himself.

He roared into the garage and parked. Beau roared in beside him and Dane immediately shut the garage door.

Dane got out and yanked open the door to the backseat. “Get out,” he ordered. “And walk slowly into the house.”

Frustrated by this stupid game they were playing, Caleb stalked through the door and into the living room.

“Sit,” Dane directed, sweeping the barrel of his gun downward to indicate Caleb was to sit on the couch.

With a sigh, Caleb sank onto the edge of the couch.

Beau strode in behind Eliza, his eyes haunted as they traveled the length of Caleb’s body, taking in the gory sight of so much blood.

“Would everyone stop looking at me like that and tell me what the f**k is going on?” Caleb roared in frustration.

“I’ll do you one better,” Beau said grimly. “I’ll show you.”

With shaking hands, he punched a series of buttons on his phone and then turned, shoving the screen into Caleb’s line of vision.