The Last Invitation (71)

“Retta’s husband and Baines were locked in some sort of business fight. Baines had stolen documents,” Gabby explained.

“I don’t know about that and don’t want to.” Jessa was already in too deep and breaking all the rules. “This conversation—the one that never happened—is over. We both said things that no one else can know.”

“Agreed.” Gabby rubbed her head as she stood up. “I know you won’t to listen to me, but get out of that group now. Feign an illness. Fake some sort of emergency. Whatever you need to do. Save yourself before it’s too late.”

Jessa heard the concern in Gabby’s voice and knew it was genuine. “I have it under control.”

Gabby shook her head. “Neither of us believe that.”





Chapter Sixty-One

Gabby




The next day, Gabby hurried back to Liam’s house. She rushed inside and dropped her keys on the entry table, not expecting to see him standing in the middle of the family room. “Why didn’t you wait? I came to the police station to get you.”

She’d lost count of how many rounds of questions he’d answered. This time, his lawyers had stopped the meeting and shut off access. The next move belonged to the police and prosecutor, which meant they could drag him away at any moment.

“I needed to get out of there,” Liam said. He still didn’t move. His disheveled appearance, with his tie undone and hair sticking out here and there, suggested the questioning had not gone well.

“What’s your lawyer saying?”

“The police are mistaking coincidences for evidence.”

“Okay, well, that sounds promising.” Not really, but he looked rough enough without her adding to his anxiety. “I guess.”

She could see a storm raging around him, inside of him. His usual unruffled, can-handle-anything demeanor faltered. His slumped shoulders pulled at her. She debated going to him, hugging him, telling him they’d get through this, but all affection carried a taint now. Could she touch him without creating an odd vibe between them, or worse, reigniting whatever feelings they once had for each other? Neither of them could afford that, but they did need each other. He might not see it, but she did.

“You’re worried about the business, and I get it. But the news hasn’t leaked. I’ve been all over the Internet, and there’s nothing.” She skipped over Jessa’s offhanded comment at the charity auction because it suggested someone knew. Other lawyers. People in the courthouse. Someone with access to the prosecutor knew and had been whispering about Liam.

He stopped staring at the floor long enough to shoot a what’s the matter with you glare in her direction. “Do you really think my lawyer and PR team can contain the scandal forever? Everyone will think I killed Baines. My own brother.”

Detective Schone all but promised that. Gabby blocked that thought. It invited trouble, and they had more than enough of that right now. “No one that matters.”

“Kennedy.”

Her greatest weakness and his. She closed her eyes as pain whipped through her. She understood the reason for his self-punishment now. He’d just found out he had a daughter, all brokenhearted and really ticked off, but he had one, and she might believe the unthinkable and pull away forever.

Gabby had to pretend that wasn’t a possibility for his sake and for hers. “She won’t believe it. I know you didn’t kill Baines and you would never hurt me.”

Gabby held on to that. The evidence pointed one way, but the man she’d known for most of her life had never been a man who could kill for personal gain and without one ounce of remorse. Maintaining that trust took all her energy. The medicine bottle . . . planted. She also had once thought of Baines as steadfast and honest, but he’d turned. She’d watched it in real time. Lived through it.

Liam was different. He had to be, and she had to believe it. Anything else would destroy her, shatter any possibility of finding normal again.

Forgetting the what-ifs and what could happen issues, she started to go to Liam, desperate to offer comfort and steal a tiny bit in return.

“My sister,” he said.

Gabby stopped, all thoughts of finding a moment of peace gone. “Natalie? What about her?”

He folded his arms in front of him and faced her. No more looking around or seeming dejected. His expression was unreadable and not at all open. “Detective Schone suggested Natalie’s death may not have been an accident.”

Oh no . . . The anxiety simmering inside Gabby ratcheted up, bringing darkness and panic with it. “She’s reaching. It’s what the police do. They find pieces of your past and try to make nothing seem like something. It’s . . . I mean . . .”

“You’re babbling.”

His flat tone touched off a renewed round of alarm. She struggled to keep her voice even, not letting the outside mirror the terror inside. “I’m upset.”

“About what?”

Pivot, pivot, pivot. The word screamed in her head. “How can you ask that?”

“Detective Schone told me you knew more than you were saying about Natalie’s death. That you have information you were hiding from me.”

Not this. Not now. Gabby tried to hold on. “I don’t know what she’s talking about.”