“Steph—” His name died on her lips, the air rushing from her lungs, a smell she’d hoped to never breathe in again assaulting her. Spots danced in front of her eyes, her stomach twisting as she fought to hold back the churning bile.
Blood.
It permeated the entire area, unbelievably strong, as if every tree and shrub were dripping with it. Kat didn’t even realize she was moving, not until reaching the unbelievable scene in front of her, the one she so desperately tried to deny even as she witnessed it.
“Call an ambulance. Hurry!”
But she stood frozen, heart pumping ice through her veins, the screaming in her head deafening, drowning out Stephen’s command. Stephen…
Straddling Emma Anderson.
Hand gripping the knife buried in her stomach.
Blood covering every inch of his bare chest.
No, no, no! Kat scrambled back, the agonizing scream ripping from her throat, excruciating in its intensity, tripping over her feet, landing on her ass, her screams finally dying when her jaw snapped shut. She fumbled in her bag, grabbed her phone as she struggled to her feet.
“Towels!” Stephen yelled. “In my truck! The gym bag.”
Stephen’s shouts sounded a million miles away, fading in and out as she fought the swirling fog threatening to pull her under. Frantically, she tried to open the door with fingers that had gone numb. Her entire body trembled, breaking out in a cold sweat as she choked on sobs and stomach acid while the operator on the phone asked her to state her emergency and she realized she didn’t know the address.
“Towels, Kat! She’s alive!”
Alive? Oh God. Pushing back the darkness, she found the towels in the backseat. Fighting for calm, Kat rushed back toward Stephen, but the horror was too much, impossible to overcome when Stephen reached for the towels, his hand dripping with blood.
***
“You son of a bitch!”
Kat heard Ethan’s shout a second before he flew toward them, Ethan’s fist connecting with Stephen’s face. Stephen retaliated, his fist catching Ethan in the stomach, another punch to his jaw, a free for all until two uniformed officers rushed forward, breaking them apart.
It seemed like hours had passed before the ambulance, along with every law enforcement official in the county arrived. In reality, it was probably only a matter of minutes, many of them already on sight due to the fireworks. Still more sirens wailed, distant at first then growing in both number and intensity. Kat watched the scene unfold as if in a fog, the nightmare she’d just witnessed playing again and again.
First responders had to forcibly contain any remaining guests inside. Now they stood guard at each entrance, essentially keeping them on lockdown before they were interviewed. Apparently, they weren’t doing that great of a job if Ethan had escaped.
“Ethan!” The tortured shout came from somewhere over Kat’s shoulder, one of triplets, her mind too chaotic to make out which one. Arianna, maybe. Hadn’t she been wearing red? No…that was Abigail. Ethan turned, grabbing his sister in a clutching embrace, turning her away from the ambulance as Emma was rolled out of the copse of trees. He grabbed Kat as well, burying her face into his chest, but it was too late.
She’d already seen too much.
Ethan spoke in her ear, words she couldn’t hear over the questions buzzing in her head, trying to make sense of what she’d witnessed. But she was so grateful to have his arm around her, she nearly sobbed in relief.
Had it been an accident? An argument that had gotten out of control? Had Emma threatened him with the knife? Maybe he tried to take it away?
Ethan loosened his hold after kissing her head. She watched as went to speak to one of the officers, nodding as he looked back at his sister. Before he could make his way back toward them, another officer stopped him. Kat recognized her, the same Windham officer who’d been at Ethan’s shooting, the one who’d been so kind. Kat struggled to remember her name, but couldn’t.
The air was still, not even a breeze, as if the world had stopped breathing. She searched for Stephen, saw a few officers surrounding him. And with a sinking realization she understood that Stephen would be arrested for attempted murder, witnessed with his hands on the knife that was buried in Emma’s stomach. And in that brief second of time, Kat knew the nightmare he’d been about to face had just increased ten-fold, horror sinking in as if there weren’t already enough. She felt the trembling begin in her fingers, working its way through her entire body until she was shaking as if it was the middle of winter.
All too soon the questions would come, her answers sealing Stephen’s fate.
Kat closed her eyes only to see images she couldn’t yet face, couldn’t possibly comprehend. Because what she’d seen, and the truth couldn’t possibly align.
Right?
Oh God. How could she even question it?
She didn’t. She wasn’t. This was Stephen. He’d saved her. He was a hero. A hero who was now covered in blood.
In the distance, she heard a helicopter, explaining why the ambulance hadn’t left. Faint at first, quickly grew louder. The deputy next to her pulled Kat back as the helicopter made its descent, the wide-open slopes providing plenty of space to land, the conditions cooperating as there wasn’t any wind.
Her hair whipped around her, the ends stinging her face and neck like sharp little knives. Kat turned and squeezed her eyes shut, keeping out the dirt and debris. But the images wouldn’t leave her, growing more gruesome the longer she kept her eyes shut.
Opening them again, her gaze landed again on Stephen, his blood-soaked body now covered in a different shirt than the one he’d worn earlier. The ambulance’s lights glinted off his black hair, turning it red, highlighting the blood still covering his hands. Xavier appeared by his side as the helicopter’s rotor blade sped up. It seemed everybody turned at once, watching its ascent and departure until the lights were little more than a speck on the horizon. The sudden silence was deafening before another distant siren broke it, growing closer with each passing second until it was on top of them.
The BCI. Kat watched as Investigator Mary Robinson and Lieutenant Allen got out of the unmarked Crown Victoria. And just behind them, forensics. Immediately they surrounded the area.
She couldn’t hear their conversation with the uniformed officer, but she didn’t need to. The uniform was gesturing toward the trees, then Stephen. Finally, Robinson turned in Kat’s direction. She and Mary had been friendly when Kat had worked with the BCI, but she couldn’t help but wonder what Mary was thinking, finding her at yet another crime scene.
Allen turned toward Stephen as Mary Robinson made her way toward Kat. Ethan appeared by her side again and Kat breathed a sigh of relief, needing his strength, wishing he could tell her it would be okay, deep down knowing it wouldn’t. Ethan reached for her. Kat looked down, seeing the blood on his hands, her indrawn breath obviously loud enough for Ethan to hear.
“From when I grabbed Stephen,” he explained. Kat nodded. But something connected. And suddenly she realized Emma hadn’t been seen since disappearing with Ethan after he’d spilled the wine.
Chapter Seven
“What the hell are you doing?”
Kat winced at the venom in Stephen’s voice, rethinking her brilliant idea of convincing Ethan she’d be fine while he took his devastated family to the hospital. Instead of getting a ride home with Mary Robinson, she’d hidden on the floorboards in the backseat of Stephen’s truck.
Wrong move, apparently. She sucked in her breath when their eyes met over the front seat, the fury in his so great it would have brought tears to her eyes had she not been valiantly holding them back.
“Answer me!”
And despite herself, she jumped, his words too loud in the enclosed space of the cab. “I…um…”
But he didn’t wait for an answer, just threw the truck in first and turned the music’s volume up, so loud she thought her ears might bleed. So much for her apology. Or finding out what happened, if t
hey were going to arrest him. She’d hurt him, she knew. And the need to explain her words, well obviously they didn’t matter either, did they? Not anymore.
Minutes later they were pulling up her driveway. Stephen yanked the emergency brake so hard it was a wonder he didn’t snap the cable.
“Code.”
It must have taken her a second too long to answer, because he snapped the order again. She gave him the code.
“Stay.”
She didn’t. She scrambled out of the truck, following him up the walk as he punched in the code to her front door, ignoring her as if she wasn’t right behind him. She followed him in, crashing into his back when he stopped suddenly. He spun, the anger on his face enough to take her breath away, everything she’d wanted to say to him dying on her lips before she could even open her mouth. He looked so cold, so much worse than last night.
“Steph—”
“I told you stay. Big fucking surprise that you didn’t listen. I need to check the house.”
And before she could reply, he was gone, still protecting her even when he was pissed. She stood by front door for what seemed like forever, trying to figure out a way to talk to him before he left, knowing his idling truck was a pretty clear sign he wasn’t planning on staying.
“You’re clear.” He reached for the doorknob, even though she was leaning against it.
“Wait, Stephen. Please.”
He didn’t even look at her, though he did pause for a second. “Move.”
Cold. Clipped. As if they were no more than strangers. As if there was nothing between them. But she knew what he was doing, trying to intimidate her. It wasn’t going to work. “What happened tonight? What did the police say? Are they—”
“You were there,” Stephen growled, the look of menace in his eyes getting harder to ignore. “I just stabbed a woman. Now move.”
“You didn’t—”
“I wanted her dead, didn’t I?” he sneered, crowding her now, trapping her between his body and the door.
“Stop it! Why are you doing this? You didn’t stab her—” Kat yelled, shoving against his chest.
He grabbed her hands, spinning her around, hauling her back into his chest, his arms like steel bands around her, keeping her locked in place. “You sure about that sweetheart? Did you forget what I said last night? That I all but confessed before the fact.”
“You didn’t do this,” she breathed.
“Now you trust me?” he sneered, the sound so dark and sinister it made the hairs on her arms stand up, ice moving through her veins even though she tried to tell herself that was exactly his intent. “Do you need a reminder that I come from a long line of criminals? Does it really take a big leap to believe I tried to kill her tonight? After all, I had justification. Keep my family’s secrets hidden, keep Alex’s identity safe.”
Then he leaned in, his mouth close to her ear, his every breath landing on her. “Or maybe you just like bad boys, like the hint of danger. Is that it?” And to her horror, he moved his hand up her ribcage, cupping her breast in his palm. “Answer me, sweetheart,” he mocked. “Does it turn you on? Maybe you want to go upstairs, have one last—”
She finally snapped out of her stupor, kicking him in his shin. She struggled to get free, tears she’d been holding back now falling down her cheeks. She didn’t want him touching her this way, in anger instead of desire. He released her immediately, spinning her back around, so her back was once again pressed against the wall.
“Go to hell, Chandler.”
“I’m already there,” Stephen laughed, the sound so unbearably sinister in the darkness of her house. He stepped back, leaving her sagging against the wall, her legs slowly giving out, but she wouldn’t let him see her fall, unable to take anymore, hear anymore. “Stay away from me,” he warned, his voice hard. Final. “After what you said tonight? You’re nothing to me anymore.”
***
“You went a little overboard,” Xavier hissed, shoving Stephen against his truck without warning. Stephen was big, but Xavier had a few inches on him.
“No. Overboard would have been playing on her guilt and blaming her for the position we’re all in.” But he couldn’t bring himself to say the words. Couldn’t quite take it that far, even though he’d told himself he should. But it was a line he’d been unable to cross. As it was, the devastation on Kat’s face nearly killed him, as if tonight’s knife had pierced through his own heart instead of Emma Anderson’s stomach.
“Cameras,” he hissed, not missing the fact that Xavier’s right hand was poised to deliver a blow Stephen knew he deserved.
“Off-line for the moment. She’ll never know I was here, never know if I beat the shit out you, which is what you deserve.”
“Get the fuck off me, Zave. You know damn well what that was about. Get in the truck. I did what I had to do.”
Not that it didn’t make him feel like shit, Stephen thought when Xavier released him with a shove. He slammed his door shut the same time Xavier shut his. Neither spoke as he drove down Kat’s driveway, letting Xavier out at the bottom of the hill so he could go to his own car, well out of Kat’s cameras that filmed every inch of her yard.
Ten minutes later, Xavier was still pissed as they entered Alex’s cabin, not far from Kat’s house. Stephen closed his eyes and took a deep breath, almost swearing he could smell Kat from the time they spent here six weeks ago. A lifetime ago, he thought. He stayed on the porch, steeling himself before he went inside. He hadn’t stepped foot in this place since he’d been there with Kat. A magical day that now made him ache.
Xavier was setting up his laptop when Stephen finally walked in, getting ready to hack into Kat’s security system.
“You crushed her.”
“Would you rather she be dead?” Stephen asked, shooting Xavier a look. “Which is surely going to happen if she starts digging her nose where it doesn’t belong. I don’t want her involved.”
“And you think a few shitty words will change that fact?”
Jesus, he hoped so. Hoped it was enough. Because he wouldn’t be able to do that to her again. As it was, it killed something inside of him, the war he’d been prepared to fight dying with Emma’s stabbing.
“Ethan’ll be there to pick up the pieces.” Yet the thought of her in another man’s arms, even though he’d all but shoved her into them—for the second time—brought all that anger he’d been faking at Kat’s to the surface. Only this time it wasn’t so fake.
“You up?” he asked, changing the subject. Xavier had warned him she was in his truck, waiting for him. He was surprised Allen had let him go. But he’d taken his statement, recorded the interview with Stephen’s promise that he’d be at headquarters first thing in the morning for further questions. Christ, the nightmare that had become his life just got worse every fucking minute, didn’t it?
“We’re up.”
He’d unlocked the back door when he’d been searching Kat’s house, giving Xavier access to Kat’s computer, the surveillance program she’d created. He knew Kat, knew she’d stop at nothing to prove his innocence if Emma took a turn for the worse. And even if Kat wasn’t his, he’d never take another chance with her life.
“Why don’t you walk me through everything that happened tonight?”
“Nothing happened. I found out Emma was going to be at the party tonight, so I went, hoping to convince her to hold off on airing the story until we could find Alex. I couldn’t find her, so I texted her.”
Stephen closed his eyes, trying to think of any small detail that had escaped his notice as he recounted everything he saw to Xavier from the time he arrived at the slopes. But it was nearly fucking useless because when he couldn’t find Emma, Kat had turned into his sole focus. Kat on Ethan’s arm. Kat with Ethan’s sisters, with his mother and he wondered if she was part of their family now, wondered why Ethan hadn’t made a move.
And then it had occurred to him with stunning clarity. Ethan had been waiting for this exact moment. While a
nnouncing his run for District Attorney with Kat by his side, he’d also be taking on an entirely different campaign. One that would win Kat’s heart as he swept her off her feet. The party, the upcoming gala, the rise of his hero status during the simultaneous fall of the Chandlers.
And Stephen had been hell bent on making sure Ethan never got the opportunity.
“Then what happened?” Xavier asked, pulling Stephen from his thoughts.
“Where was I?” Because he’d forgotten, lost now in Kat, laughing with Ethan’s sisters, a family. One she probably craved since hers had been so ruthlessly taken from her. By Stephen’s grandfather.
“You were talking to Kat.”
Trust me, Kat.
I can’t!
Fuck, those words hurt, the pain somehow worse now that they had time to sink in. “It didn’t…end well. I was leaving, going out to my truck when I noticed the text from Emma.” He closed his eyes again, shoving Kat out of his mind for the moment. “I heard sounds…whimpers, crying. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from at first. Then I saw her in the trees. She was on the ground, her hands were on the knife, trying to pull it out, but her hands slipped. After that, it was chaos. I started yelling for her to leave the knife in, took off my shirt to stop the bleeding around the wound. Tried to get her hands off the knife. I was yelling for help, heard a noise, knew somebody was there and turned around to look. Kat was there…” Horror on her face. Something he was becoming much to accustomed to seeing.
“Why was she there?”
“I assume she was following me.”
“Did you tell this to the police?”
“Not the argument, but yes, everything else.”
“And how long before Kat found you?”
“Christ, I don’t know.” It seemed like hours, but was probably only minutes. “Enough time to stab Emma, I assume.”
“Any recent enemies?”
Betrayal (Secrets, Lies, and Deception Book 2) Page 6