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 they 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 announcing 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?”
“Only Ethan.”
“You found her right in front of your truck.”
“Still…anyone could have spotted her there. I don’t think I was deliberately lured there.”
“The text says otherwise. You never saw Emma. She could have been stabbed before you even arrived. So I’ll ask again, was there anybody else at the party who’d like to see you go down for this?”
Stephen sighed when Xavier just stared at him, waiting for an answer. “Just Ethan. More likely, Emma’s assailant saw the text and just texted me back.”
“And when the story breaks, your hands on the knife add the icing to the cake.”
“Exactly. Means, motive and opportunity.”
After a pause, Xavier said, “You better pray Emma makes it out of this alive.”
“Believe me, I have been.”
“You don’t think Ethan would have stabbed her, do you?”
Stephen sighed and sat back on the couch. “Honestly? No. But he’s damn sure got the most to gain if I’m out of the picture.”
Kat being the biggest reason. The only one that mattered. The one he’d just thrown away. Silence hung between them as Stephen stared out the windows, seeing only darkness until Xavier’s computer beeped. Stephen looked up, fear for Kat’s safety putting him on alert.
“Speak of the devil.”
He glanced at the time on the microwave. It was two o’clock in the morning.