That was an understatement. The guy had made her skin crawl, and because Kingston had seemed to worship Eric, that was the first time Caroline had started to look at Eric in a different light. That was the beginning of her seeing the monster crouched just below the facade he put on as a research assistant. Too bad she hadn’t seen it a whole lot sooner. If she had, Jack’s dad might be alive. Many others, too.
“If Eric and he were friends, Kingston’s name should have come up,” Jack concluded.
“Eric had erased all of his contacts. Or rather, he only left contacts and info that he didn’t mind being discovered. He just used burner phones for getting in touch with anyone who was important to him.”
“And this Kingston was important?” Jack asked while he typed something on his phone. She then heard the swooshes of outgoing texts. Maybe he was reaching out to his marshal friends to do a quick background check on Kingston. She hoped he hadn’t mentioned that she’d regained her memory.
She nodded in reply to his question. “After Eric managed to get me away from the abandoned inn, it was Kingston who helped Eric get some money. I heard their phone conversation, too, and Kingston was like a groupie. He idolized Eric, would do anything for him.”
This time Jack said a single word of profanity. “And you didn’t think you should give this info to someone?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “Even if you didn’t trust me, you could have told the cops.”
“I didn’t know if I could trust them, either.” She had to pause again. “And I really did have amnesia until three days ago.”
He made a sound that conveyed a whole boatload of doubt.
“I was in a hospital in Mexico,” Caroline went on. “I’m not sure how I got there, but I think Eric took me across the border, and then I escaped. Or he could have left me for dead. Someone found me in a ditch and took me to the hospital. I had injuries other than just to my head. Broken bones, and I’d been beaten. There were lots of cuts and bruises on my face.”
Jack couldn’t dispute any of those injuries, because he had almost certainly seen the report of the medical exam that she’d been given after she returned to Longview Ridge three months ago.
“I didn’t see Eric or Kingston after that, and even if I had, I might not have recognized them because of the amnesia,” she admitted.
Which meant she’d be dead right now if Eric had seen her.
“After my condition improved in the Mexico hospital, they moved me to a convalescent home because I couldn’t use my right hand,” she explained. “Because of the head trauma, too. I stayed there until three months ago, when I started regaining pieces of my memory. I still didn’t know who I was, but the name Longview Ridge kept repeating in my head.”
So had Jack’s name. And what she’d said to him kept playing again and again, too. Caroline doubted he would appreciate her mentioning that now, though.
I love you, Jack.
Yes, she’d indeed told him that. After a lazy Sunday morning of sex, he’d gotten the call to go into work, and instead of saying a simple goodbye, she’d said those words aloud. They had just slipped out—as easily as the kiss he had given her only seconds earlier. She’d seen the surprise in his eyes. Maybe the “run for the hills” look. Whichever it was, he hadn’t said it back to her.
Everything that came after had happened so fast that Caroline hadn’t had time to think about what had been said or unsaid. Unlike the last three days. Plenty of time to think then, and she hadn’t liked the conclusion. She’d been wrong to tell him she loved him, even if it had been true.
“If you thought I was such a threat, why did you stay here?” he snapped. “Why didn’t you run again as soon as you remembered what had gone on?”
“I stayed so I could try to find out the truth. Like I said, I once had a life, and I want it back. I want to find out what happened that night of your father’s murder, and to do that, I have to stay alive.”
“And you don’t believe I want you alive.” It sounded as if that disgusted him. Maybe it did. If he was clean, and she had to pray that he was, then an accusation like that would cut him to the core. But it wasn’t Jack who was her biggest worry. It was any and all of the other cops and marshals who would get called into this investigation before this was over.
She opened her mouth just as something flashed through her head. Not a memory. But a really bad thought.
“Gemma,” she blurted out. “Oh, God. Kingston could go after Gemma. You have to warn her.”
“I already have. I sent Kellan a text to give him a heads-up that there might be a problem with Gemma’s safety.Might,” he emphasized.
Kellan was his brother, the sheriff of Longview Ridge, but he was also Gemma’s fiancé. Kellan would protect her, but it twisted at Caroline’s insides that she hadn’t thought of contacting Gemma the moment she’d seen Kingston’s face on the screen. To the best of her knowledge, Gemma hadn’t actually met Kingston, but that didn’t mean the man wouldn’t try to go after her or anyone else who’d been connected to his now dead idol, Eric.
“Just please make sure that no one hurts her,” she said.
“Funny that you’d show this much concern for Gemma now. She’s your friend and your former boss, but you lied to her, too. Lying by omission is still a lie,” he insisted. “Why didn’t you tell Gemma that you had regained your memory and suspected that a dirty cop could be part of this?”
“Because I knew she’d tell Kellan,” Caroline readily admitted.
“Damn straight Gemma would have, and it would have been the right thing to do.”
“Maybe,” Caroline muttered, not convinced that it would have indeed been theright thing. “But when I came back to town and saw her with Kellan, I knew they were in love. Once I hadmy memory back, I decided that Kellan must have been a good cop or Gemma wouldn’t have those feelings for him. I couldn’t take the chance, though, that Kellan would say something to someone whose feelings weren’t soloving.”
“Like me,” he snapped.
