“She drugged us! I’d already heard around town that she was a reporter, and the day I killed her, Malcolm confessed to me that he told her about our affair. About how angry I was about Lauren. I approached her, tried to figure out what she knew, and it was clear she knew everything. I saw the hate in her eyes. The disgust. I lost my temper. Might have even threatened her.”
“That’s why she was scared when she got home.”
“Ihadto kill her.”
“No. Youchoseto kill her. To save yourself.”
“You would have done the same thing. I took her laptop, but then I heard you talking in the parking lot of The Tea House that day. Thank God I followed you back to your place. But after you ran into the bathroom, I saw you’d called Jesse, and I had to leave without the damn USB.” She shook her head. “I can’t have Jesse or any of the deputies finding out. I’ve hurt too many people. Lauren. Scarlett. Deb.”
“Did you really kill Deb?”
She rolled her eyes. “I went over there this morning and asked her to call Holden over so he’d leave you unprotected. She wouldn’t do it. Demanded to know why. So I had to hold a gun to her fucking head while she called. The bitch was so dumb! What did she think, I was going to just let her go after she got off the phone?”
Jesus. “What about Malcolm? Did you drug him too?”
She frowned. “No. He OD’d because he couldn’t take the thought of going to prison.”
Was that true? Had Malcolm really done it to himself?
Briar stepped forward. “So…now that we have all that stuff out in the open, you have exactly five seconds to tell me where that USB is before I cut my losses and shoot you in the head.”
Shit. She opened her mouth, not sure what words were about to come out, when a figure suddenly appeared on the other side of the glass…
Helen.
Clara’s heart beat faster.
No. Run, Helen!
But it was too late. Helen was looking at them through the glass, eyes wide—and Briar had already seen her.
CHAPTER 30
Holden wanted to punch something. To ram his fist so far into a fucking wall that the pain drowned out the other stuff. The anger that rushed through his veins. The dread that sat in his gut at the possibility that he wouldn’t find Clara in time.
“What if we’re too late?” he asked, his fear spilling out into the air.
“We’re not going to be too late.” Jesse took his eyes off the road to glance over at him. “You know that as well as I do.”
“I can’t lose her.”
“You won’t.Wewon’t.”
Holden scanned the streets. Nothing. And the half dozen deputies in addition to Becket who were also looking for her hadn’t found Clara yet either.
Dammit.
“Maybe she drove to the street fair,” Jesse said, almost to himself. “She could have wanted to blend into the crowd. Hide where there were lots of people.”
Holden shook his head. “No. There are families and kids there. She wouldn’t have put anyone else in danger. She didn’thave a phone, and she needed to get to safety. The only place I can think that she would go is—”
“The sheriff’s station.” Jesse sped up.
“I still can’t believe it’s been Briar this entire time,” Holden said quietly, so fucking mad at himself. “She was right there. I’ve been to her house a dozen times. I built her a damn kitchen.”
“It doesn’t make sense to me either. She was working the morning Malcolm was drugged. She only would have been one hour into her shift when his attack happened. There’s no way she would have had the opportunity to drug him.”
“Maybe Malcolmdiddo it to himself.”
