Shit. Not good. She lowered the phone. “Rhett—”
“You blamed me?” He got so close, she could almost feel his breath on her face.
“I—”
“They questioned me forhours. Made me feel like a fucking criminal!”
“Look—”
“No,youlook.” Another step forward. Now he was crowding her. “I—”
“Is there a problem here?”
Addie looked up to see a tall, dangerous-looking man beside them. He had dark hair and blue eyes.
Rhett scowled at him. “Mind your own fucking business, man.”
“When I see a woman being yelled at by an asshole, Imakeit my business.”
Addie opened her mouth, not sure what words were about to come out, when the door opened behind her.
“What do you mean,you couldn’t hold him?” Noah snapped, frustration heating his breath.
Jesse sighed from behind his desk at the sheriff’s station. “It’s an open criminal investigation and we didn’t have the evidence to arrest him. Yes, he set up the equipment, but so did two other people, and none of them admitted to seeing any wrongdoing. He consented to us checking his car, and we didn’t find any battery acid.”
“So, because he’s good at covering his ass, he gets to walk free?”
Jesse leaned forward and said each word slowly and deliberately. “We’re paying him another visit today under the pretense of a routine follow-up. We’re going to look for any inconsistencies in his story. We’ll also ask to search his home.”
Noah laughed. “Even if therehadbeen something incriminating, it’ll be long gone now.”
“We’re doing everything we can, Noah.”
It wasn’t enough. Buck had already been injured yesterday, and Addie easily could have been hurt too.
He pushed his seat back and rose to his feet.
“Where are you going?” Jesse asked.
“To Addie. If this asshole’s still out there, then she’s not safe.”
He knew he wasn’t being fair to his cousin. Jesse was good at his job, and of course he was doing everything he could to keep his town and the people in it safe. But fuck, Noah was angry.
He was halfway to the door when Jesse grabbed his arm. “Listen.” Jesse waited for him to turn before finishing. “I’mworking on this, okay? I’m not going to stop until we’ve nailed the person responsible.”
“I know. I appreciate what you’re doing.”
Jesse squeezed Noah’s arm, and he left his cousin’s office. He’d just reached his car when Colt called. He waited until he was inside the vehicle to answer. “What’s up?”
“Have you spoken to Jesse?”
“They didn’t have enough evidence to hold him.” Even saying the words out loud made him furious all over again.
There was a small pause. “Is it possible it wasn’t him? Yes, he grabbed her the night before, but that doesn’t mean he’d go so far as to want her or Buck to fall off the cliff.”
“If not him, then who? Buck wouldn’t have done this to himself. It could be Cass. That’s something Jesse’s also looking into. But it still brings up the question—why? Addie’s adamant that she doesn’t have any enemies here. Who would have something to gain from her leaving town?”
“Maybe we should do some more digging on everyone at the park, just in case. Cass is coming in today. I can talk to her.”
