“Surgery could take hours,” she continues, voice gentle but firm. “And you pacing around like you’re about to murder someone isn’t going to make it go faster.”
I stop moving. “What’s your point?”
“My point is that Nina needs you more than Austin does right now. He’s got the best cardiac surgeon in the city working on him. She’s got your fancy lawyer, sure, but she needs you there too.”
She’s right, and I hate that she’s right. I’ve been standing here feeling helpless when I could be down there making sure she’s okay. And if there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s taking care of what’s mine.
“There’s a guard outside,” I tell her, already reaching for my jacket. “I’m sending him in to keep watch.”
“I don’t need?—”
“But you’re getting one anyway.” I pause. “Text me the second anything changes.”
She rolls her eyes and mutters something about “bossy assholes.”
Donald King meets me at the front desk of the police station, straightening his tie like he’s about to devour someone’s firstborn. The Andretti family lawyer doesn’t lose cases, mainly because he fights dirtier than the prosecutors ever expect.
“Your girl’s got bigger balls than most of my clients,” he says by way of greeting. “She’s been smart about what she says, but they’re pushing hard.”
“What’s the situation?”
“They’ve got weak, circumstantial evidence so far, but they’re running with it. They think she murdered her ex.”
I almost laugh. Nina, a killer? The woman who apologizes to spiders before relocating them outside?
“Can you get me in there?”
“Already handled. You’ve got five minutes before they realize you’re not my junior associate.”
I don’t know what strings he pulled or what favors he called in, but ten minutes later I’m led into an attorney-client conference room with the cameras off. Nina sits with her back straight, hands folded, looking like she’s waiting for a job interview instead of facing a murder charge.
She looks up as I take the chair, and for a split second her mask slips. I see the fear underneath, the bone-deep terror she’s been hiding behind that calm facade.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she says, voice steady but eyes giving her away. “Austin?—”
“Is still in surgery. Keshia’s got it covered.” I take the chair across from her, close enough to see the exhaustion in her face. “Talk to me.”
She’s quiet for so long I start to wonder if she’s going to shut down completely. Then she finally speaks.
“They think I killed Eric.”
The way she says it—flat, matter-of-fact, like she’s commenting on the weather—sets off every alarm bell in my head. I’m glad King made sure the cameras were off for this conversation.
“...Did you?”
Her eyes meet mine, and I see the moment she decides to trust me with the truth that could destroy everything.
“Yes.”
What the fuck?
My jaw hangs open as something cold slithers under my skin.
I don’t know if anything could have surprised me more. I stare at her, trying to process what she just said. Nina actually killed someone. The same woman who cries at commercials for the animal shelter and who’s devoted her life to protecting her son.
“Tell me what happened.”
She takes a shaky breath. “It wasn’t planned. This was a few months after you and I slept together, after that night we met. I was pregnant, and Eric called saying he finally had my money for my half of the house. The check he’d been promising since the divorce.”
