“Right,” he scoffs. “How do we know the Porters aren’t responsible for this? They could be harassing her since she’s prosecuting their case, trying to scare her off.”
“Jeremiah has been held in jail since his arrest. Randall is on house arrest, and his lawyer has made sure he’s unreachable.
“Whoever did this had to have been there at the wedding to get a hold of these programs, but she called it off before photographers started snapping pictures of guests. The hotel didn’t have any cameras pointed toward the venue space.”
“Any other thoughts, Jensen?” Lochlan enunciates my first name to grab my attention because I’ve started to zone out. This fucker was at her wedding… What was he going to do? Would he have hurt her?
“I hardly know anything about her personal life now. She’skept me at arm’s length. Aside from Thea and you all,” I wave towards Malec. “I don’t know who she’s been around.”
“She has a lot of former clients, and a lot of cases on the docket in Rollins County. I’ve been going through all of them, but even the more difficult people she’s represented have had nothing but nice things to say about her.”
“She’s always been the golden girl, even if she couldn’t see it.”
“Is there anyone from her past that might still be holding onto lingering feelings? Besides you.” Malec asks, and my head snaps up. “Don’t bother. Everyone with a pulse can tell you’re in love with her.”
My gaze tips up to the rafters, ignoring the latter statement. “She was adopted. As far as I know, she’s never met her birth parents. Her adoptive mother has to be in her late 70s by now.”
“I know all of that. I need the less formal information. The stuff she doesn’t want to disclose.”
“Dammit, Malec. You’re asking too much of me. I just got her back in my life. If I betray her trust, she’ll never speak to me again.”
“She’ll never speak to you again if she’s dead, either.”
My body lunges before my brain catches up, but Lochlan anticipated it, trapping me in an arm bar before I attack the Sheriff. I know he doesn’t mean it as a threat, but it doesn’t stop the visceral reaction.
“I’m not trying to rile you up, Hayes. I’m trying to get to the bottom of this. I’ll ask Liv again, but think about it. If there is someone I need to know about, I expect a name as soon as possible.”
Lochlan lets me go, and I shove away from him, nodding. “Iknow you’re trying to help, but this whole situation is pissing me off.”
“Give me the names by Monday, or I’ll start digging myself even if Liv pushes back. She can be mad at me, not you.”
I nod in thanks, and he turns to leave, glancing at the punching bag again.
“You can hit it if you want.”
Malec stares at it briefly, contemplating it. “No, I gotta go.” He waves it off and stalks out of the garage, reminding me that he’s just a normal guy who ended up on a different side of the law than I did.
He’s not a bad dude. He cares about Liv.
He’s not my enemy.
“He can probably punch it harder than you can.”
My head turns eerily slow towards Lochlan. “Do you want me to beat your ass right now?”
“Would it make you feel better?”
I think about it longer than probably necessary. “No, it wouldn’t.”
“Well, I tried. Stop pouting and get some work done.” He leaves out the same door Malec did, taking the distraction with him.
If she’d just let me see her, I’d stop worrying so much.
20 seconds. I didn’t even make it 20 seconds without thinking about her.
I still haven’t told Lochlan about the ridiculous way I’ve been distracting myself since I saw her last. A major life decision that has already been causing me back-breaking grief.
But after a million initials and a handful of signatures, the spontaneity of my decision felt so idiotic that I haven’t hadthe courage to say anything.
