Back then, she’d been his to hold. His to kiss. His to take to his bed.
Now, with her in his arms again, those memories pressed in hard. He kept his touch steady, fighting the urge to tilt her chin and taste her like he used to. Fighting the pull that had never really gone away.
Laney eased back, her shoulder brushing the edge of the box. It shifted, bumping into the wedding photo beside it. The frame tipped, landed face down on the desk with a muted clack.
Hell. The sight of it lying there hit like a gut punch, a hard reminder that David still stood between them.
Maybe always would.
Harlan pushed the heat back down, shoved the frustration deeper, and reached for distance that he didn’t want. It was a familiar pattern, one he’d been doing for years, and it was best to keep the pattern and barriers in place. Heat didn’t go well with focus.
His phone buzzed in his pocket, a welcome interruption, and he pulled it out, the glow of the screen lighting the shadows between them. Garrett’s name flashed at the top. A lab update. Harlan opened it, eyes skimming fast.
They’d found DNA on Evie’s hair clip. Not just Evie’s, Carol’s and Laney’s, as to be expected.
But someone else’s DNA.
And the lab had confirmed a match.
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Chapter Five
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Laney stared at the phone screen that Harlan held out to her to see, and the name there punched through her like a fist.
Billy Maddox.
Her breath caught, the shock giving way to a wave of raw disgust that curled tight in her stomach. That lowlife had been here. In her home. In Evie’s bedroom. He had touched her daughter’s things and had taken her hair clip.
Her hands clenched into fists before she even realized it, nails biting into her palms. Heat surged up her neck.
“That son of a bitch,” she muttered, her voice rough with the tangle of emotions.
Anger swelled fast, hot and sharp, and she wanted to storm out right now, find Billy, and make him regret every breath he’d taken since he’d stepped foot on her property.
“Why would Billy be that careless?” Harlan asked, his voice cutting through her thoughts.
Laney blinked, the question slowing the rush of fury just long enough for his words to sink in.
“The hair clip was right there for us to find,” he went on. “In fact, I’d say the plan was for us to find it by having that hoodie-wearing figure lead us in that very direction. So why put it in plain sight and leave his DNA on it?”
Her stomach knotted tighter, the anger still burning but now whirled with something colder. If Billy had wanted them to know he was here… then he was playing a game. Of course, there was another possibility.
Laney turned to look at Harlan. “You think someone’s setting Billy up?”
Harlan gave a small shrug, his eyes steady on hers. “It’s something we have to consider.”
She drew in a breath, working to throttle back the anger that was still running hot in her veins. Letting his words sink in, accepting them as a possibility, wasn’t easy, but he was right. If this were a setup, they couldn’t afford to miss it. Still, that didn’t change one thing.
“He’ll have to be questioned,” she insisted.
Pulling out her phone, she typed a quick message to Sheriff Clay Barnes, laying out the lab results of Billy’s DNA on the hair clip. The sheriff’s reply came fast. Barnes would bring Billy in for questioning first thing in the morning.
Good.
That was a start. Maybe Billy would either make a confession or give them info to let them know who the heck was doing this. Because if he were truly being set up, then he might have an inkling of who was doing that. And why.
