My palms are sweating against each other. I shift a little, wiping them discreetly on my jeans where Thatcher can’t see.
“So it’s possible Mr. Jordan met with Melissa on Friday night?”
I open my mouth. Close it. “I…no. He wouldn’t have done that.”
“Why not?”
I shrug. “He was having drinks with his friend all night.”
“But how can you be sure he just met with his friends, and not Miss Parker too? He could have seen her afterward. He was gone for a very long time.”
“There’s no way Kai was with Melissa on Friday night.”
The instant Thatcher tilts his head, I feel the bear trap he set so fucking neatly slam closed. He watches me for a moment, like he’s waiting for me to continue, but I clench my jaw and resist the urge to explain.
“You sound pretty sure,” he says. “In fact, that’s theonlything you’ve been sure of this morning. Yet you weren’t with Kai. You say you don’t know when he came back to the Airbnb, if at all. So how are you so certain, Miss Lee?”
Thatcher leans forward, meshing his fingers on the table, his notebook nestled between his forearms.
“Miss Lee, if you are withholding information about?—”
“My boyfriend wouldn’t cheat on me,” I snap. There’s a hot flush on my face, and I’m gripping my hands between my legs tight enough to hurt. “He’s even less capable of that than hurting someone.”
“So he’s more likely to assault someone than cheat on you?”
“That’s not what I said! I meant, he’s not the kind of person to hurt someone. He cares too much.”
“About everyone except his brother, you mean.”
I blink at Thatcher, my brain going blank.
Thatcher leans back in his chair again. “Kai beat his brother into a coma, Miss Lee.”
My mouth twitches into a sour grimace.
Don’t say it.
Don’t fucking say it.
Don’t—
“Ezra fucking deserved it,” I mutter.
Chapter 14
Haven
He deserved it.
I’ve been thinking it every day since the Rain Dance, so it was bound to come out.
Was I planning to tell a cop?
Hell no.
But nothing has gone my way in this interview, so no surprise there.
Thatcher flinches. Guess he didn’t expect me to support Kai’s decision to beat up Ezra.
