I blink, shaking my head. “What are you saying?”
“I’m going to give it to you straight, Miss Lee.”
It’s not the way he says it—although that makes me uneasy as fuck. It’s the look in his eyes as he counts off points on his propped-up hand. I watch each finger uncurl with dread settling heavier and heavier in my already queasy stomach.
God. He almost lookssorryfor me.
“Kai was in the vicinity where Melissa was found. He resisted arrest. He has no alibi for the hours preceding Melissa’s arrival on campus. She names him—onlyhim—as the perpetrator.”
“Come on! She was so doped up—” I start, but Thatcher just carries on like I didn’t speak at all.
“And he was carrying a weapon on him.”
“Aweapon? What kind of weapon?”
“Weapons aren’t allowed on school property.”
“Yeah, I—” I swallow. “I know that.”
“Does he?”
“Look, I don’t know why he—that doesn’t mean he hurt Melissa.”
“Doesn’t it? Are you one hundred percent certain all the defensive marks we found on him came from you?”
Allof them?
My heart is hammering so hard I can feel it in my fingertips. Pressure builds at the base of my skull.
“If you were in my shoes, Miss Lee, how would this look to you?”
Bad.
Really fucking bad.
But Kai didn’t do it. Iknowhe didn’t…
…Because I know exactlywho did.
And I can’t say a fucking word.
I lift my hand, my fingers going to my throat. I can still feel Bastian’s heat on my skin. Can still hear his voice in my ear, calling me depraved. Telling me I’m his pretty little slut.
My face warms up. Sweat prickles in my cleavage and the small of my back.
“What I can’t understand, Miss Lee, is why, if you’re so adamant about Kai’s innocence, you weren’t at his side to defend him.”
I blink, my mind taking a second to process the words. The cop stares at me from across the dented metal table like he can read every filthy thought in my mind.
“What?” I whisper.
“You weren’t there, Miss Lee.” Thatcher meshes his fingers again, cradling that damn notebook of his. “You walked away. Looked to me like you didn’t want to be associated with Mr. Jordan. Like you were avoiding him.”
“I had to take a walk.”
“So while campus security is arresting your boyfriend for kidnapping and assault, the thing you really need is awalk?”
When he says it like that, it sounds insane. Damning.
