She closed her eyes, knowing he was watching, waiting for her to speak. React. Anything.
She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. Not when her emotions were all over the place.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked quietly.
She didn’t need to answer. She chose to address the hovering Detective Finbar instead. “I assume the gallery’s under investigation now.”
“I’m afraid so,” Finbar said. “It’s just routine until we can rule out the possibility that this was an inside job.”
“I told you,” Nick bit off. “Sassy and Soledad were unaware of what was happening at their back door.”
“Like I said,” Finbar said, “we’re required to follow through with our investigative efforts. If Ms. Colton and Ms. Yazzie are clean, it won’t take long to rule them out as accomplices.”
Sassy mashed her fingers into the space between her eyes. A headache was starting to make tracks there. “Am I under arrest, Detective?” she drawled.
“No, ma’am,” Finbar stated. “But your cooperation will be noted in my report.”
She inhaled deeply, wishing she could paper over this entire nightmare. The night had been such a success for Zephyr. How had it all fallen apart so completely? “Do what you have to do,” she said, hearing the finality in her voice.
“Thank you, Ms. Colton,” Finbar said. “I’ll be in touch.”
Nick waited for him to walk away before he touched her, his palm spreading warm across the base of her spine. “They were supposed to catch him. This was all supposed to be over after tonight.”
“How?” she asked.
“How what?”
“How could you do this?” she hissed. Shaking her head, she fought for grace that wasn’t there. The horse’s head stared at her from empty eyes on the floor. She shook her head again. “How could you lie to me about what you were doing in the gallery with Olsen Security?”
“I didn’t lie,” he argued. “They did install a new security system. A better one.”
“And the hidden cameras?” she asked. “Are spy gadgets part of the standard security package or did they throw those in for free?”
He balked. “I—”
“A lie by omission is still a lie,” she reminded him. “Twenty years of friendship haven’t taught you that?” Before he could think of a reply, she stepped into him, asserting herself in the space between them. “You’ve been planning this for God knows how long and you didn’t breathe a word of it. Not one word. Is that what this—” she gestured from him to her and back “—has come to? You lying and sneaking around and planning to catch drug dealers in my wheelhouse without me any the wiser?”
“I told you,” he said, fixed and finite in the face of her fury. “I told you, Sassy, that I was going to protect you.”
“At the expense of our relationship?” she challenged, her voice escalating to ring off the walls.
“You two need a ref?” Jacob asked as he and Chayton edged closer.
“We’re fine,” Nick said, his voice maddeningly calm and even. He didn’t break the stare down between him and Sassy. “If you or Soledad had known about tonight, you might have inadvertently tipped Ryder off.”
“Oh, so she and I were the liabilities in all this?” Sassy asked, unable to stay quiet. “We were both blindsided by what just happened, but she is shattered. The least you could have done was soften the blow by being honest aboutsomething.”
“I did what I thought was best,” he said, shoulders straight, unrepentant. “For you, Soledad and Zephyr.”
“It wasn’t your call to make,” she tossed back. “Do you have any idea what this investigation will do to us? Soledad will have to stand for questioning. I guarantee she’s humiliated already. I won’t escape unscathed, either. They may not find anything in the surveillance footage or on the books, but this won’t put Zephyr in a good light. There is such a thing as bad press. That doesn’t simply affect the bottom line, Nick. It affects every single one of my artists. Everyone associated with Zephyr will feel the repercussions in some way.”
“He tried to break into your house!” Nick said, finally losing his cool. “What was I supposed to do?”
“You don’t know it was him outside my house that night,” she pushed back.
“Tell me you don’t believe it was him,” he challenged. “Tell me you don’t believe Fletcher was the one who tried to kill you on Main Street.”
“You’re not a detective,” she told him. “You were the first person I turned to when I needed someone. You were the first person I could call when anything went wrong. After this, how am I supposed to trust you ever again?”
