“From where I was standing,” Willard shot back, “it didn’t exactly sound private.”
“Why don’t we tell them what the real problem is?” Lex suggested.
“That would be nice,” Conner growled, leaning in even closer to the guy.
What the hell? Sarah glowered from one man to the other. This was her battle.
“Sarah, you should explain to these gentlemen the motive behind your obsession with cases like this.” The bastard’s eyes dared her to ignore his challenge. “Perhaps then they would better understand your tactics.”
All attention was on her then.
“My only motive is finding the truth.” It infuriated Sarah all the more that a good deal of the ferocity had gone out of her tone. This son of a bitch knew too much about her. He was twisting the situation to suit his needs. His intent was as transparent as glass. He wanted to make her look like a fool. And it would work. She knew all too well.
“Her mother murdered her father,” Lex announced, “and seven of his mistresses over a ten-year period. Each time, little Sarah hid in the closet or under the stairs waiting for Mommy to finish up and find her.”
Sarah rammed her fist into his gut. Couldn’t help herself. Lex bent forward. Gagged and coughed. The chief stepped between them. Conner manacled her arm, restraining her from doing further physical harm.
When Lex had recaptured his breath, he glared at her with no mercy. The gloves were off now, he was going for the jugular. “All those years,” he taunted, “all those lies. That’s what makes the truth so important to you, isn’t it, Sarah? You need the truth.”
His words hit their mark. The rage died a sudden death. The truth was what it was ... and she couldn’t deny his charge.
The only thing she needed was out of here.
Sarah walked away.
She’d had enough.
Let them believe what they would. Let them depend on that jerk. It was their mistake to make.
“Sarah!” Kale called after her.
“Wait, Kale.”
When he would have followed her, the chief grabbed Kale by the arm. “Let her go.”
Kale glared at the man, then at Agent Asshole. “What the hell were you doing? She didn’t deserve that.” Kale’s head was still spinning with the reality of what August had said. Sarah’s mother had killed her father ... and seven mistresses? Jesus Christ. There had been nothing about that in the background info the chief and the mayor had given him.
Had Sarah overheard her mother’s gruesome activities? Seen things a child shouldn’t see? No wonder she didn’t believe in people. The ones she’d trusted the most had let her down. From her parents all the way down to this jerk—whom she had obviously trusted with her deepest, darkest secrets.
“She played you, Mr. Conner,” August informed him with a fleeting glance at Sarah’s car as she spun out of the parking lot.“That’s what she does. She digs into an investigation and she uses whomever she has to in order to get what she wants. Information.”
Kale was going to beat the hell out of this piece of shit. His chest felt ready to explode. His fingers itched to scrape the parking lot with his self-righteous face. “I don’t think you know her quite as well as you think you do.”
August smirked. “I know every square inch of her.”
Rage detonated in Kale’s blood. Had the chief let go of him already, Kale would have jumped the guy then and there.
“We don’t have time to worry about Sarah Newton, Kale,” the chief urged. “We have a murderer to find. That’s where we need to focus our attention and our energy.”
Kale took a breath, grappled for reason. The chief was right. They had to stop this nightmare. If anyone else disappeared ... he couldn’t even go there.
There was no time to worry about Sarah right now. Kale shouldn’t even waste a second caring about her feelings. After what she’d said to him last night, he should be finished with her. He’d let her get to him ... had let her get closer than he had anyone in so damned long it wasn’t even funny.
And she’d played him off as if he didn’t matter.
Yet he couldn’t get her out of his head. As hard as he tried, she just kept breaking through every mental barrier he erected.
He could still smell her on his skin. No matter how many showers he took, he couldn’t wash away the feel of her.
