“She and I were friends at first, but there was something about her. We got together that spring. First love is one helluva drug.”
“So you loved her?”
“I did—or I thought I did.” Darius told her how they’d gotten an apartment together their sophomore year over their parents objections. “My mom and dad wanted me to focus on my education, but when you’re young…”
He told her how Becca had decided mid-semester that she wanted a kitten, even though their lease didn’t allow pets. “I like cats. Don’t get me wrong. But we were both nineteen-year-old college students. We had no idea where we’d be living next year, no money for vet bills, and we had signed a lease agreeing not to have pets.”
“I understand. I love animals, but I don’t have a cat or a dog because I travel so much. It would be irresponsible and unfair to the animal.”
“Exactly.” Darius told Sasha how he and Becca had gotten into an argument about it, steeling himself for what came next. “I went for a walk to cool off. That was the last time I saw her alive. She was so angry with me.”
Darius closed his eyes as unwanted images filled his head, an all-too-familiar sense of dread settling in his stomach. “When I … When I got back, the door to our apartment was ajar. I went inside and found her half-naked and lying in her own blood. Someone had stabbed her repeatedly and cut her throat. It was the most terrifying, awful thing I’d ever seen.”
“Oh, Darius. I can’t imagine.”
Darius told Sasha how he’d rushed in and tried to save Becca’s life, not realizing at first that it was too late. “I shouted for help, yelled for someone to call an ambulance. One of our neighbors stuck her head through the door, saw me bent over Becca, and screamed. I didn’t imagine for one minute she’d think I’d done it.”
“She thoughtyouwere the killer?”
“So did the police. I had Becca’s blood on my clothes, my hands, my face, the soles of my shoes. The neighbor said she’d heard Becca and me arguing shortly before I called for help. They took me in.”
Chapter17
“They arrested you?”Sasha was so taken aback by what Darius had just said that she turned to face him—only to be brought up short by knife-sharp pain.
She gasped, pressed her hand against her side, moaned through gritted teeth.
A big hand came to rest on her shoulder. “Easy. Are you okay?”
“I just … forgot.”
“Right. Let’s go downstairs. We’ll get you settled in your recliner with an ice pack and an oxy.”
“But I want to be able to touch you and be close to you.”
“I want that, too, but I don’t want you to be in pain. Let me get up first, and then I’ll help you.”
It wasn’t a painless process for him, either, judging by the way his breath caught as he got to his feet and then helped her to stand.
In short order, she was cocooned in her recliner, ice pack on her ribs, oxy on the end table beside her for later, a warm blanket tucked around her, the fire in the woodstove blazing.
“I’m sorry. You were telling me something important, and I cut you off.”
“It’s okay.” Darius sat on the end of the sofa closest to her.
“Please tell me this is the worst thing that ever happened to you.”
“Without a doubt.” He took her hand and picked up the story where he’d left off. “They cuffed me and took me in. They questioned me for hours. They didn’t even let me wash her blood off my hands. I could smell it. I can still smell it.”
Sasha squeezed his fingers. “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine how horrible that must have been. To find Becca dead like that and then to be blamed for it…”
“As a detective myself, I understand why they thought I’d done it. No one else had been seen entering or leaving the apartment. The neighbor overheard us arguing. Statistically speaking, when a woman is murdered, you want to look at the men in her life, past and present. I was found over her body, covered in her blood. There was only one problem. Despite all that, I wasn’t the killer.”
Sasha listened, her heart breaking, as Darius described what had followed.
“I didn’t get to see my parents for almost forty-eight hours. The police twisted everything I said.” Darius drew a breath, exhaled, and Sasha could see that sharing this with her came at a price for him. “When I told them I’d gone for a walk to cool off and that Becca had been dead when I returned, they made up a story about how I’d left to hide the knife I’d used to kill her.”
“But your parents got you a lawyer, right?”
