“NO,” he said.
The word entered the room and stayed there.
No one moved or even breathed the right way.
NO.
My whole body went numb around it.
I saw Cade in my head, bleeding on concrete, hearing Luke say whatever vile thing had finally snapped the last restraint inside him. I saw his hands. His rage. His love. The word he had given back to me in the only language men like Luke ever understood.
NO.
My eyes burned, but no tears fell.
Lyon’s voice came out rough. “What does that mean?”
Emmitt looked sick. “Did Cade…?”
He didn’t finish what we all were thinking.
Did Cade carve that into his chest?
Knox’s eyes stayed on mine, and I knew he knew. Maybe not everything, but enough.
“What happened with the carving is not the focus of the investigation,” Maren said carefully.
Ryker laughed once. There was no humor in it. “That sounds like lawyer shit.”
“It is lawyer shit,” Maren said calmly. “It is also reality. The official investigative focus is the luring, the restricted access, the knife, the prior stalking behavior, and Mr. Dempsey’s deteriorating mental state.”
“In layman’s terms,” I said, looking from Ryker to Maren, “you’re burying anything that makes it look like I’m the reason Luke went nuts.”
Maren’s expression softened by the smallest amount. “We are protecting you from becoming the public explanation for a violent man’s choices.”
“That’s a yes.”
“Yes,” she said. “Because the alternative is a public battle over motive. That means reporters, attorneys, and possibly prosecutors digging through every private thing Luke Dempsey did to you in order to explain what Cade heard in that hallway.No one in this room wants that unless it becomes absolutely necessary.”
Harrison’s jaw flexed at her bluntness, but he did not correct her.
Because she was right.
I looked at him, then my dad, then Knox. “You said there’s video.”
“There is,” Knox said.
“So what does the video show?” I needed to know. It changed nothing. I would defend Cade however I needed to defend him, but I deserved the truth. “Not the press version. The real version.”
Knox’s face hardened.
“It shows a violent struggle after Cade was already severely wounded. It shows Luke with the knife. It shows Cade gaining control of the weapon during the fight. It shows the fatal injury happening while Luke is still actively fighting him.”
“And after, Knox.” Ryker’s voice came out low and vicious. “Stop sugarcoating shit and spit it out.”
Knox inhaled slowly. “The view is obstructed. Audio is distant, but enhanced. Very clear. Cade is hurt badly by then. The angle does not give a clean visual of the letters being made.”
I stared at my hands.
