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He releases my hand and reaches over, cradling my cheek as I stare into his blue eyes and feel my body sag into the mattress ever so slightly.

“You’re okay, baby,” he whispers and I nod, doing my best to shove those memories from my mind.

“Lennon, I don’t want to make you relive all this,” Max says, opening his folder and glancing down at it before he snaps it closed again. “So, I’m going to make this short. Leigh-Ann finally broke when confronted with the evidence we have—”

“Which is what?” Dalton asks, cutting him off.

“Lennon testimony of the attack matched the physical injuries Leigh-Ann had and two blood samples were found at the scene. One belonged to Lennon and the other came back to Leigh-Ann. We also have her on the surveillance cameras outside the apartment about ten minutes before Lennon arrived.”

I suck in a breath, my hands shaking violently. “She was there? When I got there, she was already inside the apartment, waiting for me?”

Max nods.

“How in the hell would she know Lennon was going to be there?” Dalton asks and my head snaps up.

Oh…

Yeah.

How would she know that?

Max sighs. “We found a tracker on Lennon’s Jeep. My best guess is that she stuck it on there while Lennon was parked at the bakery.”

“Derek,” Dalton growls. “Derek is involved in this, too.”

The dots connect in my mind.

Derek knew about the club tracking him and Owen so he used their own tactics against them. He got Leigh-Ann to plant a tracker on my Jeep.

“Leigh-Ann claims she met a man on a dating site named Josh and he charmed the pants off her. Literally.”

“So, Derek,” I say and Max nods.

“Yes, she also identified Derek in the photo lineup”

Fuck.

Why?

Why come after me?

I never even met this man.

“As the two of them got closer, the topic of exes came up and when Leigh-Ann told him about Dalton, Derek started talking about how she deserved so much better.”

Dalton scoffs and Max barely spares him a glance.

“This progressed into him saying how he wished someone could make both of you pay for the pain you caused her.”

Dalton’s gaze snaps to Max. “That’s why she did this to my girl? To make me pay?”

My mind is spinning and my chest heaves as I struggle to catch my breath.

I see flashes of that baseball bat coming at me again and again and again.

I hear her voice calling me any vile name she could think of.

“Breathe, sweetheart,” Dalton whispers and he reaches over to grab my hand again. He drags his thumb across my skin and I focus on that feeling. I finally suck in a breath and meet his gaze. “I’ve got you, baby.”