Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
KNOX
By the time Trina comes in to question me, I’ve worn a path in the cheap linoleum floor. The room smells like stale coffee and chemicals, and I can’t stop thinking about my brothers sitting in their own rooms. What they’re thinking. How the fuck we got here.
Trina watches me and I grab a seat as she strides around the table, dropping a manilla folder on top of it. Trina sits and nods at me. “Knox.”
“Trina.”
She lifts an eyebrow and opens the folder, sliding two photographs across the table. The images hit me like a punch to the gut, but not for the reasons she’s probably expecting.
Theo’s face stares up at me, pale and lifeless.
Even dead, he looks like the pretentious asshole who hurt my girl.
The second photo shows Penelope, her hair matted with blood.
I study the photos, waiting for something to stir inside me.
Sympathy. Shock. Hell, even satisfaction.
Penelope was a bitch, but I don’t know that she deserved to die.
She was at the wrong place at the wrong time. But am I sad?
Other than the shock of seeing a dead body, I feel nothing. I look up at Trina and wait.
“What do you think about these?” She taps her pen against the table.
The sound grates against my nerves. “They’re dead.”
Her eyebrows rise. “They are. Anything else?”
I shrug. “What do you want me to say?”
She leans back in her chair, studying me. “Let’s talk about your brothers. Jaxon and Braxton. Would they work together if they needed to handle a problem?”
My jaw tightens. “What are you implying?”
“You know what I mean.”
I do and the thought makes my blood simmer. When my silence fills the space between us, she continues.
“They’re loyal to you.” She flips through her notes. “People in town say you three are close. That you’d do anything for each other.”
“So?” Since when was taking care of your family a crime?
“So if someone hurt someone you all cared about?” She lets the words hang in the air like dissipating smoke.
Anger is like fire in my veins. What is she implying? “If you’re asking if my brothers are murderers, the answer is no.”
“What about you?” She tips her head. “You dated Penelope in high school, didn’t you?”
“Briefly.” My biggest regret.
“That must have been some breakup. I heard it got ugly.”
My teeth grind together. “I found out she was a bitch. I dumped her. End of story.”
“Is it?” She taps the pen again, faster this time. “Witnesses say you two had quite the argument the other night at Maura’s. Something about Callie.” Her gaze moves to the scratch on my face. “Heard she gave you that, too.”
Every muscle in my body goes rigid. “She was trying to start a fight.”
“Hmm. Someone said you looked ready to put Penelope through a wall. Have you ever hurt a woman before?”
“Fuck no.” The words burst out of me, anger boiling my blood. “I’d never hurt a woman and screw you for asking.”
She points to the dead man. “What about Theo? Callie’s ex-boyfriend. The one who stole her art. Made her feel worthless. It must have made you angry, knowing someone hurt her like that.”
My hands shake with the effort of keeping them still. Trina is fucking good at her job, but right now, I don’t like her.
“Knox?”
“No.”
“No what?”
“No, it didn’t make me angry.” The lie tastes like copper in my mouth. It pissed me right the fuck off, but if I give her that, she’ll seize on it and I’ve seen enough documentaries to know that the wrong guy gets arrested all the time.
She hammers at me for another twenty minutes. Question after question, each one designed to poke at old wounds and fresh fury. Did I know Theo was in town? Had I seen him with Callie? What did I think about him trying to win her back?
With every question, my answers get shorter. My agitation builds like pressure in a boiler ready to blow. Finally, I’ve had enough of this fucking shit show.
“Do you have any evidence?”
She purses her lips, and that tells me everything I need to know.
I shove out of my chair, the metal legs screeching against the floor. “Then we’re done here.”
“Knox, wait,” she begins but I level her with a look that’s made grown men take a step back.
“You can’t keep us here unless you arrest us. Are you going to do that?”
She hesitates, and I can see the wheels turning in her head. She wants to say yes, but she doesn’t have jack shit and we both know it.
“No.”
I nod once. “Then we’re leaving.”