Chapter Sixteen
Eve only saw one of three things that happened all at once.
The woman lying on the floor between Darius’s legs gave the man a look of such acute concern that, for that moment, it seemed she had forgotten to be angry or in pain or that fighting them might have been in her best interest.
Instead, it was worry.
She could see something that Eve, at Darius’s back, couldn’t see.
And that was before the shot went off.
After her gaze went from concern to blatant confusion.
Then Eve’s attention split to the other two things that had happened while her focus had strayed.
A heavy thud and a slight shake of the foundation let her know that the man in the hallway had taken the single shot. At least, Eve knew it wasn’t Darius. Her hands were already against his back, as if touching him let her know he was still standing. Theo had been more proactive.
He had his own gun up and was already standing at Darius’s side, yelling out commands.
It confused Eve at first.
Maybe their attacker was still trying to fight? But then, why wasn’t Darius moving from his spot?
Beneath her hands she could still feel the man’s tension.
When it lessened, it was her sign to finally get back to reality.
Eve stepped to the side, between the two men, to size up the situation, but Darius was faster. She saw only a sliver of the attacker on the floor, blood already on the hardwood, before his hand covered her eyes.
“Don’t look,” he said, voice low.
Normally, she would have bucked at the command, but another voice cut her off.
“H-he’s dead, isn’t he?” It was a man’s small voice, breaking slightly and coming from the hallway. A voice that shouldn’t have been there at all.
“Mitchell?”
Mitchell made a small noise of confirmation.
“He is,” Darius answered. “Theo, keep your gun on her. Mitchell, give me yours. Evelyn, turn around.”
Using her full first name did the trick. Eve turned and lost the warmth of Darius’s hand. The kitchen window on the far side of the room showed nothing but darkness as the rest of the people shifted around.
Darius secured Mitchell’s gun, Theo secured the woman, and Mitchell appeared at Eve’s side as they started making calls.
Eve would have paid more attention to it all had she not focused so completely on Mitchell when he came into view.
His face was black and blue, there was dry blood at his hairline, and there was broken and bloodied duct tape at his wrist.
“What happened?” Eve asked, hands flitting up. She didn’t touch him when he flinched.
His voice was loud enough to carry to the room around them. His gaze went over Eve’s shoulder. He was incredibly pale.
“She grabbed me outside when I was leaving earlier. She said I needed to come back a-and kill Detective Williams and—” Mitchell’s voice broke. He took a breath. He was more quiet than before when he continued. “And you. She said that I needed to kill you.”
Darius swore behind Eve.
The woman remained quiet on the floor.
Whatever fight she had had in her earlier was gone.
Mitchell shook his head.
“She said I had to be the one to do it—only me—but I said no. Never.” His voice hardened. “I tried to fight her, to stop her, but that man showed up, and I guess he got me good. I woke up on the floor alone. I rushed over after and found a gun on the floor in there. I-I used it.”
“My gun,” Theo explained, voice as solid as Darius’s had been. “I heard them breaking in and didn’t have time to do anything other than defend. She got the upper hand and disarmed me. I barely had time to react.” Regret laced his tone.
Darius picked up on it.
“You made enough noise to alert me,” he assured him. “You gave me the time to come out and Eve enough time to escape.”
Mitchell returned his gaze to Eve. His eyebrow arched.
Eve could feel Darius’s unasked question hanging in the air around them.
Sirens started up in the distance. They mingled in with her sigh.
“There was no way I was leaving everyone behind.” She shrugged. “I went out one bedroom window and came in through another.”
It was the truth. The second she had realized the man outside of the locked bedroom door wasn’t Darius was the moment Eve had gone through the main window.
After that there had been no other path for her to take other than to go to her favorite window.
She had climbed into Darius’s childhood bedroom like a gentle breeze easing its way across a summer day.
No one had heard her. Not until she had wanted to be heard.
A talking point she would get an earful about from Darius later, she was sure.
“Where was she keeping you?” he asked now.
Mitchell thumbed over his shoulder. The movement made him wince. Still, he promptly answered.
“The house next door.”
“The house next door?” Eve repeated. “My house?”
Mitchell nodded.
“It’s empty,” Darius added.
The sirens were becoming louder. Backup was about to arrive.
It seemed to apply a new sense of pressure to the woman on the floor.
“If I were you, I’d think real quick about what happens next,” she said. “You can either tell the truth and get us all killed, or you can lie and buy yourselves more time to figure out what I won’t tell you. Because I guarantee you that you can’t do both.”
Eve couldn’t see the woman still, but she easily heard the smile in her voice.
Just like she heard the anger in Darius’s when he responded without hesitation.
“I suggest you shut your mouth,” he said, frost on every word. “You lost any shot at bargaining with me the second you threatened her.”
“I now see where my fatal flaw was with this one,” the woman replied just as quickly. “I thought Miss Myers was insignificant.”
She snorted.
“Judging by the look on your face, Detective, I guess we were dead wrong about that.”
WINNE CAME IN CONCERNED. After glancing at Theo’s beaten face, she left the kitchen angry. She took several even, quick steps back into the living room where their mystery woman was being cuffed.
Then Winnie slapped her across the face.
It was so loud it echoed.
“That’s for hurting them,” she exclaimed.
Her father, Price, had been the first responder on scene and was the one currently working on the woman’s handcuffs. His surprise was instant and mirrored in Theo, who rushed to Winnie’s side.
For a moment, Darius thought the move was unnecessary.
But then he noted her balled up hands, her widening stance and the absolute mask of anger that covered her face.
Winnie was about to attack again.
This time probably giving more than one slap.
It was a guess that proved to be correct as the young woman launched herself again at the hired hand.
Then everyone was yelling.
The woman at Price, Price at Winnie, Winnie at Theo for grabbing her, and Theo at Winnie for fighting him to get to the woman.
It was chaos.
And perfect for Darius.
He took a step back and quickly and quietly addressed Mitchell. Eve, at his side, listened in with a slight head tilt.
“You came over here earlier tonight because Eve and I are having an affair,” Darius said, hurriedly. “You decided to end things and were attacked when leaving.”
Mitchell’s eyes widened.
“What?”
Darius continued, ignoring the question.
“Instead of asking for a lawyer, ask for your brother,” he said. “Tell him you’re afraid of me and my job in the department. Really lean into that. Got it?”
Mitchell didn’t immediately answer.
Eve did it for him.
“I’ll refuse to see Scott to really sell it,” she added. “If they want to question me alone, I’ll only ask for you.”
Darius nodded.
“That’ll work.”
Mitchell still looked confused.
Eve patted his arm but kept her gaze on Darius.
“We’ve got this,” she assured him.
THREE HOURS LATER and she’d proved herself right. Not only did Mitchell make a show about their alleged affair, he outright refused to answer any more questions without his brother Scott present.
Eve was the same but less flashy with it.
When she gave her statement, she did so with the sheriff and Darius at her side.
Though, the sheriff wasn’t at all pleased with the situation.
He finally voiced his displeasure during a small window of quiet as everyone waited for Scott to arrive.
Liam was leaning against the wall, outside the sheriff department’s bathroom, with a long face and an even longer sigh leaking out. Darius didn’t miss the glance he cast around the hallways to make sure they were alone before he spoke.
“I haven’t known you as long as most of the people here have, but I can confidently say that you having an affair with an almost-married woman doesn’t seem to be in line with your character.”
His sheriff’s badge would have had a glint to it had they been out in the sun. Instead, the fluorescents made it look dull. The lack of luster wasn’t reflected in the wearer. Liam had been tightly strung since seeing his son sporting blood and bruises.
He had been the only one, in fact, who hadn’t reprimanded Winnie for her pointed attack on the woman who had caused it.
At any other time, Darius would have appreciated the enthusiasm.
Now he hoped to avoid its consequences.
“If it was any other woman, I wouldn’t be in this situation,” Darius said, telling the truth without all the details as dressings.
“But she’s your childhood friend. Your former next-door neighbor.”
The sheriff’s words were calculated. Blunt.
Their relationship was a two-way street. Liam knew Darius was holding something back, just as Darius knew that Liam was trying to get him to admit to it.
But he couldn’t.
Not yet.
So Darius stuck to the truth he could tell. The truth that might best help the sheriff understand why he was acting out of character. Or, really, why acting out of character for Eve was as in character as he could ever be.
First Darius cleared his throat.
Then he told the sheriff a story only three people in the world knew about.
The story of why, even as a boy, he would do anything for Evelyn Myers.