Everly didn’t know why the truth seemed to upset Dax, but she really wanted someone to believe that she hadn’t been one of many in Maddox’s bed. “I can’t explain why, but he was close to me. I cared about him.” In fact, she felt his loss more deeply than she’d expected. “He talked about all of you. He called you his brothers, but he only mentioned you by last names. It was odd.”
“In school, all of the teachers referred to us that way. Mr. Spencer, Mr. Bond, and so on. I’m sure they thought it would civilize us. Mad kept it up even after we left the academy. I’m sure if he was here right now, he would slap me on the back and say ‘Spencer, have you smartened up and left the navy yet?’” Dax laughed, but it was a bittersweet sound.
“I didn’t pay that much attention to who Maddox talked about. You were merely his friends to me. So I didn’t know that Gabriel was Bond or . . .” It probably sounded silly, and now she wished she’d paid more attention to the tabloids. But she couldn’t change the past. “I listened because Maddox seemed to want to talk.”
“If he was talking, it was because he trusted you.” Dax shot her a speculative look. “I’m going to guess that you’re still here because you care for Gabe at least a little.”
She flushed guiltily and cursed having such fair skin. Sometimes, it revealed her every emotion. Still, she wasn’t going to incriminate herself. It would be stupid to forget that Dax was Gabriel’s friend. His loyalties lay there, no matter how nice he seemed.
“Good. Look, Everly, I’m going to ask you to do something that’s not fair to you. Gabe needs some time to process everything that’s happened. Don’t judge him until he’s had a chance to really think about everything.”
“I’m not going to judge him at all,” she lied.
She’d already judged him. Yes, he’d lost a good friend, so he wasn’t at his best now. But even on a good day, he was a playboy who couldn’t possibly take a relationship seriously. He could offer a woman orgasms—and not much else. She’d already gotten everything good out of Gabriel Bond.
Now that she thought about it, his attitude reminded her of her mother’s. From what Everly could tell, her mother always believed she’d married beneath her. No matter how much her dad had loved her mother, he hadn’t been enough for her. She’d needed more and eventually she’d left her family behind to find it. Everly had no desire to replay her dad’s life. Though she’d loved her father dearly, he’d spent years pining for a woman who couldn’t love him. Gabriel might desire her, but he wouldn’t build a life with a woman who brought nothing but herself to the relationship. Certainly not a woman he thought slept her way into a career.
“I’m going to be professional with him,” she assured Dax. “I have a job to do. As long as that’s the extent of our relationship going forward, we’ll be fine.”
Dax shrugged. “That will work for now. If you stay close to him, he’ll come to the proper conclusions.”
“And what are those, Mr. Spencer?”
A smile tugged at his lips. “That you’re not the type of woman who would hop from one man’s bed to another so quickly, especially not for monetary gain.”
Everly bristled. “Of course not.”
“That you’re the kind of woman who will only sleep with a man to gain comfort, because he makes you feel safe. You would do it because you want love.”
The whole conversation was making her uncomfortable. Daxton Spencer didn’t know her. She certainly hadn’t slept with Gabriel Bond because she wanted his love.
God, she hoped she wasn’t fooling herself.
“That makes me sound like a helpless twit. I think I preferred it when everyone believed I was a whore.”
“No, you’re too smart for that. But you’re also innocent.” He studied her with knowing dark eyes. “You don’t come from the same world we do, and that might be a good reason for you to run as fast as you can. I’m asking you not to because I think you’re good for Gabe. I think he needs you. And this situation is going to get worse before it gets better.”
A shiver went down her spine, and she told herself the cause was nothing more than a blast from the air conditioning. Did Dax know something she didn’t? Should she tell the cops she was getting messages and pictures from someone who said they knew the truth about Maddox’s death? What if they gave her more proof that Gabriel was a killer? She couldn’t say anything or turn over whatever she had to the police until she figured out if this mystery person was legit. Then she’d find out what he knew—and wanted.
In order to do that, she had to start connecting the dots between Gabriel and whatever else was going on.
“Why do the police suspect Gabriel of murdering Maddox?”
The smile slid off Dax’s face and he went carefully blank. “Because he was the last person Mad met with, I suppose.”
Everly’s bullshit meter started ringing. Dax was lying. Or at the very least, he wasn’t telling her the whole truth. He’d been full of expression until she’d asked that question. Her father would have called that his tell.
She sent him a plastic smile. Sometimes being female and curvy meant people underestimated her. Everly found it annoying most of the time, but she’d also learned to turn it to her advantage. “He should be released soon, then.”
Being the last one to see Maddox alive shouldn’t make Gabriel a suspect. But he was. And there had to be a better reason.
Dax gave her a noncommittal shrug and nod. “Why don’t I find a more comfortable place for you to wait?”
So the big guy wanted her away from the interrogation? “I’m fine, but I am really thirsty. Do you think they have a vending machine or something around here?”
His face tightened but he took the bait. “I’ll find one. Coke, Pepsi, or something else?”
“Anything diet is fine. Thank you.”
Dax nodded her way, then went off in search of her drink. Halfway down the hall, he asked the officer stationed there, who gave him directions.
As Dax walked away, her cell buzzed in her pocket. She found a text from Scott asking if everything was all right. And another from Tavia asking the same. So the rumor that she’d followed Gabriel to the station after he’d been hauled in had made the rounds through the office grapevine.
She quickly wrote them both back to say that she was fine and waiting for more information. Once she’d finished, she pocketed her phone, then peered into the room where Gabriel
was talking to Roman.
How had all those reporters figured out so quickly that Gabriel had been brought in for questioning? If the police simply wanted questions answered in their investigation, they could have interrogated him far more easily at the office. Instead, they’d threatened to arrest him. Which meant they must have some motive or proof that he was a suspect.
Obviously, Dax wasn’t being honest with her.
Maybe the Internet would be. Well, not honest, but it might give her a clue as to why this interrogation seemed way more serious than routine.
She strode down the same hall through which Dax had disappeared and gave the cop standing there her most innocent smile. “I’ll be right back. I have to call the office and let them know Mr. Bond likely won’t be in again this afternoon.”
The officer nodded. “Yes, I wouldn’t expect him back today. He’s going to have his hands full.”
So everyone knew more than her. The officer made Gabriel sound like the primary—and perhaps only—suspect.
Digesting that supposition, she slipped away and found a bathroom, entering quietly. She was in luck. No one seemed to be here and, according to her little screen, the signal was strong. She pulled up the search engine on her phone and typed in the words Gabriel Bond, Maddox Crawford, and murder investigation.