“Blocked what out?” Caleb demanded. “Goddamn it, talk to me and stop speaking in riddles. This has gone on long enough!”
Dane slammed on the brakes and turned in his seat to level his furious stare at Caleb.
“Tell me what happened last night, Caleb. Tell me why you did it.”
Caleb stared down at his hands, red with dried blood, the smell sickening. He just wanted it off. He rubbed his palms up and down his pants leg but the blood remained. Was this what it meant to have blood on your hands literally?
“Dane, where is Ramie?” Caleb asked, fear curling through his stomach and clenching his insides.
“Not here,” Eliza said in a low voice. “We don’t need him going bat-shit crazy and bailing out.”
Dane punched the accelerator and roared down the winding road on the back end of the subdivision toward a more rural area of the county. Away from the city.
It just didn’t make sense. Why had Caleb cracked? How could Dane have so grossly misjudged the man he worked for? The man he gave his absolute loyalty to. Worse, why wasn’t Dane driving him straight to the police station so he could be taken into custody? Sorrow was etched in Eliza’s eyes as she stared sightlessly through the windshield.
Dane’s cell phone rang, and he glanced down to see Detective Ramirez’s number pop up on the screen.
“Shit,” Dane swore. “We’re busted. They must have gotten to the house already.”
“They may have,” Eliza said, “but they can’t know we’ve been there. He likely just wants to know if we’ve seen Caleb. Not many guys are going to hang around the crime scene and wait to get busted.”
“It doesn’t add up,” Dane bit out. “He’s not stupid. And I can’t have been so wrong about someone. What did he have to gain? Why kill her?”
“Kill who?” Caleb said flatly. “I want some goddamn answers and I want them now.”
To Dane’s relief, they were nearly to one of the many off-the-grid properties he owned. This would buy them some time, and hell, if Caleb was guilty, Dane would turn him in himself.
He roared into the garage and parked. Beau roared in beside him and Dane immediately shut the garage door.
Dane got out and yanked open the door to the backseat. “Get out,” he ordered. “And walk slowly into the house.”
Frustrated by this stupid game they were playing, Caleb stalked through the door and into the living room.
“Sit,” Dane directed, sweeping the barrel of his gun downward to indicate Caleb was to sit on the couch.
With a sigh, Caleb sank onto the edge of the couch.
Beau strode in behind Eliza, his eyes haunted as they traveled the length of Caleb’s body, taking in the gory sight of so much blood.
“Would everyone stop looking at me like that and tell me what the f**k is going on?” Caleb roared in frustration.
“I’ll do you one better,” Beau said grimly. “I’ll show you.”
With shaking hands, he punched a series of buttons on his phone and then turned, shoving the screen into Caleb’s line of vision.
“I can’t watch this again,” Eliza said, turning away but not before Caleb saw the sheen of tears glistening in her eyes.
Caleb focused his gaze on the LCD screen, his dread growing with every passing second. His brow furrowed when he realized someone had filmed him and Ramie in bed, asleep.
Movement from the bed silenced him when he would have demanded an explanation.
“What the f**k?” he murmured when he saw himself get up and exit the bedroom. Time on the video continued to elapse and he frowned, wondering who the hell had been in the room with him and Ramie. His eyes caught movement again and he leaned forward, shocked to see himself return, carrying a wicked-looking blade.
“What the . . .”
He went deathly still, every muscle painfully contracting in his body. Bile rose in his throat as he stared in utter horror at the events that played out on the screen. No. No. No. This could not be happening. No goddamn way. They couldn’t think . . .
He glanced at his brother, who was looking at him with such disgust that it staggered him. And Dane, who looked as ill as Caleb felt.
They did think . . .
He bent over and dry-heaved on the floor, nothing left in his stomach to come up. He’d never been so sick in his entire life. Sick at heart.
“Get it out of my sight,” Caleb choked out. “Dear God, you can’t think I did something so horrific. I love her!”
Dane’s gaze was fastened on the screen, his features ice cold.
“That says right there you did,” Dane spit out. “You want to tell us where you took her?”
“I didn’t take her anywhere, goddamn it! Why won’t you listen to me?”
“Because we have overwhelming evidence to the contrary,” Beau said, his voice shaking.
Sick fear twisted Caleb’s insides. His own brother was convinced of his guilt. For the first time, Caleb considered the very real ramifications of that damning video. This would be a slam-dunk case. Nothing Caleb said or did would make any difference. Everyone who saw the footage would immediately convict him in their minds—and in a court of law.
And then like a floodgate giving way, memories of last night—and of others—crashed through his mind with dizzying speed. Indescribable pain flayed his chest open, leaving him bleeding on the inside.
Huge, welling sobs choked him, cutting off his oxygen. He staggered and fell to his knees. “No!” he yelled hoarsely. “Oh God, no, no, no!”