Harley shrugged. “Maybe I missed that. I came home to find a strange man in my house. I assumed you were there to collect on a debt. I may have gotten myself into a little trouble with some gambling, and I took a loan from a loan shark. I know I shouldn’t have, but I was desperate. I didn't have the money to pay them back, and I thought you were there to make good on the threats.I was just defending myself.” He said it with sincere earnestness in his voice, but his eyes gave him away. He didn't care. This was all just a game to him. A game he thought his superior intelligence was going to help him win.
“Then why did you run?” she asked.
“You came down the stairs. I thought you had been sent by the loan shark as well. He wasn't clear exactly how many people he would send after me or what they would do if I didn't come up with the money.”
“You aimed your car at me, ran me off the road.”
“You were following me. I was defending myself.”
Harley Zabkar must have waited for the crime scene unit to finish up at his house yesterday before returning home because he had been picked up there this morning. Obviously, he wasn't so afraid of these supposed people who were coming after him because of an unpaid loan to return home where they would find him.
“You were in my house illegally. Why would I not have thought you weren’t there for nefarious reasons?” Harley asked all wide-eyed innocence.
“We came to ask you some questions about a case and thought we heard cries for help coming from inside,” Tom said.
“I didn't know that at the time,” Harley said smoothly.
“Do you know a young woman by the name of Taylor Sallow?” Tom asked.
“No. Should I?”
Although she searched his face for any signs of deceit or anxiety or fear, she saw none.
“She was a victim of a serial killer. A serial killer who likes to kidnap women and break their bones,” Tom said.
“Ifixpeople’s broken bones,” Harley reminded them. “And I'm very good at what I do.”
“We’ll be bringing her in to do a lineup,” Chloe told him.“She’ll be able to identify you.”
Harley looked bored. “No, she won't. Look, I'm sorry you were hurt, agents, but that wasn't my fault. And I won't be doing any time for it. You have no proof I did anything wrong. I defended myself, plain and simple.”
He said it like that was case closed.
But this case was far from closed.
And when it was, he would be facing spending the rest of his life in prison.
*****
2:08 P.M.
This was the last thing he wanted to be doing today.
Especially after that disaster of a morning.
Fin was an idiot.
Chloe had kissed him, and he had pushed her away and then hurt her again.
What was wrong with him?
He hadn’t really meant to do it. She just caught him by surprise. She’d come downstairs looking ridiculously sexy in those stupid Christmas tree slippers. And then she’d kissed him. He wasn't ready for it. He had panicked. Not because the kiss wasn't good, but because he didn't think he could just kiss her and be done with it.
If they kissed, they would wind up in bed, and that wasn't what he wanted.
Was it?
He really didn't know anymore.