Page 188 of Renard's Deliverance

40

Opal glanced up as the interrogation room door opened.

A gorgeous looking man dressed in a beige suit and navy shirt walked in. He had dark hair and tanned skin.

Jake got up from where he’d been sitting and quietly left.

Hmm. There was only one person this could be.

“Hi, Opal. I’m Jardin Malone.”

“I don’t think I’ve got the funds to pay your fees,” she told him bluntly.

He grinned. “Well, I’ve been told you’re family. So you get the family rates. And since Alec is the one who called me, he’s the one footing the bill.”

She still couldn’t believe that Alec would do that. And that this man would fly here to help her.

“You don’t even know me.”

“Know that you’re family. When you’re a Malone, we take that seriously. Also, if I didn’t come, I risked one or more of my cousins turning up on my doorstep with a loaded rifle. I do not need that in my life.”

“They wouldn’t do that.”

“Sweetheart, they so would. Now, I heard you’ve been refusing to talk until I got here?”

“Yeah. That’s what I was advised to do. Was that the wrong thing?”

“Nope. That was the smart thing.” He sat and turned toward her. “You doing okay?”

“I’m tough and I’ve been in worse scrapes.” She tried to smile, but didn’t quite manage it. “Is Renard okay?”

When they’d reached the station, Renard had refused to leave her. Eli had threatened to arrest him, and she’d had to beg him to wait out of the room. But he still hadn’t gone until Jake gave his assurance that he wouldn’t leave her until Jardin arrived.

“Hmm. Not sure I should answer that.”

“Shit. That means he’s fucking losing it. He’s going to be so mad.”

“With Eli and Kellan?” Jardin asked.

“With me,” she whispered. “When he learns I was keeping stuff from him.”

“Let’s not worry about Renard since we need to worry about you. Here’s the thing, Opal. What you tell me is confidential and I need you to tell me the truth. Can you do that?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know why you’re here?” he asked.

“Eli told me, but I don’t . . . I still don’t get it.”

“They’ve brought you in to question you about the murder of Mark Lindon in Club Kitty on the night of August tenth, three years ago.”

She nodded. “I worked there. But I didn’t know a Mark Lindon.”

“It’s possible he used a fake name to hide his identity.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me. I think I knew him as Marcus Scott. But I still don’t understand why the FBI would care about his death.”

Or how he’d died.

---