Page 95 of Saint

I shrug because he’s right. There’s no point trying to explain myself when I don’t have solid reasoning.

Once more, the clock hammers with every second that passes. Each one shaves off another shred of my patience.

“Violet, it’s just you and me in this room.” Captain Evans wraps his hands around his armrests. “No cameras. Nointerrogation. No one making a report. I brought you here to have a conversation. Just me and you.”

He might mean it to comfort me, but it doesn’t.

“I can protect you, but to do that, I need to know the truth. Does Kole know what really happened to Liam?”

“Kole?” His name is a whisper as it occurs to me what Captain Evans is really after.

He nods. “Does he know?”

His stare bores into mine as I swallow at the lump in my throat. While I thought he brought me in here because he suspects I’m guilty, the picture is now clear. He isn’t after me at all. He thinks Kole did something, and he wants me to tell him what that is.

It’s why he’s watching me so closely, reading every truth. Every lie. It doesn’t matter what I say or don’t, he strikes me as someone who reads between the lines.

There’s only one thing I can do to get out of this—answer his questions honestly.

“Yes.”

Captain Evans leans forward now, crossing his arms in front of him on the desk. “Tell me what happened, Violet.”

I fidget my fingers in my lap, tugging at a thread that’s coming loose on the sleeve of my sweater. “We were heading to the Petersons’ cabin for a party.”

“Who was?”

“Liam and I.”

Captain Evans nods, still not picking up his pen. Not so much as glancing away as he blinks back at me. “And then?”

“Kole needed a ride, so we picked him up.” I press my lips together. My heart is racing, and it’s so loud between my temples it feels like I can’t hear anything over it. “But then Liam and Kole got into an argument.”

“What were they arguing about?”

“Me. I think.” It’s the truth, even if it’s not as simple as that. “Liam and I were fighting, and Kole didn’t like how he spoke to me. So they got out of the car to talk about it.”

“How did that end?” Captain Evans laces his fingers together—a gavel of judgment ready to be handed down.

“Not well.” I drop my gaze to my lap where the string hanging from my sleeve is wrapped around one finger.

The thread gets longer the more I pull. The problem with one loose string is that’s all it takes sometimes to make everything come apart.

“What do you mean,not well? Elaborate.”

My gaze snaps back up to Captain Evans. To his dark eyes that won’t break their hold on me. And I could tell him the truth right now.Kole slit Liam’s throat.He’d believe me. It’s what he’s looking for. I sense it.

For whatever reason, he wants me to turn on his stepson.

But it hits me in this moment.I don’t want to.

That rolls around in my head as I let out a breath. “Liam left.”

“He left?” For the first time since Captain Evans walked in the room, his expression cracks, and a wrinkle pulls between his eyebrows.

“Yes, he left.” I nod, not blinking as I stare back at him.

Captain Evans searches my face for the lie, but he won’t find it when I told him the truth. Or, at least, a variation of it. Liam did leave.

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