Page 36 of Defenseless
“Understandable.”
Again, Sabina’s eyes took on a vacant look as she recounted what happened. “But the next day, his car went over a cliff,” she said, her voice quiet in the night. “Ruled an accident, of course. But Kara and I have our doubts.” She paused. “And our guilt. We have a lot of that. All he was trying to do was help us. All he wanted was to bring a murderer to justice and keep us safe. And because of that, he lost his life.”
Chad studied her. Her hair was pulled back into her usual ponytail, giving him a view of her delicate profile. She was watching the flames dance in the fireplace. No doubt remembering those few days so many years ago. After a long pause, she took a deep breath and continued.
“It wasn’t just Uncle Mike, though. I was living with a guy at the time. Nate was everything my life was not. He was gentle and quiet and so kind. I know that sounds dull, but he was also funny in a quirky kind of way and a brilliant artist. He was the first person I let myself get close to after my mother’s death. I wasn’t passionately in love with him, but he was hard not to love, if you know what I mean? He was just sogoodwithout being too sweet.”
“What happened?” Chad prompted gently. He had a pretty good idea what had happened, but he wanted Sabina to have the chance to tell him.
“I have no idea how Jacobs or his people found out that Mike was still looking into the case. They did discover his involvement, though. And along with his involvement, they somehow managed to discover where I lived. Probably from the phone records of the call he made to me. Thankfully, he’d only called me. And not Kara, too.”
“And once they had the phone number, it wasn’t hard to figure out who, or where, you were,” Chad said.
“It wasn’t,” she agreed. “Nate and I…we were home that night. We’d been play-arguing about who’d take the garbage out. I lost the bet and popped down to the bins in the basement. When I got back…it was like a repeat of the night my mom died. I walked in and…and there was a man, not Jacobs, standing over Nate.” She wiped a tear from her cheek. Grabbing the tissue box from the side table, Chad leaned over and handed it to her. She took it with a wan smile.
“He’d shot Nate and was obviously looking for me. Like that night with my mom, I ran. The man was standing between me and the front door, so I ran back to the kitchen, hoping to reach the door to the service stairs. I was almost there when he hit me on the head with the butt of his gun and knocked me out. Or at least that’s what the doctors surmised happened based on my injuries. Whoever he was wasn’t done yet, though. Before he left, he set fire to the apartment.” She dabbed her eyes then traced the side of her mug with her fingertip.
He wanted to ask what happened next but held back. She’d tell him in her time. Half a minute passed before she took a deep breath and continued.
“Rather than kill me, though, he dragged me close to Nate, left the gun in my hand, then lit the place on fire. I can’t say for certain that making it look like a murder-suicide was his plan, but over the years of thinking about it, that’s what Gina and I came up with.”
“It would have kept the police from looking into it too much,” Chad concurred. “But you woke up.”
She gave a jerky nod. “I did. And I tried to save Nate. I mean, notsavehim. He was already dead, and I knew it. But I tried to save his body. I latched onto this idea that he’d died because of me and the least I could do was give his family a body to bury.” She choked on a sob then, and he couldn’t stay away any longer. He was still bruised, but she was bleeding from her scars.
Only he didn’t get far across the room before his phone vibrated with another alarm. Halting midway to Sabina’s side, he reached for the device. A few swipes later, he accepted that his night had taken yet another grim turn.
“Sabina? Honey?”
She blinked and looked up.
“I need to know if what you said earlier today—here in the house, not at the diner—was true. Do you trust me? Are you okay with me?”
She frowned. “Yes,” she answered without hesitation. “In case you haven’t figured it out, I love you. I’minlove with you. But I didn’t want you to turn into another Nate. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if that happened. That’s why I kept my distance.”
There was a lot in that statement he’d tuck away and process later, but for now, he held out his hand. “I need you to come with me then.”
Shifting the blanket off her lap, she reached for him. Then, curling her fingers around his, she rose. “What’s going on, Chad?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute. Can you go wait by my office door?”
He saw the questioning look on her face, but he’d already let go of her hand. After shutting the fireplace off, he hurried to the mudroom and grabbed his boots. As he pulled them on, he dialed a number. He was on his way back to Sabina, who was waiting where he’d asked, when it started ringing.
Ethan answered as Chad reached for a small spot alongside the doorframe into his office.
“Did you make nice?” Ethan asked.
“There are three figures making their way across the back part of my property. They may have come up from the lake,” he said. Beside him, Sabina sucked in a breath. He cast her a reassuring look as he pressed his fingers onto the four hidden sensors that would read his fingerprints and pulse.
“I’m taking Sabina out the back way. I need you and Teague to deal with the intruders,” he said.
“You focus on her. We got this,” his cousin replied.
“See you at the cabin,” Chad replied before hanging up and sliding his phone into his pocket. “Don’t be startled,” he said to Sabina as a three-by-three section of the floor popped up.
She didn’t gasp or startle, but she did inch closer to him. “Chad?”
The opening was cleverly aligned with the natural breaks of the hardwood floor and impossible to detect with the naked eye. And even though he’d been the one to design it, he couldn’t help but admire the results.
