Page 103 of Faith
“So, what makes you think she might be there?”
“I don’t…”
“Don’t fucking lie to me, Nina. Although, it sounds like you have been. When did you figure this out?”
Nina thought about lying, but she couldn’t do it. Not to Zeke. Of all people, he deserved the truth. “I’ve been trying to figure it out for a while. There were little things, and I felt like I was missing something. Robert said something, and Frannie made comments, and even some of the things Lorelei said. But?—”
“When, Nina?”
“Last night.”
“Last night.” Zeke took a step back. “Before or after we slept together?”
“After,” she whispered.
He nodded. “That’s why you were up early this morning. You couldn’t stay in bed with me when you knew you were lying to me.”
“I was in bed with you and felt safe. I felt like you cared about me and knew you were going to protect me. I was thinking it had been a long time since I felt that way, and I realized it was like that with Gwendolyn when I was seventeen. In the first house she had.”
“Where she would brush your hair at night and you would have dinner together.”
Nina nodded, swallowing to keep the pain inside. “Yes.”
“You need to tell the FBI. They need to know she could be there. So they can capture her before the psycho kills someone else.”
“I know. And I’m sorry. I thought maybe she was gone. It’s been a month, and I hoped…”
“You hoped your fake sister was going to move to another city and kill people there instead of continuing to take her wrath out on you? Would that have been better, Nina?”
Nina shook her head. “No. But I hoped she changed. That maybe she would just leave town and not kill people. That maybe she was like I thought when we met.”
“People don’t change, Nina. Not people like her. She’s evil. She’s a murderer. And it doesn’t matter if you have some twisted sense of loyalty to her, she doesn’t feel the same. She will kill you, and anyone else who stands in her way.”
“I know.”
“You need to report this. And you need to do it now.”
Nina nodded. “Okay.”
22
Zeke couldn’t bringhimself to talk to her. He was furious. How could she protect the woman who ruined her life? Who kept her captive and sold her to anyone who wanted a piece of her?
Not only that, but she lied to him. It wasn’t the part that should be most significant, but it hurt. She pulled back because she was lying, because she knew keeping the truth from him was bad, but she still did it.
Yeah, maybe Gwendolyn wasn’t there. But maybe she was.
And someone died because Nina didn’t share her suspicion right away.
Zeke texted Montgomery they were coming in and to get the FBI there, so Mont met them at the SUV and got Nina inside. Zeke hung back, needing space from Nina. He needed space from all of it. From loving her and protecting her and hoping she would want him.
He felt like a fool. And he needed space from that, too.
“You okay?” Samuel asked, sidling up to Zeke as he watched Nina and Lorelei talk in Mont’s office.
Zeke shook his head. “No. What’s going on around here?”
“Picked up a new case. Getting ready to head out and meet with the client.”
