Page 30 of Outlaw Ridge: Ryker
When Emma finished, Charlotte leaned forward, voice clipped. “Are you trying to intimidate me? Because it’s not going to work.”
Emma folded the card and set it aside. “Good. Then let’s get started.”
Ryker reached into the folder on the table and pulled out a printed report. Without a word, he slid it across to Charlotte, the paper whispering against the table surface.
“That’s confirmation from the lab,” he said, his voice even. “Proof that your blood was used to write this.”
He pulled out another page, this one a black-and-white photocopy of the threat itself, and laid it beside the report.
Emma Bonetti is a killer. And she has to pay for what she’s done.
Emma watched Charlotte closely. Her expression faltered for a fraction of a second, eyes widening just slightly before she masked it again with a scoff.
“You think I wrote that?” Charlotte protested. “You’re serious?”
Ryker didn’t flinch. “It’s your blood. We’re askingwhy.”
Charlotte leaned forward, eyes flashing. “I didn’t write that threat. I don’t even know how my blood ended up anywhere near.” She caught herself, mouth tightening.
Emma tapped the DNA report with her index finger, slow and deliberate.
“It’s yours. No smudged print, no vague trace. A direct match. So, why write it?” And that was just the start of things that Emma wanted to know. Soon, very soon, she’d be moving on to Ruiz’s murder.
Charlotte’s eyes flashed with indignation as she shoved the report back across the table, her voice rising. “I’m being framed.”
Emma sighed and leaned back in her chair, her tone calm but firm. “We have no reason to frame you, Charlotte. You’re not that important to us.”
That stung, Emma could see it land, and maybe she meant for it to. Because this wasn’t a game. And whatever personal history lingered between them, none of it justified what was happening now.
Charlotte’s jaw worked. “Maybe you want me dead like Ethan,” she spat.
Emma didn’t react right away. She kept her voice level, her gaze steady. “Before that message showed up at a crime scene, I hadn’t thought about you in years.”
Ryker leaned forward, folding his arms on the table. “Then help us understand,” he said. “If you didn’t write that message, how did your blood end up being used as ink for a threat?”
Charlotte looked between them, her anger dimming into something more uncertain. She exhaled hard through her nose, then rubbed her arm like the memory still hurt.
“A week ago,” she said, voice lower now. “Something… happened. I got home from work and had a glass of my usual wine that I took from the fridge. Then, I, well, passed out. When I came to, there was a puncture mark on my arm.”
Emma and Ryker exchanged a look before she turned back to Ethan’s sister. “You’re saying someone drugged you and took your blood?”
Charlotte nodded slowly. “Yes.”
Ryker’s brows lifted, and he didn’t hide the disbelief on his face. “And you didn’t call the cops?”
Charlotte gave a bitter laugh. “And tell them what? That someonemaybestole my blood to frame me for a murder plot involving my missing brother and a woman I’ve hated for years?”
Emma tilted her head, her expression matching Ryker’s. Because if Charlotte was telling the truth, this had just gotten a whole lot more complicated. And if she wasn’t… if she was lying…
Then she should’ve come up with something a hell of a lot more believable.
Emma kept her gaze steady, fingers loosely laced on the table in front of her. Her voice was calm, even though Charlotte’s dramatics were starting to wear thin.
“Okay,” Emma said. “Then who would do something like that? Who would try to frame you?”
Charlotte’s eyes narrowed. “Other than you?”
Emma didn’t flinch.
