Page 153 of Noel Secrets
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re one to talk. You told everyone I was a thief.”
“You are, and we both know it. If your police-chief boyfriend hadn’t cleaned up after you and made that video disappear, everyone else would know it too.”
“You deserve everything you’re getting, Darby, for spreading these lies about me.”
“Me lying about you? That’s rich.” But something she’d said grabbed Darby’s attention. “What do you know about these attacks against me?”
“Only what I’ve heard from Jeff.”
“It’s one thing to wish harm on my business and my reputation, but I have a son. You’ve met him and these attacks against me place him in danger too.”
“Everyone knows he’s gone until Christmas. Besides, you deserve whatever you get for lying about me.”
Darby held up her hands. This back and forth was getting nowhere. Suzanne was never going to admit she’d stolen that jewelry, and Darby would never relent in her belief that Suzanne had brought this on herself.
Now that she knew her uncle was the man behind the threats against her, and Suzanne wasn’t involved, there was little point in continuing to speak with her.
Darby turned away. “Just leave me alone.”
“No!” Her voice turned gritty and bitter. “I will never leave you alone, Darby. I will make your life miserable every day until the day I manage to run you out of business and out of town. I will make you sorry you ever crossed me. You tried to ruin my life, and I have made it my lifelong goal to ruin yours.”
She’d gotten a frantic look on her face, and her voice had risen as she finished her tirade. She lunged at Darby, grabbed her by the hair and shoved her to the ground. Darby fought back, kicking her and screaming. Doors opened and people came running. She couldn’t identity any of them until Clay appeared and pulled her away. Chief Dean did the same with Suzanne, separating them.
“What’s going on here?” Dean demanded. He held Suzanne back then locked eyes with Darby. “What happened.”
“She attacked me,” Darby told him. “She’s crazy.”
“You started this,” Suzanne hollered.
Darby turned to Clay. “Please get me away from her.”
He nodded and led her away, pressing her face against his shoulder. He didn’t speak until they got outside and had gotten in his pickup.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded but the confrontation had shaken her. The last thing she needed was seeing Suzanne and being berated and assaulted.
He leaned over and put his arm around her. “She shouldn’t have said those things. No one deserves what you’ve been through, and if she really understood that, she wouldn’t have said it.”
Darby would have chosen to remain in his arms for the rest of the evening. He’d become so important to her in the few days she’d known him.
The doors to the station opened, and Chief Dean exited with Suzanne. He walked her to her car and held her before opening the door and seeing her off. He glanced over at the pickup, sighed, and headed back inside.
“I can take you back to the hotel,” Clay offered.
“No. Now that she’s gone, I’ll be fine here until you’re ready.” The truth was that she didn’t want to be alone or relive Brent’s death.
As Clay walked with her to the break room, Chief Dean approached them. She hoped it wasn’t to talk about the confrontation between her and Suzanne but he spoke to Clay, not her.
“I just received a call from the front desk. He’s here to turn himself in.”
She hardly had time to ask what he meant when the doors opened and the man responsible for all her troubles, the man who’d hired other men to kill her, stepped inside—her uncle, Grant Rushton.
Chapter Thirteen
Clay tensed as the doors opened and Rushton entered along with another man in a suit, who carried a briefcase. He looked like a lawyer, and it would be just like Rushton to show up with one.
Clay felt Darby tense as he approached them. She was trembling so he slipped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to the wall, but he couldn’t shield her from Rushton’s glare of contempt as the two men headed toward them.
