Page 30 of Temptation
Preston felt his entire body tense.
“You were tracking Preston that whole time, weren’t you? Tracking him and then he gets taken.” Red filled Joshua’s cheeks. “I already called the sheriff. Told her all about what I found in your room, and she’s coming over. Should be here any minute.” He took a hard step toward Sloane. “You set Preston up, didn’t you? Staged the kidnapping? Pulled off some insane bullshit manipulation so you could get close to him? Just how twisted are you?”
Fury coiled inside of Preston. She…set me up? She’d been on his property, before the abduction, she’d told him that. But…
But this…
She was tracking me. Deliberately trying to get close to me?
And he’d only been too eager to get close to her. Normally, he let no one close. But she’d slipped beneath his guard. What in the hell had he been thinking?
“No!” Sloane’s furious denial. “That is not what’s happening here!”
The doorway was still open. Her bags still outside.
And a sheriff’s patrol car had just pulled up in front of the house.
Sloane’s hand curled around Preston’s shoulder. She pulled him, turning him toward her.
His hands had clenched into fists. “There something you meant to tell me?”
“Preston…”
“I tried asking you questions last night.” He had. On the way from the hospital to his house. “In the limo, you just went silent.”
She bit her lower lip. Her desperate gaze bounced toward the sheriff’s car. Debra Tooni was exiting the vehicle. “We should talk, but we need to have that conversation alone.”
They’d been alone in the limo. Alone in the house until Joshua arrived.
The sheriff’s car door slammed closed.
“Please, just trust me, would you?” Sloane’s stare was on him. All beseeching. Dark. Deep. “I’m not here to hurt you, I swear it. Look, I was in the grave with you, remember?”
As if he could forget.
Keys jingled as the sheriff ambled toward them.
“Joshua, Preston…” Debra’s voice carried easily. “I hear that we have another situation on our hands.”
Sloane’s grip tightened on him. He should turn his head toward the sheriff. But he was too busy staring at the desperation in Sloane’s eyes. He really didn’t want her to be a liar.
“Trust me,” Sloane pleaded.
Unfortunately… “I don’t trust anyone.”
Her eyes widened, and pain flashed across her pretty face. “That’s a crappy way to live.”
It was the only way he was able to keep living.
“What’s happening?” Debra demanded.
Preston turned toward her. Debra was tall and slender, with the faintest hint of silver peeking through her coal-black hair. Her cheekbones were high, sharp, silent testimony to her Cherokee heritage. Her dark gaze held both curiosity and suspicion. There were shadows under her eyes, and wrinkles scrunched her normally pristine uniform.
He suspected she’d been out at the grave site all night long.
“Figured we’d be having a big interview early today,” Debra continued musingly, “but I was trying to let you both rest up a bit first. Then I got the call from Joshua saying I needed to haul ass over here.”
Joshua lunged for the bags he’d brought over. He unzipped one, spilling half the contents in the entranceway. A sexy pair of red panties. A matching bra. Jeans.
