Page 33 of Temptation
“No! Ahhh! Everyone needs to calm down. Take a breath!”
Take a deep breath. Pray it’s not your last.
Preston could not move.
“Look, at least get me more freaking clothes!” Sloane cried.
“I’ll get you clothes at the station.” Debra pushed her into the back seat. She finished Mirandizing Sloane and slammed the door.
“I…tried calling you with the news I had,” Joshua told him, voice tight as he, too, watched the scene unfold before them. “But you didn’t answer your phone.”
“It’s upstairs.” His eyes were on the car. Or, rather, on Sloane as she pressed her face to the window of the patrol car.
“She’s involved in this mess. You can’t trust her.”
“You know me. I don’t trust anyone.” But, with Sloane, for a bit there, he’d?—
“Let the sheriff handle her.”
Sloane stared at him through the window, and that odd tightness was back in his chest. She just looked so heartbroken. And she was only wearing his shirt. He damn well couldn’t let her leave just in the shirt. Preston began marching for the car.
“Preston!” Joshua grabbed him.
Preston shook off his hold. One step. Another. Faster. Faster.
Debra stepped into his path. “I’m taking her to the station.”
“She…needs clothes.”
“The woman needs a good attorney, that’s what she’s going to need,” Debra muttered. Her dark brows beetled. “Look, I want you to come down to the station, too. You should put on clothes.”
He glanced down. Hell.
“I need to talk to you, get a full statement on everything that went down with your abduction. I want to know every word that woman in there…” Debra jerked her thumb over her shoulder as she indicated Sloane. “Every word she said to you.”
She hadn’t said enough. He’d questioned her in the limo. She’d stalled him. He hadn’t pushed at the time because he’d known she had to be wrecked. But then they’d gone back to his house.
Sloane had come against his mouth.
Fuck.
“I need to talk to her.” Had she been trying to manipulate him? Had she been involved with the abduction? It just didn’t seem possible. He shook his head. “She was buried in the ground with me.”
“Yes, but help came, didn’t it? Convenient help that arrived before she could be hurt. Maybe that whole freaking scene was a setup.” Her hand pushed against his chest. “Let me do my job. I’m taking her to the station. And I’ll be taking those bags of hers, too.”
He stepped to the side so that he could see Sloane again. Her desperate gaze met his. She shook her head.
“Just what do you know about the woman?” Debra pressed him. “Where did she come from? Why is she in town? What the hell does she do for a living? Other than, apparently, stalk you.”
“She’s a psychologist. Focuses on abnormal behavior.”
Debra snorted. “Like that’s not problematic. What’s more abnormal than stalking and burying someone?” She hurried toward the driver’s door of her vehicle. Wrenched it open.
Preston moved closer to the back door of the patrol car. Toward Sloane. Beautiful Sloane with that heart-stopping grin.
She stared up at him. Still wearing his shirt. One side sliding off her shoulder. He could see her so clearly through the glass, so he was able to see…
A tear slid down her cheek.
