Page 38 of Temptation
Debra glanced back at the closed door. “She said she’d only talk to you. That if I gave her just five minutes with you, she’d cooperate.”
“Then give her the five minutes.” He had to get inside that room. Right now. All right. Maybe he wasn’t in total control. Maybe he could feel his control shredding, like something was clawing him from the inside.
“She wants the time alone with you.”
“Done.”
Debra didn’t move.
“I can handle her.” He was about to physically move Debra out of his way. “Pretty sure I outweigh Sloane by about a hundred pounds.”
“She’s cuffed,” Debra groused. “She won’t be able to hurt you.”
“Then what are we waiting for? Step aside and let me find out the truth about her.”
He could see the struggle on her face. But, after a tense beat, Debra gave a grim nod. She stepped to the right, moving out of his path. Preston’s hand flew for the doorknob, but her fingers curled around his wrist. “Be careful with her.”
“Like I said, I think I can handle her.”
“She plays mind games. I’ve seen her type before. At sixteen, she might have convinced her boyfriend to kill for her.”
He felt a hard ripple beneath his skin. Actually felt his control crack.
“After that, she went on to get a freaking PhD in psychology. That means she knows all about getting into a person’s head. She became an expert at the job.” She tapped her left temple. “She’ll get in here, and she’ll mess with you. Like I said, I’ve seen it before.” Because Debra had done a stint with the FBI years ago. She’d been so scarred by the things she’d seen that she’d quit the Bureau and taken the sheriff’s position in town. “Don’t let her take you down.” A fierce warning.
“I have this.” Guttural. But he very much feared that he did not have this. That ripple came again. His skin felt too tight. His body too tense. He wrenched the doorknob. Threw open the door. Anger—no, fury boiled within him because Sloane had?—
“Oh, there you are. Finally.” She sent him her sunny smile as she tugged on the handcuff around her wrist. One cuff around her wrist. One cuff that appeared to be locked around a table leg. “Took your sweet time coming in, didn’t you?”
He shut the door behind him. Sucked in a deep breath.
“But you’re here now.” An encouraging nod. “I’m really, really glad to see you.” A pause. “Even if you did let your sheriff BFF arrest me while I was just wearing your shirt.” A slow shake of her head. “Not cool. For future reference, you should be on my side. And I’ll be on yours.”
He rushed toward the table. Toward her. His hands slammed down on the wooden surface. “Why would I ever be on your side?” His breath heaved out. “Apparently, you have a history with killers. You got your boyfriend to murder your parents when you were sixteen, and you made a career out of learning how to manipulate everyone around you.” His nostrils flared as the rage grew. She’d gotten beneath his guard. She’d been in the dark with him. And he’d wanted, he’d hoped?—
“Ah, dug into my background, did you? Well, you shouldn’t believe everything you read.” A soft sigh. “Though I do have to confess that I may have a slight obsession with killers. Understanding them. Figuring out what makes them tick.” A pause. “Stopping them.” Her gaze held his. “Stopping them is very important to me. A priority.”
He didn’t?—
“That’s why I’m here. Well, not here in this horrible room. I’m in this room because you didn’t trust me.” Her shoulders squared. “I meant that I’m here in this town because I’m trying to stop killers. That’s the reason why I came to you.”
The thunder of his heartbeat echoed in Preston’s ears.
“You should sit down,” Sloane urged him. There was actual worry in her dark eyes. “Because this will be really hard for you to hear. I’m afraid that I have some very bad news to give you.”
Chapter Eleven
Preston didn’t take her advice and sit down. He did continue to look absolutely enraged. Gorgeous, sexy, but enraged.
At least he was in the conference room with her. Actually, he was super close to her. Inches away. Sloane could practically feel the heat from his body reaching out to envelop her. She found herself leaning toward him just the slightest bit.
Until he gritted out, “You made a man kill for you.”
With that charge, she stopped feeling warmth. It was more like she’d just been doused with ice water. “Not true.” Her words sounded as brittle as she felt. “I had no idea that Cody was going to attack my family. I had no idea that I’d wake up one morning and find my mother and my stepdad covered in blood, their sheets soaked, their bodies littered with stab wounds. Slashes. I had no idea that I’d just sleep through the night and never hear them cry out because Cody cut my stepdad’s throat and slapped duct tape over my mother’s mouth and that he…” She drew in a shuddering breath. “Cody is the reason I want to stop killers. He’s the reason I made my entire life’s focus about stopping killers. If you understand their motivation, if you can figure out why some people become such horrific monsters and why some don’t, then you have a chance.”
His jaw was rock hard. But his eyelashes had flickered. She’d just told him about the worst moments of her life.
Yes, finding her parents had been far, far worse than being buried alive.
