Harlequin Intrigue April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 Carol Ericson (short books to read TXT) 📖

done. Just as you couldn’t stop looking for that boy all those years ago. Only instead of arresting him, you confronted him.”

“You’re damn right, I did.” A hardness she’d never experienced transformed his expression the moment she’d called him by his last name, and the light she’d come to crave in his gaze died. His attention dipped to her sidearm. “Everything you’ve said up until now is true. He came back before I finished searching the property, but I’d already found his closet of surveillance photos. He walked through the door, and all I saw was a man who’d targeted the one person I couldn’t stand to lose. You.

“We fought. He must’ve gotten a good hit in for that much DNA to be left in his knuckles. After I overpowered him, I warned him I’d kill him if anything happened to you, but I left the son of a bitch alive when I walked out of that house.” He raised his eyes to hers. “Don’t hold back on my account, Chief. You were on a roll.”

This wasn’t the man she’d come to know over these past few days, the one who’d made her mac and cheese, pulled her off the bathroom floor when she hadn’t been able to function and showed her passion beyond her wildest dreams. In that moment, she didn’t recognize the deputy she’d fallen for at all. Battle-ready tension wound through her. She wouldn’t reach for her weapon. Not unless Cove gave her a reason. She’d dealt with criminals every day on the job, but she’d never suspected one of her own.

“Go on, boss. We both know where you’re going with this. Say it.” He took a step toward her, and her fingers tingled for the warmth of steel in her grip. The small muscles in his jaw flexed under pressure, sharpening the angles of his cheekbones. “Accuse me of being the one who gave that bastard everything he deserved.”

“I can’t. There’s not enough evidence to prove what happened between you and Del Howe didn’t happen before his murder or resulted in his death. Yet.” A coldness swept through her as her conversation with Deputy Beckett Foster replayed in her head, and a small bit of emotional control returned. Dylan seemed to relax a fraction, shifting his weight between both legs as she came to terms with the real reason he’d accepted her offer to work in Oregon. “But Gresham PD was able to obtain a warrant using that sample to search your apartment.”

Physical pain bolted through her side as she struggled to keep her voice steady. “They found your case files on the New Castle Killer. They can prove you’ve been using USMS resources to investigate Del Howe the moment you graduated from Glynco. That’s why you applied for the marshals service and accepted my offer to work in the Oregon division, isn’t it? Not for the chance you and I’d be working together again, but because you were using me and this job to find him. You knew what you were doing. You knew it would hurt me, but somehow that didn’t stop you.”

The truth pushed through the cracks in her armor and destroyed everything in its path. Her eyes burned, but she wouldn’t let the tears fall. Not here. Not now.

“Am I under arrest?” The veins bulged in his arms.

“No. If it weren’t for you and your obsession with the case, we never would’ve connected Del Howe as the New Castle Killer.” She swallowed past the thickness in her throat but couldn’t stop the pain from spreading. “But as of this moment, you are suspended without pay until Gresham PD’s investigation is complete.”

Surprise softened the edges of his expression. “Remi, don’t do this—”

“You lied to me!” She forced herself to take a deep breath, but she’d already reached her breaking point. “You used my team, you used me, and now Gresham PD has made you their lead suspect in Del Howe’s murder. I can’t trust you.”

She pulled her shoulders back, drawing on the same strength that’d gotten her through the worst years of her life after her family had died. “Dylan Cove, you’re required to turn in your badge, your weapon and any additional notes you’ve collected during the case while Gresham PD continues to investigate Del Howe’s murder.”

He’d lied to her, lied to the team, lied to the police. While his actions had resulted in answering critical questions in the New Castle case, Remi couldn’t trust him. Not on her team, and not with her heart. Heat burned up her neck as he solemnly nodded his acceptance of the web he’d caught himself in.

“It was a pleasure, Chief Barton. Every minute.” Turning toward the kitchen table, he unholstered his weapon, released the magazine, cleared the chamber and set everything on the table. Cove unclipped his badge from his belt, stared down at it before he placed it beside his sidearm, and her heart shot into her throat. “Who knows? Maybe this isn’t the end.”

He crossed the room and rounded into the hallway leading to the front door. One breath. Two. Two beeps of the alarm announced his exit.

She forced one foot in front of the other, her legs heavy with grief, disbelief, betrayal. It wasn’t the fact that Dylan had been at the cabin. He’d been honest enough at the beginning of this investigation she’d known there was a possibility Forensics would come back on him. It was that he’d lied to her about confronting Del Howe. Not only that, he’d used her move into the US Marshals Service to advance his own agenda, and he dragged her and her team into the conspiracy. The killer hadn’t left behind much evidence, but now the DNA embedded in the victim’s knuckles proved Dylan had been in that cabin, that he’d struggled with the New Castle Killer. It was only a matter of time before the FBI implicated the rest of the Oregon division.

Remi punched in the code on the alarm panel at the door