Page 31 of Ice Cold Liar (Ice Breaker Cold Case #14)
Chapter Sixteen
A hard, vehement shake of Naomi’s head. “No, you don’t. You’re just lying to me. Again.”
“Tell me you didn’t kill him.”
“I didn’t kill him!”
“I believe you.”
“ I didn’t kill Hudson. ”
“I believe you.” Eb would say it over and over again.
As many times as necessary, he would say it.
“You chose Hunter because he was being honest with you at the police station.” Like that choice hadn’t cut like a knife.
“Baby, I’ve been so many people over the years that, sometimes, I forget who I really am.
I forget how to be honest, even with myself.
But I’m going to fix that. Starting now. With you.” A hard nod. “I believe you.”
Did she get what he was saying? Probably not because he barely understood himself. Things were moving way too fast between him and Naomi. His emotions were not locked down the way they should have been. Everything was out of control. “I believe you.” Harder. Rougher. But he swore…
It felt the same as saying…
I love you.
Impossible. But…
I love you.
He’d fucking fallen the first time he saw her in the fountain. Love at first sight? What a crock of BS.
Except…
I knew it was real when she was on the couch, her body jerking and twitching and I would have traded my soul if her pain could stop.
“I stabbed him.”
He didn’t let his expression change at that stark admission from her.
“I was shaking and jerking, and he wanted me to beg. He was a monster. Telling me that he held all the power. That he could do anything he wanted. That I could die and no one would ever question him. That others had died and nothing happened to him. Nothing. He wanted me to hurt. He…he switched out my medicine.”
Now he couldn’t control his expression. “ What? ”
“I found out later—after Hudson had already been buried—that my medicine had been changed. He must have done it. Maybe he wanted to see me helpless. On our wedding night, I was helpless. Because of the medicine change or the terror or just horrible luck, I was helpless. When the seizure hit me, Hudson smiled, and he watched. That was, after, of course, he played around with his knife and thought it would make for extra fun to drive his fist into my stomach. All of that was true, by the way. The story I told you before? It happened. My wedding night was a true nightmare. No maybe BS about it. A real nightmare.”
He’d called Hudson a friend. A partner. He’d fought right beside him.
And…
If Hudson had been there right then…
I’d be the one killing you, you bastard.
“I have no idea how long I’d been taking the fake medicine.
I didn’t even notice the change until I got a new bottle after the burial.
I’d taken the medicine so long and…” Her breath shuddered out.
“I reached for the knife. He’d put that knife to my throat.
Did I tell you that part? I did, didn’t I?
That he’d put the knife to my throat. Then pulled it down my body.
I could feel the blade skimming over my skin. ”
Now he understood exactly why she’d called Hudson twisted. Why did you do this to her? What in the hell was wrong with you? And why hadn’t Eb seen the monster hiding behind his friend’s smile?
“Hudson told me that I should never have questioned him about Mary. That the past would stay dead and he—” A shuddering breath. “I was jerking. He was laughing. I-I begged. Cried. He watched, and he smiled. I married him. He promised to love me forever, and he smiled as I begged.”
His hands curled into fists. Everything he’d believed about Hudson had been dead wrong.
He’d seen the truth in the interrogation with Madeline.
The faint sweat on her forehead. The brief flicker of her lashes.
Small tells, but because he’d worked with her for so long, Eb had spotted them.
She’d been holding back about Hudson. She knew he was a killer.
Now Eb did, too.
And he wished, he wished that he’d been there for Naomi when she needed him.
But I will be with her from here on out. He’d protect her. Fight for her. Make damn sure that she was never hurt again.
“I grabbed the knife he’d dropped, and I plunged it into his side. I did it twice, and he got off me, and I managed to make it outside with Henry. I fell. The last thing I remember was Henry trying to drag me away and when I woke up…”
The front door slammed. “Well, he’s gone.
” Hunter strode back into the den. “Not exactly sunshine and rainbows, is he? But at least we got intel we can use.” He strolled forward, only stopping when he was right in front of Eb and Naomi.
His gaze swung back and forth between them.
A faint line cut between his brows. “Everything all right in here? Because I swear, I was only gone for like, two minutes, three, max. But you two seem, ah, extra intense.”
Eb’s hands remained clenched into powerful fists. “I need to talk with Naomi alone.” He had to get the rest of the story from her.
“Like…as in now? Because we should really all talk—this whole little group we have going, cute dog included,” he waved toward a watchful Henry, “and come up with a game plan. Because, clearly, someone in this town wants Naomi to suffer. First the house fire, then the frame-up job. You’ve got a very serious enemy,” he told Naomi.
“I know,” she said, and her stare was locked right on Eb.
Dammit. He advanced toward her. Their bodies brushed. “I am not your enemy.”
She stared straight into his eyes. “Bullshit.”
She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. And he’d shattered her growing trust in him.
Naomi swiped away a tear that had leaked down her cheek.
An actual tear.
Another knife in my chest.
“You need to very much consider us one and done.” Her brittle declaration. “I don’t like to repeat my mistakes.”
“Oh, shit,” Hunter rasped. “You’re a mistake, bro. That has to hurt. Savage.”
Yeah, it did hurt. “I heard her, Hunter. No need for the repeat.” Hadn’t he asked to speak with Naomi alone?
Her eyes glittered. “If you two will excuse me, Henry and I are heading to the kitchen.”
What? “We need to finish our talk!” She didn’t get to just drop a bombshell about stabbing Hudson and leave Eb hanging without telling him the rest of the story.
“I need to eat, and I am hoping like crazy there is something semi-edible in this house.” Her head swung toward Hunter. “Point me in the direction of the kitchen?”
“Yeah, sorry, but you’re not gonna find a whole lot in there.” A wince. “How about I order some pizzas?”
How about Naomi finishes telling me the damn story about Hudson’s murder before I lose my mind?
“I want pepperoni,” she said.
“You screwed up.”
Eb stared at the remains of the pepperoni pizza. They’d torn through two and a half boxes of pizza. Turned out that they’d all been famished.
Naomi had eaten. Then she’d vanished upstairs to her room. She had not dropped any other major bombshells on him.
“You’re wearing regret like a second skin.”
He slanted a glance toward Hunter. The other man slouched on the back porch of the house.
They’d eaten outside. Sunset had come and gone, turning the sky a deep, dark red before the growing darkness had started to spread out like hungry tentacles.
The insects chirped now, their calls getting stronger with every moment that passed.
“Did you apologize to her? Maybe try a bit of groveling? I’ve heard some women really go for that.
” Hunter brought a beer bottle up to his mouth.
Took a sip. “You came down here so big and bad. So determined to wreck her world. Now she has you wrapped around her pinky finger. That was a fast fall, got to say.”
“Thanks for that, buddy, appreciate it.” He brought his own beer up to his mouth. A practically full beer.
“Anytime.”
He put the beer back down, no sip. “You made any progress on the psych files?”
“Dude, you said your old CIA handler was in town. That she was the one interrogating you and Naomi at the police station. Why don’t you just ask her directly about the guy’s psych history?”
“Because she’ll lie. Madeline is even better at lying than I am.” She’d been the one to train him and Hudson.
A grunt. “If she’s such a world-class liar, then how do you know the other stuff she’s told you is the truth? That part about Hudson offing the real serial killer? Maybe that was BS.”
Maybe it had been. Except… “One rule you learned early on at the CIA was that the best lies were based in a kernel of truth. Made it easier to tell them. Made it easier for you to pass polygraphs because part of what you were saying was the truth.”
“You’re telling me that you can lie and pass a lie detector test.” He saluted Eb with the beer bottle. “Impressive.”
“No, it’s not.” It just meant he’d gone so far down the rabbit hole that his conscience didn’t tend to bother him any longer. At least, not most nights.
This night, it bothered him.
“Who do you think set the fire at Naomi’s place?” Hunter wanted to know.
“Thought it was Ivan. Then we found him beat to death.”
“Huh.” Hunter turned his head and stared into the night. “Huh.” His head tilted to the right.
In the distance, thunder seemed to rumble. The chirps of the insects grew louder, but even over their calls, Eb could practically hear Hunter’s thoughts grinding along. “You got something to say?”
“I’m not some fancy profiler. Don’t have a fistful of degrees. I’m just a former soldier who knows how to kill really well.” A shrug. “Guess we all have our talents, am I right?”
“You’re right,” Naomi responded from behind Eb.
Eb had known she was there. He’d heard the faint opening of the back door. The squeak of the porch beneath her feet. And as crazy as it might seem, he’d felt the charge in the air shift the moment she’d joined them.
Thunder rumbled again. Sounded closer.