Page 32 of Into The Rabbit Hole

“Wade.”

“Baby, let me speak to Wesley.” He raised his brows ather.

She handed Wesley the phone. “Look Wesley, who the fuck do you think you’re fooling? This isn’t the time to be using your little best friend tactics to move in on mygirl.”

Wesley stared at him, cleared his throat, and then pulled in a breath as he retrieved a notebook and a pen from hispocket.

“Can you let us know what happened on the night of the murder?” That was hisreply.

Wade simply stared at him, wondering if he’d gonemad.

“Wesley, didn’t you hearme?”

“The whole damn prison heard you, Wade. Yes, I heard you, I just don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to say. Anyway, if you could just answer the question, I can do what I’m doing and get on with mylife.”

Wade looked him over, then looked back at Chloe. She took the phone away fromWesley.

“Wade, we’re just trying to find something that could have beenmissed.”

“Baby, it’s a very dangerous time. You can’t do this. I’m behind bars and I can’t keep you safe. I told you to go to France. What are you still doing here? And why are you putting yourself indanger?”

“I love you,” she breathed. Her voice soft and soothing as always. It was a voice he’d missed so much his heart ached for it. Ached for her. “I love you,” she repeated. “I’m not going anywhere. This is me doing what I can, and if myfriendcan help us, I’m taking the help,Wade.”

The way she said friend calmed him slightly and he focused his attention back onWesley.

“I’ll talk to him,” Wade agreed, but only for her. Only for her. He couldn’t imagine how Wesley could help if no one else could. His father was one of the best lawyers in California, who knew his stuff inside out, but even he couldn’t help him. Last night his father had told him that he was arranging for a new lawyer. He said worse things were about to happen and he didn’t want Wade to be caught up in it. Caught up in corruption. Wade didn’t know if that was his way of backing out because there was literally nothing he could do, or if what he said was thetruth.

The way he saw it was, if his father couldn’t help him there was no one whocould.

But he’d speak to Wesley because Chloe looked like she was on her last ounce ofstrength.

She handed the phone to Wesley again and he focused onWade.

“So tell me, tell me what happened toyou.”

Chloe sat closer to him so she could hear what Wade was saying,too.

“When Chloe told me that Merissa knew who our psycho friend was, I decided to go and see her. I wanted information because she seemed to be the first person with real information. When I got there, we argued, but then she calmed down enough to tell me she’d only spoken to our friend on the phone. Just as she was about to elaborate, we saw green smoke coming into the room from under the door. I tried to get her out of the house, but it was some sort of knock-out gas. I felt paralyzed. It knocked us both out and when I came to, she was dead. I was lying in herblood.”

Wesley jotted down some notes in his notebook, then looked back toWade.

“Do you remember anything else? Any strange sounds, anything else yousaw?”

Wade shook his head. “That’s it. I smashed the window to get some of the smoke out, but other than that nothing else happened. Everything else took place when I wasunconscious.”

Chloe closed her eyes and pressed her lips together. She lookeddisappointed.

“It’s not a lot, right?” Wadeadded.

Wesley sighed and shook his head. Wade looked at Chloe again and found he couldn’t lookaway.

“What about when you first got there, to the house. Did you see anything outside that lookedunusual?”

“Wesley, I was so mad that I just jumped off my bike, guns blazing. Honestly, I wouldn’t have seen anything. This psycho person is dangerous, seriously dangerous. I couldn’t believe that Merissa had information about him, or was working with him. The man tried to kill my sister.” Wade noticed a sudden change in Wesley’s expression. He’d narrowed his eyes and looked down at the counter as if the gray Formica that covered the top really fascinated him. “What?”

“You took yourbike?”

“Yes.” He didn’t see what relevance thatwas.