Page 91 of Secrets Along the Shore (Beach Read Thrillers #1)

CHAPTER

THIRTY-THREE

There’s a whooshing in my ears as I leave the couch. I walk over to James, who is looking at me quizzically.

“Soph?” he asks, setting down the wooden spoon covered in red sauce. “You okay?”

“No.” I lean against the counter and swallow the bile threatening to escape. “I’m not okay.”

The color leaves his cheeks. Before now, I would have attributed it to overwhelming concern for me. Now I recognize it for what it is.

Fear.

My eyes narrow. “You knew, didn’t you?”

He bites his lip. “What?”

“You knew. About Matthew. About what he did.”

“I…no. What are you talking about?”

“They found the texts, James. Matthew deleted them, but they found them anyway.”

His complexion is now bone-white. “What texts?”

“Just…stop.” I clamp my lips together, anger rippling through me. “You knew. And you and your father and Matthew…you engineered meeting me so you would have someone on the inside. So you would know what was happening in the investigation.”

He moves toward me, his arms outstretched. “No, I?—”

I backpedal, throwing my hands up. “No! ”

He stops, shock filling the lines of his face. “Soph, come on. Please?—”

“Was any of it ever real?!” I exclaim. “Any of it?”

James holds my gaze, and I can almost see the options he’s considering whirring through his mind.

“They’re on their way,” I tell him. “There’s no point in lying.”

His stare drops to the floor, then back to me. “Okay, yes. It started that way.”

The breath exits my body, and I gasp softly to reclaim it.

James steps toward me and I take another step back. “No, you don’t understand…It started that way, but then I fell for you. Completely. And you have to know, I didn’t have anything to do with what happened. With what Matthew did. It was already…already done.”

I scoff. “Oh. Well, as long as it was already done . Only it wasn’t already done, was it? Not all of it. Not Teresa Anders!”

“How could I have known he was going to do that?! They said they just wanted to keep tabs on what was happening in the investigation. They thought I could do that through you. That way, if the authorities got close to Matthew, we would know. We could plan. Keep it from…I don’t know?—”

“From blowing back on you? On your career?!”

“No…well, yes, but…Sophie—I’ve worked so hard! You know how hard I’ve worked to get here! If Matthew was linked to that murder, it would’ve destroyed my chances in the election.”

“He murdered people, James! Not one murder. Two. ”

“I only knew about the one at that point!”

“And if you had come forward then, Teresa Anders would still be alive. ”

James’s jaw goes rigid. He doesn’t argue because he knows I’m right.

I shake my head. “This is over.” I turn toward the door. “I’m going to wait for Cole outside. Bilbo!” I click my tongue, and my dog bounds off the couch to follow me.

“Sophie, please! I didn’t mean—” I hear James coming up fast behind me, and he snatches my arm .

At the same time I spin toward James, Bilbo lets out a ferocious growl and launches at him. Bilbo’s jaws clamp down on James’s arm, and James yelps, stumbling backward as he pointlessly tries to shake the dog off.

“Release!” I order. Bilbo immediately releases his hold and sprints back to stand protectively between me and James, his weight pressing against my legs, every muscle in his lean frame taut.

James cradles his bleeding arm, his face twisted in disbelief that the dog that has been his friend—his walking-buddy, his park-pal—has turned on him.

Kind of how I feel.

“Try that again and I’ll let him have his way,” I say, then walk out the door, Bilbo flanking me. We leave James in my kitchen, holding his arm against his chest, no doubt pondering the thousand ways his life is about to implode.