Her 24-Hour Protector(47)
“Jenna? You’re not afraid of your own father, are you? Do you realize what danger he put you in? You could have been killed.”
She cast her eyes down. “I…I love him, Lex. He’s my dad. He’s…all I really have.”
Lex stilled, seeing in Jenna something he hadn’t noticed before—a vulnerable young woman. In spite of all her sophistication and seductive glitz, underneath it hid a beautiful, sensitive creature who’d been born into the rarefied air of the Rothchild empire, a woman who had zero exposure to the normal touchstones of life. A lonely woman, even, who’d armored herself with a bright, breezy smile and who sought self-validation through attracting men. A woman who needed—depended—on the love and goodwill of her tyrant sociopathic father.
And in turning to Lex, Jenna clearly felt she was betraying her own father—one of the most powerful men in Nevada. She’d come to Lex’s home, and in a sense Lex could see she wasn’t going to be able to go back to her casino castle after this. He put the handset back down.
She glanced up, and his heart clenched. “There’s more Lex. I…I was at Candace’s apartment the night she was killed.”
“You were what?”
“I…” She dragged shaking hands through her hair. “I should’ve reported it, and I didn’t.”
“What are you trying to say, Jenna?”
“You didn’t know I was there?”
“No.”
“So you weren’t playing me, trying to get more information? Maybe find a reason to get my DNA so you could match it to my blood at the scene.”
“Your blood?”
“I…I cut my finger on a piece of the vase Candace threw at my head. It bled pretty badly.”
He swore. “Sit. Tell me. Everything.”
“Lex—”
“Now!” He was furious.
She sunk slowly down onto the sofa.
He waited, stomach knotted.
“I…I went to try and talk Candace into going to rehab that night, for her children’s sake, for my little nephews. Those toddlers are—”
“Stick to the facts,” he said crisply.
She swallowed. “Candace was high, drunk, whatever, and when I mentioned rehab, she flew into a blind rage. She hurled a Ming vase at me. It smashed against the coffee table, and I tried to pick up some of the pieces and cut my finger on one, and then she threatened me with a fire poker if I didn’t leave at once. So I did.”
He glared at her, a vein thrumming in his forehead. “And you didn’t report this, why?”
“I didn’t think her drug problems and my personal issues with my sister were relevant to the homicide, or to the media circus that ensued. I…I thought it was a robbery gone wrong.”
“You thought?”
“You have to understand, Lex, that every time the press got hold of something Candace did, the whole sordid business was splashed all over the papers and picked up by trashy tabloids nationwide. And it was her two little children who were ultimately going to suffer. Not her. She didn’t give a damn. I just wanted it all to stop. For their sakes. Growing up knowing their mother was brutally murdered is going to be bad enough, damn it!”
“Geez, Jenna, don’t you see? That vase, that argument of yours, it impacted a homicide scene. How in the hell were crime scene techs to know that broken vase wasn’t part of the brutal attack on your sister? What you held back from the police has helped obfuscate an already confounding investigation! Who do you people think you are? Above the law, or what?”
Her mouth flattened. “It was a mistake, okay? I’m really sorry. I thought the Vegas police would catch the killer quickly. I thought it was just someone after the diamond, and that her latest drug binges wouldn’t need to come out. Then the longer it took to find her killer, the more complicated it became to even mention I was there. I…I started to get scared.”
Lex swore, raked his hand through his hair. “What, Jenna, makes this any different from what your father did in withholding critical evidence? Don’t you see? You’re playing the same game. And how am I supposed to do my job when you deceive me, hamstring me like this, huh? What’re you trying to do, make a mockery of what I do?”
“Lex, no, it’s not like that—”
“What’s it like then?”
She lurched up off the chair, two hot spots forming on her cheeks. “I’ll tell you what it’s like. I have just betrayed my father! What I’ve told you could take—”
“Hey, you hid evidence, also.”
“Yes, I did. And in confessing to you, in telling you what my father has done, I could take my whole family down, including my innocent nephews. I have just alienated myself from everything I know, Lex. My father said if I told you about those notes I’d have nothing. If he finds out I have done this, I won’t even be able to go home. Because he—” she jabbed her finger toward the window “—owns the roof over my head. He owns my job. He owns who I am, Lex, and I’ve turned my back on him, on it all. I am on your side, damn it! Can’t you see? I am telling you this, and I’ll do everything I can to help you catch that killer.” Her voice caught, emotion filling her eyes.