His voice was low and controlled. “They’re searching for Jordan, not Jo. They have no idea who she is now.”
“I got a phone call this morning from one of my supervisors.”
“You did?” My chest was so damn tight. “What did your supervisor want?”
“For me to give you up, but I don’t have to, and my supervisor knows that. I have no legal obligation to hand you over, and even if the police issue a warrant for your arrest—”
Kian cut in, “Which is highly unlikely. There’s nothing to incriminate Jordan for the angle they’re going toward.”
Snark kept talking as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “The FBI doesn’t have to help out the local police department, but having said that, you didn’t officially go into the Witness Protection Program.”
I was left hanging. “So? What does that mean? I know I’m not officially in the program, but you helped hide me anyway. What does that mean?”
Kian stepped toward me, turning to face me squarely. His back was now to Snark. “That means”—his soft voice turned my shiver to the bad kind, the really bad kind—“that they can find you.”
“Fuck that.” Snark came around. “They will find you. This one found you. I take it, the guy you used isn’t on your daddy’s payroll?”
Kian cast him a disdainful look. “No. I learned long ago to employ my own people and”—a glimmer of a smirk showed—“my people are better.”
“You haven’t given her up yet, or her new name would be plastered all over the news. Why not?”
“Because I don’t want that to happen.”
“So, this is okay? It’s your team who got the DA to go after her. It’s your team who spun everything around, and it was you who did that interview.”
That interview…Erica’s interview. I was still holding on to the paper. I looked down at it. What had Kian said in it? What had I avoided that I could’ve been prepared for by now?
Kian took the paper from me and threw it on the couch. He pointed at it, his jaw clenched tightly. “What I said signified nothing. They’re reaching for a crapshoot.”
“They have a witness. They’ve talked to someone who’s backing up the new investigation.”
“They have nothing. If they do, it’s someone from high school who has an agenda and wants to be famous. That’s it. The witness will be discredited. It’s only a matter of time before that happens, and, no, they won’t find Jo. I’ve made sure of that.”
“Wait, what do you mean?” A buzzing started between my ears. I shook my head, trying to clear it, but it only grew louder.
Snark ignored me, his voice rose. “Your team is behind this.”
“Not my team. I’ve instructed them to leave Jordan alone.”
“So, they did try to go after her?”
“They asked in the beginning, but I made it clear that I wouldn’t ruin Jordan’s life. This is my life. I killed Edmund, and she had nothing to do with it. If they’re going to try to blame her, they will fail.”
Snark started to argue, “An eyewitness—”
“Stop!” My hands clamped over my ears. That buzzing sound was too much. My headache was pulsating against my temples now. “Stop, you guys.”#p#分页标题#e#
Kian moved to me, taking one of my hands in his. He pulled me to him, wrapping his other arm around my back. He began rubbing at my temple, easing the headache away, and I should’ve pulled away. This was weird—or it should’ve been weird, but it wasn’t. That was the weird part of it. It felt so right to be in his arms, to have him pull me to his chest, to have him soothe out my pain. Like in the nightclub closet, I didn’t want to pull away. I wanted to burrow closer against him.
Kian is going to protect me. My insides were blaring this message to me. I wanted to believe it. I really did.
As if sensing my struggle, he held me tighter.
I relaxed into him, tuning out everything, as his hand continued to rub in a circle over my temple. Slowly, so slowly, the headache began to dissipate. My chest loosened, and I clung to his side as he talked to Snark.
His voice reverberated through him as my ear was pressed to his chest while he said, “I didn’t say anything in that interview to incriminate her. Trust me, no one knows she’s here. No one. Not my team, not my family. The only one who knows, besides those in this room, is my private investigator, and no one knows about him either.”
“Your father never got to him?”
For the first time since we’d arrived, Kian relaxed. He was amused. “My father is the last person who would help me.”