The Eligible Suspect(54)

                “When did she say that?”

                “When I confronted her about the meeting she had with you. I saw you go into that restaurant and meet her.”

                Had he seen them leave? Korbin had searched pretty thoroughly then, before he’d given Collette the gun. He would have noticed. Damen must have left as soon as he’d seen them get up from the table.

                Damen had set him up because he thought he was fooling around with his girlfriend. “You’ve really sunk to a new low, haven’t you?”

                “If you didn’t sleep with her, you would have. I know you, Maguire. How you are with women.”

                How was that? He’d been married and after Niya’s death, he hadn’t seen anyone. Sure, plenty of women came on to him, but he hadn’t been interested. Damen was delusional. Jealous. Korbin had suspected as much, and even that the feeling had intensified the longer they knew each other and the deeper into crime Damen fell, but for Damen to act on it? Maybe it was that Damen couldn’t control him. He controlled everyone else he worked with, certainly everyone who worked for him. But never Korbin.

                “Collette asked me to help her get away from you,” he said. “She was going to meet me the next morning and I was going to get her away from you.”

                Damen’s eyes didn’t move from Korbin as he considered that. “Well, I guess she got her wish.”

                That was uncalled for and not something Korbin would let slide by. He punched Damen on the side of his eye, quick and hard, the sound of knuckles against flesh cracking.

                Savanna inhaled sharply, not having expected the violent response.

                “Tony,” Korbin said. “Who is he?”

                Damen shook off the dizzying effect of Korbin’s hit. “I thought you knew.”

                “How would I?”

                Damen shrugged within his confines. “Bear could have talked.”

                Bear was one of Damen’s thugs he’d recently taken on and part of what had begun to change Korbin’s mind about him.

                “No. I didn’t have time to ask him. Is he involved, too?”

                Damen stared up at Korbin for a while, weighing his options, which weren’t many in his current predicament.

                “Let’s talk about this, Korbin. If you let me go, I’ll tell the cops I talked to you the night of the hit-and-run. You’ll be cleared.”

                “What about Tony?” And let’s not forget Collette’s murder. Surely Damen hadn’t forgotten that it was Korbin’s gun he’d used to kill her. Or had he known it was his gun? Maybe he hadn’t. If Collette hadn’t told him, how would he have known?

                “You have to agree not to interfere in that,” Damen said.

                “And my word is all you need.”

                That clown smile returned. “We are friends, Maguire.”

                “Wrong. We were friends. We aren’t anymore.”

                Damen shook his head, lowering it and then looking up at Korbin. “I can’t have you ruining my business arrangement with Tony.”