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“Bullshit You were a pain in hter her loved ones ”
“Thank you! I was framed I don’t even knohom or why ”
Logan’s expression turned flat “Why should I believe you’re her?”
Good question The only thing she had of her foran had no clue it had been Cecilia Howe’s pride and joy before ovarian cancer had quickly snuffed out the bright light of her s’s authenticity at the moment, Callie had left it in her backpack, shoved in the trunk of her car
“I’ve got nothing but the truth I’ll tell you what really happened and hope that you’ll believe ood, you will ”
“I’ wheel and stared, looking like an immovable mountain
Callie sed nervously “What you know is that nine years ago, un was found in my room, wiped clean ”
“Your boyfriend told everyone that you killed theether ”
Holden had been gorgeous, defiant, wild, and full of grand ideas In retrospect, planning to run off with him had been stupid, but her sixteen-year-old heart had believed in the concept of soulthat he was hers If she’d had any idea that he would end up betraying her for money, she would have never accepted that first ride in his car or given hiinity
“He illing to say anything for the big bounty onand naïve not to realize that
“We’d been planning to run away together for a feeeks His family had no money, and he had a crappy home life When he said that he wantedheart fluttered Besides, I didn’t want to be Callindra Howe anye took dance classes and worked a su lessons I spoke fluent French By the time I was ten, I’d visited every continent except Antarctica I had a trust fund and got a Porsche the day I got my driver’s license ”
“It doesn’t sound that bad,” Logan drawled
“In retrospect, it wasn’t At the time, I felt isolated I worshipped my dad, but he’d been remote since my mother’s
death And er sister, Charlotte, had turned rebellious ”
“So when your boyfriend paid attention to you in order to get laid and get closer to your ht he was the answer to your problems?”
“Pretty ht my father and sister were killed, I was late for our family dinner The second thefor a test I ran back upstairs to call Holden and give hio to bed like all was norrabbedin a few last-minute items when I heard the first shot downstairs, in ht I had to be mistaken or my sister had turned the TV up really loud Who would be in our house shooting? I heard Charlotte head down the hall and for the stairs ” Callie clenched her fists “She screaunshot, this one ain I peeked out the door to see if I could help her, but the blood” Callie pressed her lips together “She was only fourteen ”
Her throat closed up and tears threatened, but Logan squeezed her hand “Go on ”
“I wanted to run to her, but the killer started charging down rabbed round I’d done it a thousand times
“He shot round Flesh wound tolike a bitch, and I bled off and on for days, but I kept running forforI called the police and told the They immediately suspected me when I told them I’d fled the scene They wanted ’ and swore I was just ‘a person of interest,’ but within an hour, the media had me labeled a suspect I was too dazed and scared to face interrogation The whole thing was a blur, and I had no witnesses who could say I hadn’t killed anyone I didn’t want to face the fact that one So I ran ”
“No one suspected Holden? After all, if your father died, you stood to inherit a lot of money ”
She shook her head “He parked in front of an elderly couple’s house They spied on the teen ‘vagrant’ slouched in his beat-up Mustang for twentyUsher in their very white upper-crust neighborhood They were sure they’d be horrifically murdered any second ”
Logan’s rim line “Then?”
“Within an hour, we traded vehicles with a drunk guy in a bar’s parking lot, Holden’s car for his old truck The guy asted enough to say yes After that, we headed from Illinois to Indiana ”
Callie hadn’t told any of this to a single soul—ever Hell, she’d barely let herself think about it in years Just saying the words hurt like peeling off the layers of her skin one at a ti an ht not believe her He could call the police because it was the right thing to do They would take her to jail And who kneould happen thenexcept that it wouldn’t be good
“Then a few days later, your boyfriend ratted you out?” he asked
“Yeah I was still bleeding,me in and he called ” And damn if she wasn’t still bitter about that “When I stepped out of the shower for my shampoo and overheard him on the phone, I threw on my clothes, took the truck, and split ”
“Keep going,” Logan demanded
“From there, I dashed to the next town over and paid cash for a little sedan I had about thirty grand with me, money I’d taken from my father over a few months so Holden and I could start a new life My dad never missed it
“Since it inter, I bolted south Spent soot suspicious, I adopted another name, colored my hair, and slipped over the border into Tennessee Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, OklahomaAny place I could find a rent-by-the week motel and a transient job, that’s where I went, at least until I thought soain ”
“How did you find Thorpe?”
“I waited on so at a twenty-four-hour diner shortly after I got to Dallas Soarb at three a m when they walked in I was curious, so I asked questions They gave o to Dominion with him Out of curiosity, I said yes He turned out to be a troll, and it didn’t take Thorpe long to throw hied to stay I’d finally found the perfect place to hide A secretive community where no one expects to know your real na to out you I could dress different, change my hair, wear a lot of makeup, and no one would raise a brow Not a soul who knewwhat a fet club was, much less think to look for me there Thorpe asked a lot of questions at first Ias I did ive him a heads-up if I planned to skip out so he could hire so to hold it all in “Then came Sean ”