He released his hold on me and threw me onto the mattress, beginning to pace. “She lies. He changed her.”
“Eddie, please. Just let me go. I won’t tell anyone.” Tears burned my eyes.
“Liar!” He flew at me, pinning me to the mattress. His eyes flared as they zeroed in on my hand. On the ring. “It’s all been lies, hasn’t it? You’re just like the rest of them. Can’t be trusted. Never as good as my Megan.”
“I’m sorry,” I wheezed, terror pulsing through me.
“You’re not. But you will be. Because I’m going to make you burn.”
46
CADEN
I paced backand forth across my driveway as countless law enforcement officers and crime scene techs milled about. Lawson and Nash had made it here in record time after I called, and Roan and Holt hadn’t been far behind. But no one had a clue where Grae was. Gabe was still in jail, and the only person he’d been allowed to talk to was his lawyer. He couldn’t have done this.
Pulling out my phone, I called my head of security for the third time. “Where are you?”
“On my way, sir. I had to get the security camera footage loaded onto a laptop. I still haven’t been able to get in touch with the guard who was on duty.”
“Hurry up,” I gritted out and hung up.
Rage swelled, too much for me to contain. I grabbed one of the folding chairs and sent it flying into my side yard with a curse.
The flurry of people stilled and stared at me.
Nash crossed to me in three long strides. “You need to keep it together.”
“I can’t lose her,” I said through heaving breaths.
“We’re not going to.”
“I just got her back.” My throat tightened, burning with the emotion I couldn’t let free.
Nash dropped his hands to my shoulders and squeezed. “And you’re gonna build that big, beautiful life together.”
My teeth ground together. “Asked her to marry me last night.”
Pain lanced through Nash’s eyes, but he quickly covered it. “She shoot you down?”
A strangled laugh escaped my throat. “Got my ring on her finger.”
“Mom’s gonna freak. She’s been dreaming about Grae’s wedding from the moment the doctor told her she was finally having a girl.”
My ribs constricted in a painful squeeze. I could see that day—Grae walking down the aisle toward me, wildflowers in her hair, a secret smile playing on her lips, those blue eyes shining. “Gonna be a hell of a wedding.”
A resort SUV pulled into my drive, and my head of security jumped out. Dennis rushed over to the table we had set up. “The footage is ready to go.”
Holt opened the laptop and hit a few keys. “We look for familiar faces first. If we don’t see anyone we know, we run every single person who came through.”
We all nodded in agreement as the tape played on fast-forward. Holt paused on each face. They were mostly guests I didn’t recognize. No one tripped my trigger.
Then Holt paused the tape again.
Nash cursed. Lawson pulled out his phone. Roan looked like he wanted to kill someone. I froze. My blood went cold as Eddie’s face filled the screen.
“Jerry,” Lawson clipped into his phone. “Need you to look up property records for an Edward Pierson.”
Lawson lowered his phone and put it on speaker.