Page 35 of Mountain Defender

She stared up at him. “You don’t think he’s dead too?”

He huffed out a grunt. Of course she still believed he was involved.

“Not likely unless he took care of himself. After seeing this scene, I don’t think that the cops got it right at all.”

“How much of that report did you read, Bryson?”

The sound of his name rolling off her tongue had his attention. Up until this moment, she’d called him Tripp. Why the change? Maybe she was getting more personal hoping that he’d break down and give her a confession. But he wasn’t about to say he killed a man when he didn’t.

Yet.

“The police report didn’t say much and we both know it. I never got my hands on your report.” Though he’d attempted to hack the system and get access several times from his mountain retreat. “I know your report already has it wrong too. But I’m guessing your purpose in coming here with me is to decide whether or not I’m responsible for Caden’s disappearance.”

She widened her stance and folded her arms in a pose that was pure tough girl detective. “Are you?”

He faced her, letting her get a good look at him. “I think you know I didn’t do it, but it’s the only answer you have as to why the guy hasn’t popped up on the grid during the nine months since it happened. But think of this—I already proved you wrong about what happened that night.”

Their gazes locked for a minute in a battle of wills.

Out of the blue, his mind jumped to howtheywould make up after a fight. He could live without the ice cream. Plundering kisses and lifting Alexia onto the counter to take his cock would be a better start.

“I’m a little surprised at what you know.” Her admission snapped him back to reality. “You clearly know a lot about your niece and her personal life. More than the police could ever find out.”

He nodded.

She glanced around the space again. “So Caden comes inside for a makeup snack and then things go sideways. Do you think they kept arguing?”

He had to ask.

It was time to ask.

“I need to see the pictures.”

Alexia’s chest inflated with a deep inhalation. “You sure you want to do that?”

“Yes,” he ground out.

“Okay. Let me pull them up.” She withdrew her phone and after flipping for a moment, handed him the phone.

His stomach pitched. A ball of disgust and grief welled in his throat, but he managed to swallow it down and hold it together. When he thrust the phone back at her, Alexia didn’t close her fingers around it before he let go and nearly dropped it.

He steeled himself for what was to come. “Let’s take a look around the bedroom.”

Alexia didn’t need to see the photos again. It was enough that she’d seen Tripp’s face.

Of courseit hit him hard. Few people could be immune to seeing such a thing, and her heart went out to the man.

Now he was trying to impersonate rock-hard granite, revealing nothing of his true emotions that had to be popping up like forest fires inside him right now.

He pointed to the bedroom carpet. “She was here. But the furniture was rearranged from the layout I saw before.”

She blinked. “Are you sure?”

He scuffed his knuckles along his sharp jawline. “Yes, the bench wasn’t at the foot of the bed. It was along that wall with some blankets stacked on it.” He gestured to the spot.

She held her breath, waiting to hear what he said next. “This stuff wasn’t in the report.”

“Probably because that was bungled and we both know it.”