“Sh…Shark…”
She thought that was what the man said. Shark. As in…Shark Gaming and Design? “What about Shark?” Ella pushed.
“D…don’t…”
His voice was so weak. So low. Maybe she was imagining what he was saying—
“Trust…” Barely a breath of sound.
“Who shouldn’t I trust?” Ella demanded. Her fingers were soaked with his blood. “You have to tell me more. Why did you try to attack my boss in the street? Why did you—” She lifted her head and realized—he wasn’t going to be answering anymore of her questions. He wasn’t going to be telling her anything.
He was dead.
In the distance, a siren screamed.
Chapter Seven
“I want to see Ella.” Antony sat in the interrogation room and knew that he was severely screwed. “And for the seventh time, she didn’t shoot anyone. I don’t care what the people on scene told you. They came out after the gunfire. Ella did not kill that man.”
The detective—Layla Lopez—pursed her lips and nodded. She’d just returned to the small room after leaving him to cool his heels—or to just play head games with him, whatever—but he spoke before she could come toward him.
He frowned when she nodded. What was up with the nod?
“Security footage from the neighboring business backs up your story. The footage showed you and Ms. Webb as you approached the victim. It also showed Ella shoving you to the ground after the first shot was fired.”
Yeah, Ella needed to stop that shit. The woman was not supposed to put herself at risk for him. He’d have to clear that up immediately.
Antony rose to his feet. The chair legs screeched as they shot back behind him. “Glad that’s settled.” He headed for the door.
She stepped into his path. Smiled. “Going somewhere, Mr. Kyle?”
The hell out of there. As soon as possible. Not like he loved hanging out in police interrogation rooms. If the Press finds out…There was no if about it. Antony suspected it might just be a matter of when. “I was hoping to go and see Ella,” he managed to say, and his voice was semi-calm. Mostly.
Her lips twitched. “I’m sure you were, but I need you to answer a few questions for me first.”
“I’m not sure I’ll be able to do that.”
“Try.” No more lip twitching. A thread of steel had entered her voice. “A man is dead, and you’re talking to a homicide detective.”
Right. So screwed. When Dex found out what had happened, that Antony had been compromised this way…
The man will lose his mind. Sure, there were ways to get certain things removed from the public eye. It was easy enough to make certain incriminating videos vanish from social media. It was much harder to eliminate multiple hours spent in a police station when you’d been caught at the scene of a murder.
The detective tapped her chin as she studied him. Antony saw a large diamond gleam on her ring finger. It momentarily distracted him right before she said—
“I think murder is a very big deal.”
Antony swallowed. “So do I.”
“Ella Webb said you were targeted by the deceased earlier today.”
“Yes.” A clipped reply.
“Now he’s dead.”
He forced his back teeth to unclench. “I didn’t want him dead. When he’s dead, he can’t talk and tell me why the hell he came after me.”
“How did you find him at the bar?”
His heart slammed into his chest, but his expression never altered. “I hired Wilde. Ella works for them, as I’m sure you know. They’re the best in the business.” He let the implication that Wilde had somehow found the perp hang in the air. This way, he wasn’t lying to a police detective. He was simply skirting the truth.
“Do you have any idea why he was after you?”
“None.” But this seemed like a good time to ask… “You’ve ID’d him?”
“Yes. We have. Axel Walker. He’s got a rap sheet a mile long. Guy was only released on parole a few months back.”
Axel Walker. The name meant nothing to Antony. “What kind of crimes were on his rap sheet?”
Her lips thinned. He took that to mean she wasn’t going to reveal that information. That was fine. He’d just discover it for himself.
“What about the shooter?” the detective asked.
“What about him?”
“Did you see him? Did you see anything suspicious?”
For this part, he could be completely truthful. “I didn’t get a chance to see anything. Ella shoved me down at the first gunshot.” Then he stopped. Caught himself. Antony could hear the rage in his own voice.
You are playing this scene all wrong. His head turned to the one-way mirror on the wall. He was probably being recorded. A camera could be recording him through the glass.
As he’d told Ella before, you had to use the right persona for a scene. He was using the wrong one. He’d been so worried about Ella that his emotions had broken through his control.
Get it together. He stared at his reflection a moment. Unclenched his jaw. Hunched his shoulders. Exhaled. Shuddered.
He did have a role to play, after all. The clueless gamer. The arrogant genius. Not the enraged spy who wanted revenge. “Ella told me to stay down. She went after the man who’d been shot.”
“But you didn’t stay down. I saw on the security footage that you gave chase.”
He swallowed. Shuddered. “I didn’t want to just sit there and have someone come shoot me. Thought it would be safer to stick close to Ella.”
Layla arched one brow. “Is that what you thought?” She wasn’t calling him a liar. Just implying it.
“She is my bodyguard,” he muttered. Antony hated that he’d played the scene wrong at the beginning. Amateur mistake. He’d come off too aggressive. He should have played the hapless, clueless victim more. But he’d been fixated on Ella. Get your control together, man! What was wrong with him? He knew better than this.
“Your bodyguard tried to save the vic. I was told that she wouldn’t give up at the scene. That she began administering CPR. That she was still administering CPR when the ambulance arrived.”
That was all true. Ella had been fierce and determined. “And for her efforts, you threw her into interrogation.” He sniffed. “You know, my lawyers could have a field day with all of this.” That was what an arrogant, asshole rich guy would say, wasn’t it? “I’ve been cooperating, but it doesn’t matter. You’re keeping me holed up in here. You’re keeping me away from Ella!”
“I’m trying to help you.” Layla’s jaw hardened. “Someone is obviously gunning for you.”
“That’s why I have a bodyguard.”
“Because you need someone to keep you safe.”
“Damn straight.” His shoulders hunched a little more.
Again, a faint smile quirked her lips. He could even see a dash of amusement in her eyes.
“Interesting performance,” she allowed.
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, I think you heard what I said.”
He had heard her. His heart drummed harder in his chest. “Do we have a problem?”