Falling: A Sexy Alpha Romance Collection

I stare at her. “Was this the woman who checked into the room where the murder took place?” My heart is racing.

She peers closer at the photo and then blows it up. “God, yes, that’s her. She was right there near my grandbaby.” This thought appears to horrify her.

I motion at the phone. “Can I please see?”

She passes me the phone and I look at all the photos she has of that day with her family. It’s the very last photo that gives me what I’m looking for—concrete evidence of who killed Jolene’s mother.

Alanis.

She’s in the background of the photo getting out of a rental car. The photo was snapped when she didn’t have the disguise on fully. The dumb bitch. She planned everything else down to the detail, but she drove without the hat and the scarf in place.

I glance up at Amanda. “Can I please send these to myself?”

She nods, clearly shaken. “I’m so sorry I didn’t know I had those on there.”

I quickly send the photos to my email and then hand her phone back. “You’re going to have to make a statement to the police. Please tell me you’ll do this.”

“Yes. When?”

“What time do you finish work?”

She checks the time. “In half an hour.”

“Right, I’ll stay here and then we can go to the police station, okay?”

We agree to do this together and then I head outside to wait in my car for her. My mind is bombarded with thoughts and my emotions race through me. After all this time, Jolene may be able to go home to her son. She may be able to start piecing her life back together.

And Luke?

I grip the steering wheel. In all the thinking I’ve done over this, I haven’t actually stopped to think about all the repercussions of Jolene being released from prison.

I haven’t considered Luke’s reaction in any of this. I was so focused on Jolene.

Oh, God.

My thinking has been so narrow right from the beginning. All I could think about was getting to the truth. I never reflected on what the truth would actually mean.

39

Callie

I take a deep breath as I knock on the front door of a house I know well but haven’t visited in nearly two months. Waiting for the door to open is nerve-wracking. What if my information isn’t wanted or listened to?

The door swings open and laughter filters into the warm night air as I stare into friendly eyes.

“Callie!” Estelle greets me with enthusiasm at the same time as her arms fold me close to her in a hug. “Come in, my darling!” She ushers me in and leads me to her lounge room.

Luke’s mother always makes me feel welcome. It’s hard for me to reconcile this woman with the one Jolene knows.

George and Tyler stare at me in surprise when we reach the lounge room. Tyler stands and makes his way to me. “Fuck, I’ve missed you,” he says, hugging me also.

This is way harder than I imagined. All the memories of my time with Luke and his family flood my mind, hurting just as much as they did seven weeks ago.

Will this heartache ever go away?

I smile up at him. “I’ve missed you, too, Tyler.”

George nods at me. We haven’t spent a great deal of time getting to know each other, but I think he’s good for Estelle—he seems to calm her. She drinks far less than she used to and I attribute that to George.