Jaden (Jaded 3)

“She doesn’t.” The female defective took a seat across from us. The male sat beside her, and both shared a look. I didn’t know what passed between them, and I was beyond caring about that, too.

I said, “Just fucking tell us.”

The female took a breath, then started, so damn gently, “I’ll start with the good news because, to be honest with you, there’s not a whole lot of it. I have good news, then bad news, and even worse news after that, but yes, the good news is that Guadalupe did not kill Grace.”

“Oh, thank god.” Bryce slumped down in his seat.

I waited, still tense, and I closed my eyes, knowing what was coming next.

“But the bad news is that Guadalupe is dead.”

She waited.

I waited.

And there was complete silence.

She had been with Bryce. She had manipulated him, tried to control him, and she had tried to destroy me, but she’d been a person that he cared about once upon a time. And she was dead now.

There was still no sound from Bryce, and I looked up. He was staring at the table, his shoulders hunched forward, his hands spread out so his palms were flat, and the only word I could use to describe him was defeated.

Then he turned to me, and I saw it—one more death. Another person had died. He asked, so simply, “When is it going to end?”

I reached out for him, and soon he was in my arms. He didn’t cry. I didn’t feel it in his body, but he wrapped his arms tightly around me, and he buried his head into my shoulder. The defeat wasn’t just about Guadalupe. It was about Bailey. Leisha. Grace. Now Guadalupe. Feeling tears at the corner of my eyes, I blinked to push them away. If I cried, I wasn’t the strong one, and that was my job for Bryce now.

He was hurting. I would be here for him.

Then I felt a hand on my other side and looked over. Corrigan had heard. A deep sorrow was in his eyes, but he didn’t say a word. He only touched me to show he was there. I nodded, thankful, then continued to hold Bryce.

The female defective murmured, breaking the silence, “Maria Ramirez killed her. She’s the one we think killed Grace as well.”

“What?” Bryce pulled back, his voice gruff, there was so much emotion being suppressed there. “Maria?”

Sheila stepped closer to the table now. “Yes, Maria. We brought in your old counselor, Miss Connors, if you’d like more explanation, but we believe Maria was Guadalupe’s stalker.”

“Stalker? I’m not following.”

Sheila nudged the male detective on the shoulder and gestured for him to stand. As he did, she slid into his seat and was across from us now. Leaning forward, she placed her hands on the table. They were open, her palms pointing toward us.

I don’t know why that movement was important, but it was. She wasn’t closed off to us. She was there. She was present with us. She was open to us. She was trying to help us.

She said further, and Bryce pulled away to sit back up, “Maria was obsessed with Guadalupe. You know this. Everyone does. It was very well documented the lengths she would go for her and like the text messages that you found on her phone, she’s the one who killed Grace Barton. We now have further proof. They were at the hospital. They overheard that Grace was confessing about being the one who had shoved Sheldon into the glass table. That gave them information and also a motive. They decided together to frame Sheldon, and they did it, because they thought she would go away, and you, Bryce, would return to Guadalupe. That’s her motive for the first death.”

I flinched at that term. ‘First death.’ It was said so coldly and . . . like a cop would say. Detached. But I knew that wasn’t true. Sheila was bracing him for the rest of it. Grace was dead. We all knew that, now onto the next death and the next blow.

“The night you guys went to Guadalupe’s hotel room, she called the police to her room. She pressed charges against Maria. She wanted a restraining order against h

er.”

“Why?”

That one word from him sounded so bleak.

“She said they fought after Sheldon’s press conference. And there was a red mark on her cheek, so we arrested Maria, and a restraining order was set into place. However, we don’t think that was the real reason she wanted charges brought up against her assistant. We think it was her first step in distancing herself from Maria. We think Guadalupe knew there was going to be blowback toward her. Sheldon’s press conference worked like magic. People were becoming more sympathetic to her, but people were going to analyze us more and she knew that eventually we’d start asking more questions. We would get to them, eventually. That’s what we think happened; why she called, but all we know for certain is that there had been a fight. The hotel staff confirmed that. They were called with complaints about yelling and what sounded like a physical altercation.”

“Shit,” Corrigan breathed out. He shook his head. “This is unreal, being told this.” He glanced to me.

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. I was holding onto Bryce’s hand, but I was clinging to my chair with the other. Was it actually real? Was it really done?