When You Were Mine (Stone Lake 2)

Do I still love Gavin? Even after all this time and everything that’s happened?

If I don’t love him… is there a part of me that could love him again? Could I love Ben?

Definitely more questions than answers at this point.

I walk into the office, not knowing what I’ll tell him when I get here, just knowing I need to see him, to connect. I’ve never been a woman who didn’t try to face things head on and I’m not about to start now. With that thought, I plaster a smile on my face. That smile dies quickly though when I look up and see Ben standing over Gavin. Gavin’s sitting down, definitely pissed. He and Ben are yelling back and forth. I don’t pay attention to what they’re shouting because my eyes are glued to Gavin’s hands.

Hands that are behind his back and handcuffed.

“What’s going on here?” I ask, not quite believing what I’m seeing.

“Exactly what it looks like,” Ben says, his face jerking to look at me and the anger I see reflecting back at me is definitely unsettling. “I’m arresting your boyfriend.”

Gavin turns to look at me. “Now I’m starting to understand,” he says, and he does the strangest thing. He smiles. There’s nothing to smile about in this entire situation. “Well, that explains it,” Gavin drawls.

“Explains what?” Ben and I voice at the same time.

“If you’re calling me her boyfriend, then obviously things didn’t go that well for you after I left the other day. I’m thinking that means good things for me,” Gavin says. “For the record, though. I’m a man not a boy. I’m not about to make the mistakes I made in the past.”

I ignore Gavin, mostly because his words make my heartbeat way too fast and they excite, but mostly terrify me.

“Nothing is good for you. In case you haven’t noticed, you’re under arrest,” Ben says.

“Why?” I move closer, daring to wade into this conversation, when I should be running for the door.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to find out,” Gavin mutters, and I continue ignoring him.

“For murder,” Ben says.

“Murder?” I croak, disbelief thick in my voice. Gavin laughs. I feel a migraine coming on and it’s only getting worse by the second.

“Exactly. This asshole killed Elaine Parker and probably all those other women.”

“You have got to be shitting me right now,” Gavin growls, and finally he doesn’t seem amused at all.

“Isn’t that the first rule in the FBI handbook? A sadistic killer wants to plant himself right in the middle of the death investigation. How much more in the middle can you be, than to be the lead agent in charge,” Ben says.

“Ben, Gavin wouldn’t have killed Elaine. He couldn’t have,” I tell him, trying to remain calm.

“You don’t know him, Luna. You haven’t even seen him in thirteen years. You can’t believe anything he says. He’s probably lying about not knowing about Joshua too. He’s just trying to get your guard down. He spent the night with Elaine at the motel down the street from the bar. Does that sound like a man who is trying to win you back? He was the last person to ever see her alive.”

“You’ve lost your mind, Kingston!” Gavin narrows his eyes on him with a shake of his head.

“I have you dead to rights, Lodge. The clerk at the motel says he witnessed you and Elaine walking together in the parking lot the morning of her death. If that’s not enough, I have you on tape. Kind of sloppy for a big time FBI agent like you. We have you, though. You walked to your car not more than an hour after Elaine walked inside the bar.”

“You never saw me walk inside with her. You couldn’t have. This is lunacy.”

“You can try to defend yourself in court, I don’t need to hear it,” Ben says.

“Ben, I think… there’s no way that Gavin did this,” I tell him, softly. I need to calm him down, this whole situation down.

“I get that you think you know this guy, Luna. But thirteen years is a long time, honey. It’s better you find out now. We can tell Josh together—”

“Ben, I know Gavin didn’t kill Elaine.”

“Luna—”

“He couldn’t have.”

“Damn it, Luna. Stop defending him to me. This is my job. This isn’t about you and me. Do you honestly think I would arrest a man if I didn’t have absolute proof?”

“I don’t know what proof you think you have, Ben, but I know Gavin is innocent.”

“How? How can you stand there and tell me that?”

“Because Gavin was with me, Ben. I was the woman at the hotel with him that morning.

“You?” Ben says and oh God, I see it on his face. I see the hurt I’ve caused him, the hurt I never meant to cause him.

“I was the woman at the hotel with Gavin that morning, Ben. If the clerk looked outside and saw us, he saw my blonde head, not Elaine’s.”