“You did this. You’ve sold her on some ridiculous theory.” Her father grabbed his bag, but this time he didn’t stomp away. He stood only six or seven feet away with his rage festering just beneath the surface.
Wren edged forward and pulled her in tighter. “You mean the theory where you took Tiffany? I think we both know that it’s based in fact.”
“That’s . . .” Her father swore under his breath. “Emery, listen to him. He doesn’t even make sense.” He looked directly at Wren. “Get out of my house.”
“Gladly.” Wren’s voice had a rough edge. “The next people in here will be the police.”
Her father’s mouth dropped open. “For what?”
“You broke into my apartment.” Then she remembered. Why hadn’t she figured it out before? “Of course, you didn’t need to break in, which explains why the break-in looked fake. You have a key. My extra.”
Her father shook his head. “Nothing you’re saying makes sense.”
Emery felt her heart crumble. The pain swamping her was so intense, so brutal. “Where is she, Dad?”
Some of the color left his face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“We’re checking cameras on the street. We’ll find one that shows you getting into her apartment building and taking the research.” Wren shook his head. “It will be one more piece, but we have others.”
She grabbed on to Wren’s arm for balance and looked at the man who raised her. The same one who she always thought of as too perfect, too focused on details and getting everything right. “God, you really did do it.”
“What? No.” Some of the punch left her father’s voice.
A revving sensation started inside her. “Tell me about Tiffany.”
“She ran away.”
She wanted to plow him under with rapid-fire questions. Force him to tell her what he knew. “The police don’t believe that. Neither did Uncle Gavin. He never bought that story.”
“He was too close and too emotional to see the truth,” her father said, talking about the man who was supposed to have been his lifelong friend. “Emery, you know how she was. She liked to sneak out. She broke the rules. She mouthed off.”
“To you?” Wren asked.
Her father’s shoulders stiffened. “I told you to get out.”
“Only if Emery comes with me.” Wren didn’t let go of her. His fingers stayed under her elbow.
“My daughter stays.”
He acted as if he owned her. As he talked she felt something inside her whither. “You didn’t want me pushing for a renewed investigation because you’d gotten away with it.”
“Stop talking.”
She was getting through now. He finally understood she wasn’t going to just drop the topic and go away. She could see it in the way he stood there, looking around and losing control with each passing second. “When I went to the senator and then told you I hired someone, you must have panicked.”
“Stop.”
“I told you I was staying at Caroline’s house, but that was a lie. I came home that night.” She pushed on. “We probably almost caught you.”
“I wasn’t there.”
“You’re covering your tracks.” She didn’t hold back. She hit him with every bit of disdain in her body. Let it drip from her voice.
“Fucking shut up.”
Wren held up his free hand. “Settle down.”
“I will not be talked to like this in my home.” Her father reached into his bag and grabbed something before letting the bag drop. The handle cracked against the floor, but he kept talking. “I built this life. I groomed you.”
The something came into focus. A gun. She knew he’d taken lessons and had one locked in the safe upstairs . . . or that’s where it should have been. The idea of him carrying it around made her sick.
“A gun?” Her breath rushed out of her on a panicked gasp.
It shook in his hand. He aimed it at her then at Wren. “She was trash, just like her drunk mother.”
Emery’s world fell apart in front of her. The commanding man with a lecturing skill everyone talked about, the man she knew, vanished. This one, frenzied and filled with fury, sputtered and listed to one side.
Now she knew why. The last bit of hope for a misunderstanding died inside her. “Oh, my God.”
“She wouldn’t listen. And you.” He was pleading now. Did it right until he pointed the gun at her again.
Wren stepped in front of her. Reached behind him and kept her waist in a bruising hold so she couldn’t move.
“No!” She could not lose Wren. Not like this. She clawed at him. Kicked.
“You can shoot me.” He held up his free hand as if trying to placate her father.
She grabbed fistfuls of his jacket and tugged. Yanked with all her might. “Levi!”
He didn’t budge. “Do it and my men who are right outside will rush in here and kill you. I promise you that.”
She dropped her forehead on his back and begged. “You can’t do this. Please stop.”
“Your house will become a bloodbath, and you will doom Emery to witnessing it. We’ll be gone.” Wren pointed from him to her father. “That will be your legacy to her. That nightmare.”