I narrowed my eyes at him and tried to get him to look me in the eye as I spoke clearly. “Reid’s bike, Beau. It malfunctioned today,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “It’s a small town, I’m sure you heard.”
“Most accidents are operator error, Nora,” he said, matter-of-factly. “Maybe Ricochet needs to learn how to ride a bike.” He chuckled. He actually chuckled like this was a laughing matter.
“This is not funny,” I snapped. “And it wasn’t Reid who was riding it.”
“What do you mean?” The color drained from his face. It made me sick to think that he was okay with hurting the one person that I loved the most. I might have hurt his feelings ending our relationship the way I did, but that did not justify him doing something so malicious.
“It was Brett,” I informed him.
“Oh.” He tried to cover up his shock. “I did hear there was an accident today, but I...”
“You thought you hurt the other guy?” I walked toward the desk he was sitting behind and placed my hands on the front of it, staring down at him. I wanted to look him in the eye and let him know that I was on to him. “You thought you hurt the man I chose over you because you’re a sore loser and a complete asshole?”
“Maybe I am an asshole, Nora,” he said. “But you did this. You ended it, not me.”
“And I’ve told you that I feel terrible for that,” I countered. “But, that doesn’t give you the right to try and hurt Reid. It’s not going to fix what happened.”
“No, but it might just make me feel a little better about it.”
“Seriously?”
“Do you know what it’s like to have everything taken from you?” He asked. His jaw clenched as he spit his words through his teeth. “Travers is a fucking asshole and I don’t feel one bit sorry about anything that happens to him.”
“So you did do it?” I wanted him to confess. I wanted to hear exactly what he did so I could tell Reid. And, I wanted to slap him in the face because I knew no matter what he said that he was responsible.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to. The second I heard Reid say he thought the bike had been tampered with, I knew that it was you.” I paused, feeling a bit sad for Beau. Not because I’d broken up with him, but because he was still holding so much hatred in his heart for Reid, and now me. “I’d wished that it wasn’t you, Beau. I wished that you weren’t a horrible person, that you weren’t capable of doing something so awful. I wished that you weren’t the asshole that everyone it this town seems to think you are, but I can tell by the look in your eyes that isn’t the case. I will never forgive you for this.”
“You can’t come in here and accuse me of something you have no idea about,” he said, standing up. “Just because you think I did something doesn’t mean shit.”
“You’re an ass,” I said, matching his stance. Our eyes locked in a standoff that had the tension in the room thick and heated.
“Yeah well, we can’t all be Reid Travers.” The disdain he had for Reid was clear, but the way he was looking at me like he couldn’t have cared less that we’d actually been in a relationship at one point or that I’d all but condemned him to hell moments earlier was sickening. My sister and Reid had been right about him all along.
“No you can’t.” I knew that he was never going to confess, but I was certain that he’d had something to do with it. Call it woman’s intuition. “Don’t think you’re going to get away with this,” I warned.
“Like I said,” he said with a smug smile. “You can’t prove anything.”
“She might not be able to,” I heard Reid’s voice coming from behind me and turned just as he walked through the door. “But, I sure as fuck can.” He walked over to stand beside me. “And, believe me if,” he paused, “no, when I find out that you touched that bike I will ruin you.”