Once Brittany hung up the phone, Darci sighed and flipped hers closed, tossing it into her purse.

“So, what does your lawyer have to say?”

Arching a brow at him, she drew an imaginary zipper across the seam of her lips and turned the lock, before leaning her head back. Damn it. She needed to think.

Because if she thought long and hard enough, surely she’d come up with the reasons she had moved to Vevey to begin with.

At least she’d taken that white nightshirt off. If he had been forced to question her while she had been wearing that nightie, the hint of her nipples teasing him, he was certain he would have gone mad.

He was about to lose it anyway.

Damn it, this was too much.

Kellan had avoided her like the plague for the past few years. And just for this very reason. The scent of her skin drove him insane. The thought of being close enough to touch all of that smooth white skin, yet resisting, was enough to make him want to drag her by the hair to the closest private place and just throw her to the ground and mount her. To see the sparkle of her emerald green eyes and hear the low husky caress of her voice as she spoke-

Damn it. He was going to drive himself crazy.

And they hadn’t even gotten started yet.

This was the longest time he had ever spent in her company. And the closest. The scent of her skin was permanently embedded on his memory and he was certain that her mouth would be every bit as sweet and soft as it looked.

Fuck.

He had kept his attraction to her from becoming an obsession just by keeping his distance.

And now that distance had been totally smashed. How could he stay away from her now?

But how could he do anything with a woman who was involved in a murder investigation?

Hell, she hadn’t done it. He knew that as well as he knew his own name. But she was involved in it. Somehow. Something Carrie had done had pissed somebody off so much that the person had snapped.

And lately, all her tricks and bullshit seemed to revolve around Darci, Becka, or the gallery.

As Britt sailed in, her bouncy blonde curls secured in a ponytail, she grinned sunnily at Kellan and asked easily, “How’s Michaela doing?”

He smiled and said, “Fat and pregnant, last I heard.”

“Shouldn’t be calling your sister fat. She’s just…plump. A baby can do that, I’ve heard,” Britt said as she settled onto the hard chair, flipping open her briefcase and drawing out a yellow legal pad and a pen. After perching a pair of wire-rimmed glasses on her nose, she flicked Kellan a glance and said, “I’ll need a moment to speak with my client, if you don’t mind.”

Kellan sighed and said, “She’s not under arrest. I just need to take a statement, ask her some questions.”

Brittany smiled serenely. “That is all well and good. But I really should know a few things before you ask her those questions.” She arched her brows and waited.

Kellan scowled and tossed his pen down on the table. He pushed his glasses up on top of his head and left the room, shaking his head as he closed the door behind him.

He made a beeline for his office and went straight for the coffeepot, pushing the button, knowing JT already had it ready to brew. She had seen him come in and had huffed her way in here, mumbling about overtime and how a body just couldn’t get any sleep.

And she had the pot waiting for him, so he could have coffee as soon as he wanted it.

Loveable old biddy.

As soon as there was enough for a cup, he grabbed the pot and poured one, wincing as footsteps came down the hall, hoping it wasn’t JT. If she knew he was letting coffee splatter on the warming unit again, she’d have his hide. But the footsteps went on past, and he sipped at the hot brew and sighed with pleasure while coffee hissed and bubbled on the heating unit.

Oh, yeah, JT would skin him.

But as long as he cleaned up his mess, they’d be fine.

Darci toyed with the cross at her neck as she repeated, almost word for word, how she had spent her night. “Okay,” Britt finally said, smiling with satisfaction. “Clive is almost gold around here. If he says you were at his place, then nobody will doubt him.”

“Gee, thanks,” Darci said sarcastically.

Britt laughed. “Honey, you know by now how things are here. They like you, a lot. But you’re still the new kid. Hell, you’ll be new after you’ve lived here fifty years. But Clive, well, he wasn’t born here, but his daddy was, and he’s been here since he was a kid and around here, he is a fixture. And he likes you. All in all, that is a damned good thing. You’ve got plenty of witnesses and an unimpeachable alibi.” Patting Darci on the knee, she said, “Small-town life, babe. Don’t you love it?”

Darci groused through the rest of the questions, twisting her rings ‘round and ‘round on her fingers, replaying yesterday through her mind. You have got to be the saddest most pathetic creature…

It was the truth. She knew that.

But all she could see was the bright flash of pain that had appeared in Carrie’s eyes for the quickest of seconds. The moment of truth.

It was truth.

For a second, Carrie had been forced to stop hiding from it. And she had hated Darci for it.

“Darci.”

Jerking her head up, Darci stared into Brittany ’s eyes, her own dark and bruised-looking. “She was a horrid, pathetic woman who was getting old before her time,” she whispered to her friend. “But she didn’t deserve to die before her time.”

Britt leaned forward, taking Darci’s hand and wrapping her hands around Darci’s cold ones. “Listen, honey, and listen good. Malcontent breeds malcontent. Though most people in this town believed Carrie’s lies, and few knew the truth, she didn’t deserve what happened to her. But unfortunately, the way Carrie liked to live-telling tales, breeding ill will-sooner or later, she was going to set off the wrong person,” Brittany whispered. “What goes around does indeed come around. Sometimes, in spades.”

Inexplicably, Darci’s eyes filled with tears. Britt leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her, rocking her slightly. “Shhh…shhh, don’t cry, Darci. She’s cost you too many tears already.”

Darci forced a deep, somewhat shaky breath into her lungs and then she nodded, pulling back, looking up, letting the tears dry before they fell. “No crying. None. Can we get this over with? I really want to get out of here,” she said fervently.

Darci was walking down the two steps that led to the sidewalk when she heard Britt’s indrawn breath. “Don’t say a damn thing to her,” Brittany warned under her breath. “I mean it. Don’t get drawn into something with her. Your alibi checks out, you couldn’t have done it, we know you couldn’t have done it. Don’t let her-”

“They are letting you walk out of here?” Beth demanded. Her eyes were bright with anger, her mouth twisted and snarling.

“Beth.” The deep voice came from over their heads and froze Darci in her tracks before she could say anything.

And she sure as hell was going to say something, even though Britt’s fingers were digging into her arm, about to cut her circulation off.

“Why are you letting her walk out of here? She killed Carrie! Everybody knows it!” Beth spat. A tiny bit of spittle clung to the corner of her mouth and disgust curled in Darci’s belly.

“She couldn’t have killed Carrie. Not unless she’s able to be in two places at once. She’s got an alibi for a solid six hours,” Kellan said as he came down the two steps, not looking at Darci. “I’m heading out to speak with said alibi and take his statement. But it’s pretty much ironclad.”

“She probably fucked him to get it,” Beth snarled, reaching up and shoving at Darci’s chest. “Hell, she’s fucking everybody in town.”