His fist slammed into the table. “Jena wasn’t my ex! She was my fiancée! We were still planning to get married then…” His words trailed away as his shoulders hunched.
“Then you killed her.”
His head whipped up. “The hell I did.”
“Someone tampered with her brakes.” At least, that was Faith’s theory, and Gwen was willing to run with it right then, just to see Ethan’s reaction. “What happened? Did she cut you out of her life, too? And you got pissed at her, just as you did with me?” Damn him, she didn’t deserve this. “I didn’t love you, Ethan. We were going to break up even before Chance and my father told me about your past.”
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing faintly. “I know you didn’t love me. You were too hung up on Chance to ever love me.” His head tilted to the right. “Do you love him, Gwen? Is he the one in your heart?”
She wasn’t about to tell him anything about her heart. She turned, acting as if she were heading for the door. “You don’t have anything useful to say—”
“I didn’t touch Jena’s brakes. And I never laid a hand on my ex-girlfriend Marjorie, either.”
Marjorie. Chance had showed her a picture of Marjorie’s battered face. That picture had sickened her. “I saw the police report. Marjorie went to the cops. She told them you attacked her.”
“She withdrew those charges because she realized what was happening.”
Gwen turned around to face him. “Where is Marjorie?”
Because neither Chance nor Gwen’s father had been able to find the woman.
“She’s safe.” His gaze cut toward the mirror on the nearby wall. The mirror that tossed back their reflections instead of showing them just who was watching in that observation room. Gwen had no doubt that Faith was out there right then.
“Safe?” A fist squeezed her heart. “Tell me she’s not dead.”
His gaze flew back to her. “I am not a killer, dammit! I knew her attacker would strike again, so I got Marjorie the hell out of here. I sent her out of the country. Gave her enough money to start fresh. When I say she’s safe…” He exhaled on a ragged breath. “I don’t mean she’s lying in a grave someplace. I mean that she’s far away and the bastard can’t hurt her again.”
Gwen found herself inching a little closer to him. “What bastard?”
“If I knew his identity, I would have stopped him by now.” He looked down at the handcuffs. “Hell, maybe I am a killer. Because of what he did to Jena, to Marjorie…to you…I think I could murder him.”
The drumming of her heartbeat filled her ears. “Marjorie must have seen the man who attacked her.”
“He was wearing a black ski mask.”
Oh, shit. Just like the man who attacked me.
“She thought it was me because we’d fought hours before. And when the guy slipped into her place, he used a key. He didn’t force his way inside. He just unlocked the back door.” Pain flashed across his face. “I had a key. He was my height. My build. He knew how to walk through her house without so much as making the wooden floor creak. So she thought it was me.”
Yes, Gwen could sure see where the woman would make that leap. Especially since I woke up one night and found Ethan in my bedroom…
“But it wasn’t me. I would never hurt her. Or you.” He stared into Gwen’s eyes. His expression was stark, so desperate. “My mother was abused. My bastard of a father made it his goal to terrorize her. I would never be like him.”
That sincerity was there again. Shining in his eyes. Nearly dripping from his words.
Gwen shook her head. “I want proof.”
“Check my video feeds—the jerk was at your house! I saw him…he was putting a camera into your bedroom. I rushed over there to find you, but you were already gone.”
She’d gone to Chance’s house…and the place had been torched.
“Why did he go after Jena?” Gwen asked. “Why Marjorie? Why me?” Nothing he said made sense to her. That’s because Ethan doesn’t make sense…he’s crazy! He had to be, right? After all he’d done?
“He targeted you—hell, he did it because the three of you weren’t casual fucks.” His uncuffed hand shoved through his already tousled hair. “Because he thought I could care about you…about Marjorie. He thought I’d care about you and Marjorie the way I cared for Jena, and that sick freak, he won’t let me be happy.” His eyes had gone hot with fury. “He called me once. Told me that. His voice was low, rasping, and he told me that I’d never be happy. He said he’d see to it…I didn’t know what he meant, not then. Not until I found myself in a morgue, identifying Jena’s body.”
Dear God. If his story was true…
Gwen didn’t have a stalker. Well…she had Ethan’s stalker. The attacks weren’t about her at all. “You and I aren’t together. It doesn’t make sense for him to come after me…”
He was staring at the handcuff again. “It had been so long since Marjorie. I thought…I stupidly thought the guy was gone. I hoped he was dead.” His shoulders rolled back. He sighed and confessed, “I made a mistake. I bought you a ring.”
***
“I bought you a ring…”
Chance wanted to punch right through the glass. Gwen was staring at Ethan in shock, and a faint tremble swept over her.
“The guy was gonna marry Gwen?” Lex asked from Chance’s side. Then the guy gave a low whistle. “Hell, I did not know that.”
Chance turned his head and glared at his partner.
“As twisted up as you are about her…man, you were just going to let that happen?” Lex pushed.
No fucking way. “I didn’t know.”
“Well, you should—”
“Shut the hell up,” Faith snapped. “I’m trying to hear.”
And Chance was trying to keep his sanity. He looked back through the glass. “Ethan is playing her. Gwen is far too trusting.”
“Right…” Lex drawled, but his voice was softer now. “Far too trusting. Like the time when she believed you came after her out of some unrequited love, and not because her father offered to throw a big wad of cash at us.”
Why was Lex pushing him? “The money didn’t matter to me. You know that.”