Emma shook her head and smiled at the turn of her thoughts. Sure, the logical part of her mind knew his physical looks had nothing to do with what she was doing, but it sure was fun to remember the way the sun hit his sculpted cheekbones and the wonderful way his muscles filled out his button-down shirt.
She knew that the city would be full of attractive men, but they’d really broken the mold with this one. And he was a bad boy! Emma never liked the ones with edge. Not that she liked Jace. She just thought he was nice enough and pretty to look at. No harm in thinking it at least...
As she smiled to herself, she pulled up her web browser on the computer and typed in his name. Sure enough, all she got was a few social media profiles with photos that looked nothing like the man she’d met on the street.
After another search that included the “security consultant” part, Emma let out a sigh of defeat. There went her brilliant stroke of luck. Of course she wouldn’t just run into the perfect investigator who could help her. Normally she would ask Luke or Michael for a recommendation of who she could hire, but neither of them would be too happy about her looking into Joslyn’s life.
She’d have to do it the old-fashioned way and dig around until she found someone qualified enough and who could drop everything to work on her case the week she was in the city. At least she knew Jace was between clients.
Oh well. She needed to push the man from her mind and refocus on the real reason she was in town. Joslyn tried to kill Victoria Green. The papers gave the brief mention of money as the motive, but Emma wasn’t about to take their word for it. What if Victoria had done something horrible to Joslyn? Sure, Victoria probably didn’t deserve to die, but Joslyn deserved someone taking her side.
Even if she refused to let that someone visit her in jail. Ugh, this whole thing would be so much easier if Joslyn would just talk to her. But if she was a psychotic like everyone said, wouldn’t she be happy to brag? Emma thought back to the criminal justice class she’d taken at her first college, but in the seven years since she’d been a freshman, she’d forgotten almost everything.
Emma deleted everything she had in the search bar and typed in Victoria Green’s name instead. She’d done this search plenty of times in the past few weeks, but every day or so there would be another news article that talked about the upcoming case. Though most of the articles liked to focus on how depraved Joslyn was.
Apparently Emma had a masochistic streak, because she could never stop herself from reading the newest story that rehashed the same old facts that had been repeated hundreds of times by now. The news outlets even had the same pictures. The back of Victoria Green’s head as she was ushered into her car, wrapped securely in a blanket. It was the only image of her from that night, but there were plenty of Joslyn in the back of the police car as she was hauled away.
Emma wished there was at least one image of Victoria looking at the camera. Some way to judge her emotions after what just happened. Was she scarred for life because of Joslyn’s actions? Proud that she’d survived? Some sort of insight that would help Emma better understand what was going on in either woman’s head.
But all she got was the one shot of the back of Victoria’s head. Emma scanned through the rest of the article, but there was nothing she didn’t already know.
Not that she was expecting anything else. If Michael was there, he could have a wealth of information at her fingertips after only a few minutes at the keyboard. But he wasn’t here. Well, he was, but he sure as hell wouldn’t help her. Resigned, Emma was just about to close out of the window when a familiar blond head behind Victoria caught her attention.
She blinked a few times, making sure she wasn’t imagining things. No. Jace stood behind Victoria, looking sternly at the camera.
Her heart beat faster in her chest as she zoomed in on the picture, which became exponentially more blurry with each zoom in. But there was no denying it. Jace was there the night her sister went off the deep end.
And that made her decision easy. One way or another, he was going to help her.
Luke grabbed another beer out of the fridge and slammed the door shut. The entire oversized appliance shook with the force.
“Give her some time and she’ll be fine,” said Michael from his seat on the barstool.
Luke took a deep swig of beer and wished it was something stronger. “No, she’s not going to be fine. She thinks it’s her fault for Joslyn being crazy.” For the first time, he wished Joslyn wasn’t in jail. That way he could tell her exactly what he thought of her and her manipulative antics that could tear his family apart even when she wasn’t around anymore.
“Joslyn is a grown woman who made her own decisions. Emma knows that.”
Luke knew that Emma was normally a logical and sensible woman. He trusted her more than just about anyone in the world. Hell, at times he trusted her more than Michael. But not when it came to Joslyn. Emma felt responsible for her older sister. As though they were supposed to stick together no matter what once their parents died.
She just didn’t want to face facts that it was very likely Joslyn who killed them.
“I don’t want her digging around Joslyn’s life,” said Luke. “That woman was poison, Michael.”
“Hey, I know that more than anyone. I’m just saying that Emma needs a period to adjust. Give her some time, okay? She never wanted to believe Joslyn was beyond saving.”
Luke took another drink, but it only seemed to make the anxious knot in his stomach worse. He thought he’d taken care of the Joslyn problem years ago. “I have to tell you something.”
Michael narrowed his eyes at his brother. “Well, when you use that tone, I don’t really want to hear it.”
“You need to know. Especially if Emma is going to be digging around.”
“Fine. What did you do now?”
Luke leaned against the back counter and set his beer down. “Joslyn didn’t just take off to the Bahamas and suddenly disappear from our family for no reason.”
“Shit,” muttered Michael. “You paid her off?”
“What the hell was I supposed to do? She’d just gotten away with murder and was strutting all around Georgia, acting like she owned the damn place. How long before she snapped again and hurt one of us, or worse, hurt Emma? I did what I had to do.”
“I suppose I should be grateful you didn’t get her locked up on some bogus charge.”
“Trust me, the thought crossed my mind,” said Luke. As in he’d plotted out an entire scenario where he could frame Joslyn for being an elaborate drug kingpin. It wouldn’t be easy, but he had the money and connections to make it happen. But if Emma ever found out he’d gotten Joslyn arrested for a crime she didn’t commit, she’d never talk to him again and the family he was trying so hard to keep together would never heal.
As sad as it was, Joslyn trying to murder one of the richest women in the city was really the best-case scenario. No one got seriously injured and Joslyn would finally be in prison where she belonged. It would all be well and dandy, if Emma weren’t so hell-bent on blaming herself for her sister being crazy. “If Emma finds out I paid Joslyn to stay away from her, I don’t know how she’d react.”
“I thought she’d finally start agreeing with us after this whole mess.” Michael leaned back in the stool.