Taking my seat, I watch the two cops as they strategically place themselves around me, blocking the exits while also keeping a firm eye on me. Though I can’t blame them. They know what I did. Why else would I be here? They have a right to treat me like a fucking criminal. That’s exactly what I am.
The bigger of the two—the one who looks like he’s running the show—pulls out a chair and takes a seat. He silently watches me, and I can only imagine the bullshit running through his head. I’m nothing more than a delinquent teenager who’s had everything handed to him. Why the fuck should he take it easy on me? I’m probably the next bastard in a long line of assholes he plans to make an example out of.
“This doesn’t need to be any harder than it already is, Tanner,” he starts in a gruff, dismissive tone, placing a recording device in the center of the table. “If you’re up front and honest with us, then this will be quick, and you can get back to caring for your girlfriend.” He pauses a moment, waiting for me to acknowledge him, but I remain silent. “I’m Detective Daniels and this is Officer Kennedy. We will be conducting this interview and it will be recorded. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” I press my lips into a hard line, not liking this one bit, but I fucking killed a guy. This was never going to be easy. “What do you want to know?” I ask, wanting to get back to Bri. “I’ve got nothing to hide.”
“We have witnesses who place you at the scene,” Daniels says. “Others who claim you’re responsible for putting Colby Jacobs in a coma.”
My back stiffens, and my eyes widen in shock. “Coma?” I question, my heart racing a million miles an hour, a strange hope blasting through my veins—the kind of hope Colby doesn’t deserve. “I thought he was dead.”
“It was close,” he says as his partner hovers nearby, watching me like a hawk. “Colby sustained significant injuries to the brain. He’s been put into a medically induced coma until the swelling on his brain can recede and the doctors can assess him properly. However, there is a very good chance that he is brain dead.”
“So, what you’re telling me is, whether he’s breathing or not, I fucking killed him.”
Officer Kennedy leans forward against the conference table, getting closer. “So you admit you did it?”
“What did you want me to say?” I question, resisting the urge to lunge forward and knock the fucker out. “You already told me there were witnesses who placed me at the scene. You know damn well I was involved. Would you have preferred I lied? What’s the fucking point? You have statements from hundreds of witnesses, and it’s their words against mine.”
Daniels clears his throat and forces my attention back to him. “No, I appreciate your honesty,” he says, trying to keep control of what could potentially turn into an ugly situation. “Don’t be fooled, we know exactly who you are, Tanner, and we know all about your connection to Colby Jacobs. We’re just trying to get a sound understanding of what happened last night.”
“Okay,” I say slowly, not wanting to trust this false sense of security. “What do you want to know?”
“Start from the beginning. What were you doing there last night?”
“It’s my cousin’s property,” I explain. “We go there every Friday night to let off steam. Fuck around and have a few drinks. Shit like that. Everybody comes. It’s always a big party.”
“Oh, we are well aware of your Friday night parties at the Morgan property, and we are more than aware of what actually goes on there,” he says, a disapproving darkness in his eyes. “However, that seems irrelevant right now. Can you recall where you were when Colby showed up? Time? Location? Any kind of details.”
“My girl and I,” I say, remembering exactly what happened in those woods in fine detail, “were talking on the outskirts of the property. A few of my friends had an argument and everyone needed a moment to chill out. It was maybe eleven when we started walking back and heard everyone screaming. I thought someone must have been shot or something. Everyone was running, not watching where they were going. I’ve never seen anything like it. Bri got body slammed and I was barely able to hold on to her, but I needed to get back to my friends and my sister to make sure they were okay.”
“You didn’t run for your car to get out of there?”
My brows furrow, not understanding his train of thought. “Like I said, my sister and friends were there. I wasn’t about to leave without making sure they were safe. They’re the only family I’ve got.”
“Very honorable,” he says, though the lack of conviction in his tone suggests he thinks I’m full of shit. “What happened next?”
“Bri and I ran through the crowd and we were just making our way back up the hill when we found Colby. He had a knife in his right hand, and it was already coated in blood. He was talking shit to my cousins, Jax and Logan, and they were trying to calm the situation, but Colby wasn’t having it. His back was to us, and at this stage, he didn’t know Bri and I were there. He was too busy making demands.”
Officer Kennedy crosses his arms over his chest. “What kind of demands?”
I shrug my shoulders. “The usual bullshit,” I say. “He was saying he wasn’t leaving until my friends told him where ‘she’ was.”
“She?”
“Yeah. He said she, and I assumed he meant my sister, Addison. Colby made plenty of promises that he was going to come for her after the rape charges were dismissed. We’ve been walking on eggshells every fucking day, just waiting for that bastard to step out of the shadows. So when he said she, I figured he was looking for her, and so did Riley because he told Colby that he’ll never give Addison up to him. That’s when Colby laughed and was taunting him that he’d already dealt with Addison and was saying how fucking easy it’d been.”
My hands ball into tight fists at the memory, but Daniels’ sharp tone cuts through the room like Colby’s knife slicing through Jax’s stomach. “What were his exact words?”
My nails dig into the palm of my hand, and I try to control the rage just to get through this fucked-up interrogation. “When Riley said he’ll never give up Addison, Colby laughed and said ‘That bitch? Oh, I’m already through with her. She was easy then, and easy now.’”
The cops glance at one another, their expressions impossible to read. “Right,” Daniels says. “And when Colby referred to a ‘she’, who was he looking for?”
“My girlfriend, Brielle,” I say. “They used to date when she went to Hope Falls. He’s had it out for her since the second she dumped his ass. In some fucked-up way, he blames Bri for pushing Erica to go to the cops about him raping my sister. Not that she went to the cops with the fucking truth.”
“Colby Jacobs was cleared of the rape of your sister.”
I scoff. “Only because his lawyer is a dirty piece of shit who messed with the rape kit.”
“Do you have evidence of this?” he questions.
I press my lips into a hard line and shake my head. “No, sir.”
He stares back at me, his dark eyes like a mask concealing the demons inside. “That’s a very serious accusation, Mr. Morgan.”