Wicked Release by Katana Collins

I didn’t know about her yet. But . . .” His voice faded away and he looked again to the floor, shaking his head.
    â€œBut what? ”
    â€œBut you were so . . . so . . . kind. And you offered to bring me to Cass’s headstone. I really did like you. And I don’t like lying. It was the means to an end.”
    â€œIs that also what you were doing the night Cass died? Poking around the house?”
    â€œIf I said yes, would you even believe me?”
    â€œIf there was someone to corroborate your story, then yeah, I would.”
    â€œEveryone was drunk and no one would have noticed me poking around. And I wasn’t the only one in this house looking. Lots of people are looking for this room. That mug you dropped when you first saw me? Do you ever recall Cass wearing that shade of red lipstick?”
    Jess remembered the coffee cup with the scarlet lipstick print. He was right—it was so not Cass. “No,” she said, and gulped as she also remembered the intruder she heard in her basement just after Dane left that afternoon. The police hadn’t found anyone . . . something Jess could now chalk up to the secret passage in the basement.
    â€œWe had a cleaning service here the night Cass died. We have one after every party. Things are spotless by four a.m. That mug would have never been left by the service. Someone else—someone other than Cass was in here searching.”
    Dane held Jess’s stare and she didn’t even realize until that moment that his hand was on her arm. His grip was tight but tender at the same time and his thumb moved in little arches over her bare skin, firing little pulses of electricity off in her belly. Jess wet her lips as she searched Dane’s face for the truth. For the honesty that she so desperately wanted from him. She needed friends. She needed people she could trust in her life and there was still a little flicker of hope inside of her that Dane was good.
    â€œHello?” a woman’s voice called from the second floor. Both Jess and Dane stiffened. “Ms. Walters?”
    â€œOh my God,” Jess whispered. “Someone’s here!”
    â€œJessie!” Matt’s voice echoed up her staircase. “Jessie, you home? The door was open.”
    â€œCome on.” Dane grabbed her hand, hit the button opening the door, and tugged her out of the room, nodding to the keypad. “Type in the code. Quickly.”
    Oh, shit. What the hell was that code Elliot gave me? “Oh, God. I-I don’t know. I can’t remember.”
    Footsteps pounded against the stairs as Matt called out for Jess once more.
    â€œJess!” Dane said. “Focus.”
    She pressed her fingers against her temples, clamping her eyes shut as the banister just outside the door creaked against someone’s weight.
    â€œHe’s a cop, Dane. We’re fucked if he finds this room.”
    Dane’s head jerked between the keypad and the door before he ducked inside, slamming a palm against the inside button. The wall slid closed just as Matt, with Officer Rodriguez at his heels, entered the room.

7
    â€œM att! Laura!” Jess exclaimed, glancing nervously to the crooked sconce with the keypad still showing. As casually as she could, she nudged the sconce, sliding it back into place. “What the hell? What are you doing here, barging into my home?”
    He scratched at his goatee, his eyes wandering around the room. “We were examining the tunnel and the wharf. I wanted to swing by and ask to see the basement where Sam was attacked.” But even as he spoke, his attention was divided. “Why didn’t you answer me when we called?”
    â€œWhy did you feel like it was okay to just walk in? You’re a cop, Matt . . . you should know better.” Her heart pounded inside her chest, a deadly cocktail of anger, panic, and adrenaline.
    His face softened. “But I’m not just a cop, Jessie. Right now, I’m