If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense

she could have hurt Mr. Reilly?”
    “With Hope, I just don’t know. The one thing I
do
know? She’s capable of just about anything. I also know that I wish I could help her. Hell, I’d like to believe
you
can. But I know I can’t, and I can’t believe you can either. She doesn’t want help, won’t admit she needs it. Look, if there’s anything I can do to make sure she gets that help, just ask. I don’t want her in trouble, but I do want her to get help. Before it’s too late.”
    Remy barely remembered the rest of the conversation.He was too busy finally processing the fact that he’d more or less gotten the supporting evidence he needed.
    Hope Carson’s fingerprints had been found all over the weapon used to beat Law Reilly.
    She had slit her wrists.
    She had a history of violence.
    A history of turning on people who cared about her.
    According to her ex-husband—who seemed to care about her—she was manipulative, prone to doing whatever it took to get her way.
    Fuck and double fuck.
    Instead of feeling satisfied with what he needed to do, what he
could
do, he found himself thinking about those sad, sad green eyes …
    Fuck
.
    By the time she landed at Blue Grass Airport, Nia Hollister was so damned tired, she could barely see straight, so sick at heart, she ached with it, and she longed to curl up in a dark, quiet room and just … sob.
    Giving in to tears had never been her way, but this time, the temptation was strong, so overpowering, there were times when she felt the tears swelling in her throat like a knot. And a scream—just beyond the tears, there was a scream begging to break free.
    She kept it held inside through sheer will alone.
    Now wasn’t the time to scream, or to cry.
    Somewhere inside her heart, she still wanted to believe they were wrong.
    All of them.
    Joely wasn’t dead. She couldn’t be. They were like sisters—almost closer than sisters.
    They rarely fought. They were best friends, in their hearts, their souls. Even when Nia was on the other sideof the country for half the year—or
out
of the country …
    They could be wrong. All of them—Bryson, Joely’s fiancé, who wouldn’t even go with her to identify the body, the cops who insisted it was Joely … everybody. They could all be wrong.
    It might not be Joely.
    But if it wasn’t her cousin lying dead in a morgue in Ash, Kentucky, then where was she?
    Her fiancé hadn’t seen her in more than a month.
    She wasn’t answering her cell phone or e-mail.
    It was like she’d dropped off the face of the earth.
    No … she hasn’t dropped off the face of the earth. She’s been lying dead in the deep freeze in the morgue, you selfish bitch, while you’re off on assignment
.
    Abandoned—because law enforcement always turned to family, although Bryson might have been able to do it if he’d pushed, especially since Nia hadn’t been reachable. Out of contact
—fuck
.
    She hadn’t been around, while her cousin was kidnapped, hadn’t been around while she was killed, hadn’t been around at all and because of that, Joely was treated like some worthless piece of garbage.
    Nia hadn’t been around. Oh,
God …
Tears pricked her eyes. She’d been out of contact for almost three weeks. Joely could have reached her, but would she have shared that information with her fiancé? Probably not.
    With weariness and grief dragging at her steps, she lugged her carry-on through the airport. Years of living out of a suitcase had taught her to pack light and the bag was all she carried. The rest of her stuff was being shipped back to her house in Williamsburg.
    Soon, she’d have to find a Laundromat and wash her clothes, but that was a problem for another day.
    Now, she needed to get a rental car. Rental car. Then she needed to …
    She stopped in front of an ad—it was brightly colored, displaying a chestnut horse racing across a field of green grass. Numb, she just stared at it for a minute and then once more started to walk.
    Rental car. Ash, Kentucky. She needed to get there. Needed to …
    “Miss?”
    Nia started, then found herself staring dumbly at one of the airport security guards. Blinking, she glanced around. She wasn’t sure where she was, or how she’d gotten there.
    He eyed her with a strange mix of concern and caution. “Are you okay?”
    Nia swallowed. That knot in her throat swelled to epic proportions and she realized those tears were even closer than she’d thought. “I … rough few