rubbed her face. “I have a restraining order on him, and he signed the house over to me. A jury would take one look at the damage he caused, and whether I killed him or not, I’d get off on a verdict of self-defense. But then I remember his damn car was in park, and that swings everything back around to arson.”
He put a hand on her arm. Obeying the slight pressure from his fingers, she turned to face him.
His amber gaze was intent. “I had one of my people check things out. Molly, Austin wasn’t at the scene when the emergency responders arrived.”
She had thought she had used up her body’s store of adrenaline, but there was enough left for one tired pulse. “Are you saying he’s alive?”
“It looks that way. At least it appears he was alive when he left the scene.”
“Dammit.” She started shivering. “I don’t know if I’m disappointed or relieved. He deserved everything he got and I’m not sorry, but…”
He pulled up a section of the bedspread and tucked it around her shoulders. “But it’s a hell of a thing to kill somebody,” he said quietly. “Especially if you’ve never killed before.”
Did he know that from experience? She darted a quick glance at his unrevealing expression and decided to let that go. “This means Austin has to explain things, not me. What he was doing in the neighborhood. How he got hurt. Why his car was parked so close to the house. How it caught on fire. I can claim to know nothing about any of it. I met with the real estate agent at the house, left shortly afterward, and I didn’t see a thing.”
“If he survives the night, yes.”
She narrowed her gaze. “What do you mean?”
“The way I see it, there are two possibilities. He may have gotten up and left on his own, or somebody moved him. If that happened, we still don’t know if he’s alive or dead.” He hooked one bent leg on the bed so that he could turn to face her directly. “Think back. Did you notice anything different or see anything that might have indicated someone else was there?”
Josiah was a strong personality at the best of times, and now, sitting this close to her when she felt so low and vulnerable, he was almost overwhelming.
Fighting the urge to retreat, she said drily, “I was pretty busy at the time. You know, getting the shit kicked out of me and fighting for my life and all.”
One corner of his mouth lifted at her sarcasm, but he was dead serious when he replied. “We take in a lot more than we realize. Think about what was to the left of you and to the right.”
Blowing out a breath, she tried. “The copse of trees bordering the back lawn was to my left. I didn’t sense any presence or movement over there. To my right was the back of the house, until we walked toward the side street where he had parked his car. Then there was the intersection of the two roads at the front of the property. Nobody was there. The house across the street was dark. I remember looking that way after the car exploded.”
“What lay straight ahead?” he pressed. “Did you hear anything behind you?”
“I told you already,” she said impatiently. “The side street lay ahead, where Austin parked the car. He put it under the shadow of a maple tree, probably so it wouldn’t be very noticeable. And no, I didn’t hear anything behind me other than Austin before I got free.”
Austin’s voice in her ear. His body pressing against her shoulders while his arm pressed against her windpipe, forcing her to arch back. She shuddered, and Josiah’s sharp gaze caught it.
“What did you remember?”
She pressed shaking fingers against her mouth. When she forced out the words, her voice sounded scraped thin. “He had his arm around my neck when he was forcing me to the car. Do we need to do this right now? Why do you think someone else might have been there?”
“Yes, we need to do this now. I need every detail I can get while the experience is still fresh. As for why I think someone else might have been there…” He rolled one wide shoulder in a shrug. “You thought you might have killed him, but he wasn’t there when the police showed up. I’m just pursuing every angle.”
She glowered. He sounded like a cop, one that knew the