Joke’s on You by Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,69

glance up through the part in her hair to see if I was buying her explanation.

And, had she not looked up at me, I would have.

I would have fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

Except she’d fucked up.

She’d messed it all up with one single contemptuous look through her hair that made her actions and her words not match at all.

It was then I realized, in all of her explanation, she never really said anything about why she was here. Who paid her to be here and why she would’ve gone to such extremes.

“What happened after your husband lost his job?” I asked, not being swayed by his veteran status like I was earlier.

She sighed and straightened, her head coming up and her eyes going hard.

“My husband decided that it would be more fun to continue not working, making my lifestyle have to change.” She smirked. “But it all worked out in the end. My husband checked out, became focused inwardly, and I found a very nice man willing to give us a house if I only spied on a certain blonde chick that he had the hots for. In the meantime, we fucked like bunnies.”

My brows rose.

“What else?” I wondered.

“What else?” She laughed. “I was once again proven to be second best. My husband has his nightmares, and Kerrie has Dillan.”

Moshe said ‘Dillan’ like it was the nastiest word in the English dictionary.

“What did she ever do to you?” I pushed.

“What did she do?” Moshe sneered. “She had everything that I wanted, or at least, she could have. But she shoved it all away because Kerrie wasn’t the right guy for her. What kind of bitch does that? He’s rich. He’s successful. He has his shit together. Unlike my husband.”

“That still doesn’t explain what she did to you,” I said. “She was nothing but nice to you. Offered you a job. Kept you hired on. Gave you chance after chance despite you doing everything that you could to make her fire you.” I paused. “That’s what you wanted, huh? You wanted her to fire you.”

She shrugged. “I didn’t like telling Kerrie everything about her. It was awful. I wanted him to see me, and he only saw her.”

“So you started to call the health department on her,” I guessed. “Stopped showing up for your shifts on time. Pretty much, you made her life a living hell. All for a man that tried to strangle her. That’s how you knew he tried to strangle her, too. Were you there?”

Moshe looked away.

“I followed him,” she admitted. “But…” She narrowed her eyes then. “I didn’t see what happened. The alley was too dark, and he blocked her. I thought they were having sex. So I called the cops.”

“That’s why they were there so fast,” I guessed. “You lied and said she was getting attacked when you thought they were having sex. You saved her life.”

Moshe’s jaw clenched before she opened her mouth and started spewing more venom.

“I hate her,” Moshe hissed. “It’s always, ‘Dillan, Dillan, Dillan.’ Do you know how awful it is to always be compared to a woman that is so high on this fictional pedestal of his that she’ll never be reached or equaled?”

“Dillan doesn’t want to be on that pedestal,” I said finally. “And, sadly for you, you fell for Kerrie’s shit. All of it. You’re the one that’s going to go to jail now, not him. And for what? Nothing. Because he’s not going to come bail you out. He’s going to deny, deny, deny.”

Moshe didn’t like my words.

“He loves me.”

“Does he love you more than he loves Dillan?” I asked seriously.

Because, despite not liking to hear that Kerrie loved her at all, that was exactly what was going on here.

Kerrie had some misguided love for Dillan—my Dillan—and this was likely never going to stop.

The man needed to go to jail.

“I want a lawyer,” she hissed.

Fuck.

All that hard work, right down the drain.

“Fine,” I said as I helped her stand. “But, just sayin’, you might want to hire your own. A really good one. Because you’re going to need it.”

When I handed Moshe off to another officer, I went back inside to survey the damage.

The big batch of dough that Ken had been working on for the donuts was on the floor and ruined.

The bags of flour that Moshe had attacked in her raging were in the process of being cleaned up by Ford, Hayes, and my brother.

Foster was cleaning chocolate icing off the walls.

And the rest