“Did you really think I wasn’t going to make sure you weren’t going to spend a day in jail after I sat and watched every single one of those tapes?” Diamond shoved her briefcase and folder to the side of her lap to stand. She brought her hands to her hips as she jutted her chin out and stared back at him. “The only ones responsible for Cecile’s death were her and Slate. It’s right there in that folder you don’t want to read, any more than you want to watch those tapes. She made four unsuccessful attempts on her life previously. In fact, she had just been released from a psychiatric hospital where she was on a forty-eight-hour watch after she jumped out of her father’s car at a red light. Slate must have been her backup plan if her last attempt was unsuccessful.”
“It doesn’t matter how many times she tried! I’m the one responsible! My hands choked the life out of her!” He angrily hit his chest with a fist. Then, tormented, he started to hit himself again. “It was me!”
“Watch the damn tape!” Losing her cool, Diamond reached out, grabbing his wrist to stop him. “Look at them!”
Diamond didn’t stop her tirade even though he carefully moved his arm away from her. “You didn’t get those scars by giving in to what they wanted you to do! You kept trying to get away despite being chained to that bed. They administered drugs to you twice, then threatened to kill Taylor. Despite all that, it took them an hour and twenty-four minutes to break you into doing it. You didn’t even realize it was her you were trying to kill!
“I’m sorry for what Cecile must have been going through mentally to bring her to the point that she wanted to take her life. Still, because I did see those tapes, feeling sorry for her doesn’t mitigate the fact that she was using you without regard of the harm it was doing to you. She watched you being chained to that bed, saw those drugs being pumped into you, and allowed Slate to abuse you when you wouldn’t give in to her demands to kill her. Let me tell you something”—Diamond took a shuddering breath—“if it had been me, I would have gladly killed her after five minutes to get Slate to stop hurting me the way he was you.
“And I didn’t have to ask the Commonwealth Attorney not to press charges on you. You want to know what he said? He told me he would have broken after ten minutes. So, don’t you dare stand there and yell at me because you’re not locked up in cell!” Diamond appeared to be earnestly fighting back tears as she watched him scrub his wrist on the side of his jeans where she had touched him. However, he stopped when he saw a tear roll down her cheek.
“I would lock myself inside a cell for the next twenty years before I ever let you spend one more hour behind a locked door again. The Commonwealth Attorney isn’t guided by emotion; he’s following the law, and that’s why a warrant was issued for Slate’s arrest.”
Reaper had to spin on his heel, unable to look at her anguished expression any longer. “Don’t,” he managed to say through clenched teeth.
Knox’s wife’s heartfelt support of him was getting under the barricade he had surrounded himself with. Diamond was slipping beneath the defenses that were already strained from Ginny’s million-watt smile and words that, while his mind shied away from, his soul had felt—as if Ginny had reached inside to caress and soothe the torment that was ripping away what little desire he had left to face another day. The only reason that he hadn’t given in to the struggle was as simple and as old as time—vengeance.
“I want to talk to her parents.”
“It’s not going to make you feel better, and it certainly won’t them. They were told the circumstances of her death and that Slate facilitated her death. If you want to find another way to punish yourself, I can’t stop you, but don’t bring them into it. Leave them alone to their grief.”
“What am I supposed to do?” he asked raggedly.
“You don’t need twelve jurors to punish you when you’re doing it yourself. You’ve made this room your prison cell. The only time you go out is to work the security room or search for Slate. The police will find him. Knox said everyone else responsible for your captivity is dead.”
He turned sharply to look at Diamond.
She held up her hands. “I didn’t ask how Knox knows. And, as an officer of the courts, I don’t want to know. He wouldn’t tell me if I ask, anyway.”
“They’re not all dead.” He clenched his fists by his sides. “There’s one other than Slate. And the ones who paid to be in his videos are still walking around.”