Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 105868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
“Did you stay the night with the doctor?” Paige asked.
“No.” Ace said. “I left probably half an hour later.”
Jeb studied him. “Can anybody confirm that?”
“Well… the doctor can.” Ace didn’t like involving her.
Paige looked up from her notes. “Are you in a relationship with Dr. Smirnov?”
Heat flashed through his veins. “I wish, but no. I’ve asked her out. She said no. So there is no personal relationship between us.” He couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss. About the way she’d looked at him afterward. He sure as hell wasn’t sharing that.
“So then what?” Paige asked.
Ace kept his face placid. “That was the end of my night.” There was no need to tell them where he’d really gone. It was none of their business.
“You went right home, according to your statement to AWT Dutch Reddick.” Paige tugged a sheet of paper from the back of her notebook and looked it over.
“Yes,” Ace agreed. “I went right home.”
Jeb craned his neck to read the paper. “You’d say you got home about ten-thirty?”
“That sounds about right.” Ace frowned. “I wasn’t really paying attention. Maybe eleven.”
Paige zeroed in on the details. “Ten-thirty or eleven?”
Ace exhaled. “About eleven, maybe. Or even eleven-thirty. I wasn’t watching the clock.”
“Did you drive?” Jeb asked.
“Yes.”
Jeb tapped a pen lightly against the table. “How much had you had to drink?”
“Not much. A couple of beers.” Which was actually true. He’d been sticking to beer lately. Amka had noticed. Nobody else had.
“What did you do when you got back to your place at…what was it…eleven-ish?” Paige asked.
Warning ticked through Ace from her tone. “I went to bed.”
“Really?” Jeb asked.
Ace stared at him, holding the lie. “Yes. Really.”
“Did you see Laura Jordan after you left the bar?” Paige asked.
“Nope.” Ace glanced at Daisy. This was getting tedious.
Jeb leaned forward. “Did you talk to Laura? At all?”
“Nope.”
Paige started taking notes again. “How about Tyler?”
Ace rolled his neck. “No. I didn’t see him after I tossed him out.”
“Would you say he appeared violent?” Jeb asked.
Ace’s jaw flexed. “Well, the asshole hit me a couple of times, so I’d have to say yes to that question. That’s why I stepped between them. If something happened to her, I’d definitely look at him.”
Paige scrutinized him for a long moment, gaze steady, measuring. “You hit him, too. Does that mean you’re violent?” The room felt heavier with every second, and an odd weight of suspicion hung thick in the air.
Ace shrugged. “Can be, I guess. Not with women, however.”
“Tell us about the three guys in flannels.” Paige smoothly switched topics.
Ace thought back. “Three guys, on vacation, they talked about fishing the next day. Their guide had told them about the storm rolling in and to prepare to wait it out until the afternoon. One of them seemed irritated. The other two seemed fine. They did buy Laura a drink when we were playing darts.”
Paige rolled a pen between her fingers, showing light pink nail polish. “Did she take the drink?”
Ace looked at her. “Yeah. It was a margarita. She was drinking them all night.”
Paige switched from the blue pen to the red one. “Did that make you angry?”
Ace tried to follow her line of thought. “Did what make me angry?”
Paige exhaled slowly, clearly working to keep her patience. “Did the fact that the woman you were playing darts with, the one you defended from a possible bully earlier, was accepting drinks from other men bother you?”
Ace didn’t hesitate. “No. Didn’t bother me at all. Why would it?”
Jeb just stared at him, cold brown eyes unblinking. “Come on, Ace. You’ve been taking tourist bunnies home all summer. We all know it. Don’t tell me you didn’t try to take this one home too.”
Ace really hadn’t. His mind had been on May for longer than he wanted to admit. “Rumors about my sexual conquests are greatly exaggerated.” He glanced at Daisy. “Not the gifts but the numbers. You know.”
One of her brows arched in a clear warning. Yeah, he was starting to turn into an ass.
Jeb’s tone lowered. “All right. How many tourists have you taken home since the roads opened up in May?”
Ace sat farther back. “Just one at the beginning of June.” The memory surfaced unwanted. He’d been pretty drunk and rather upset that May Smirnov had killed a guy in self-defense. If she’d been in danger, Ace should’ve known it, and he hadn’t had a clue. The woman he’d taken home that one time had been an accountant out of Fairbanks, in town for the weekend. “Her name was Jenny or Julie or Janna. Something like that. Came to town for a weekend away from the city.”
Paige’s gaze narrowed. “You’re telling us you’ve only been with one woman this summer?”
“I’m telling you it’s none of your fucking business,” Ace shot back.
Daisy immediately put a hand on his arm. “Ace.”