Almost Innocent by Carina Adams Page A

would grow up and act just like Dustin. So she gave him a different man to idolize. The man who went to prison for saving a little boy he loved more than his own life. His uncle, the hero.”
    “I’m no hero.”
    Her eyes met mine again, and she shook her head. “That’s not how I see it. That kid is my life. Gabby is my sister in every way that counts. They wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t done what you did. You gave me a family. You’re a hero whether you want to be or not.”
    We’d never talked about this before. I had always refused. There was no point in rehashing the past because it didn’t change anything. But she needed to get her facts straight. “What I did had nothing to do with Gabby or Grady. Dusty was fucking Dad over. He made a bad deal that would have screwed all of us, and I found out. When I confronted him, he pulled a gun. I did what I had to to save myself, Fiona. It was a selfish move, that’s it.”
    She nodded, but the look she gave me told me she didn’t buy the lies I was selling. Not for one minute. “Oh, I know. You have an answer to every question. Your story is perfect. It explains why there were two guns and why the room was trashed. It also explains why Dusty’s hands were beat to shit—ya know, ‘cause you two fought.” She raised an eyebrow, tapping a blood-red fingernail next to her mouth exaggeratedly. When the skin between her eyes crinkled in mock confusion, I knew I wouldn’t like what she was about to say. “How did you make it out without a scratch on you? Our brother had very obviously been in a knock-out brawl. Yet you had nothing.”
    “He trashed the fucking room, Fi. Or did you forget that? He’d gone manic.”
    My sister leveled her eyes on me. “What about the bruises all over Gabby’s body—some that took months to heal? And the handprints around her neck where our brother tried to squeeze the life out of her? What about the boot prints he left on her stomach when he tried to kill his son? If it was a business deal gone bad, why was Gabby hurt?”
    Before I could answer her, she stepped in close. “Gabby had your gun that day, I have no doubt. You either gave it to her so she could protect herself, or she stole it. But she never would have pulled the trigger. She was too scared of him. If you hadn’t busted in when you did, it would have been Gabby we buried and not Dusty. And then I still would have lost both of my brothers, because you would have gone crazy, the guilt eating at you for not saving the woman you loved. And I would have killed Dustin in cold blood, shot him in the back of the head the way I wanted to so many times. You are our hero, Dec. Because you saved me that night too.”
    Well, fuck.

Chapter Seven

Gabby
    I lay in bed , staring at my ceiling, long after the sun came up. I needed to get my butt in gear and take the dog for her run, then go get my son, yet the motivation wouldn’t come. All I wanted to do was lie there and do nothing. I didn’t even have the urge to call Fi.
    It was probably pure exhaustion. I’d been so worried about the meeting with the SammWell agents that I hadn’t gotten a decent night’s sleep in weeks. Had that really only been yesterday? God, it felt like a lifetime ago.
    Last night had been a complete wash. My brain wouldn’t shut down long enough for me to catch some shut-eye, even though my body was telling me that I needed to close my eyes and rest. Funny how the two—my brain and body—always seemed to be at war. God knew they’d been at odds for years, especially where Declan was concerned.
    Declan. As much as I tried to avoid it, my thoughts always seemed to drift back to him. A jumble of emotions came after that, ranging from guilt to gratitude. I was lost when it came to Dec.
    How had he known where I lived? I’d gone to great lengths to hide that information from everyone who didn’t need to know. My mother didn’t even know where the house was. When she came to see us, every fourth or