House of Paine - (A Romantic Suspense - Book 2) by Kylie Walker Read Free Book Online

looked at Paige. “She asked me if anyone was home with me because she had some terrible news about Paige and she didn’t want to tell me if I was alone...”
    “She wanted to make sure no one else was there,” Jake said.
    Crystal nodded. “Yes. As soon as I told her I was alone she pulled out her gun. I wasn’t thinking clearly, I tried to slam the door on her. She hit me in the face with the butt of the gun and once she was inside the house she told me who she really was. She said that Paige killed her brother. She said she knew where Paige was but she needed me to get her on the grounds. She put the gun to my head and said she would kill me if I said no...” Crystal broke down again and dissolved into a torrent of tears. She sobbed out, “I told her she was wrong. Greg wasn’t murdered and Paige wasn’t in New York...”
    Seeing her mother like this was physically painful for Paige. “Jake, can I take her to lay down for a bit and we do this later?” Paige asked. The fact that Crystal wasn’t a strong person affected Paige and Greg in more ways than one. She had fallen apart after their father died, leaving them to fend for themselves for the most part, and she had clung to Jackson for years after Greg told her what he was. They’d both lost respect for her...but as angry as Paige felt towards her sometimes, she couldn’t turn her back on her. She was still her mother.
    “Of course,” Jake told her. Paige stood up and Roxi said,
    “The first guestroom on the right is stocked and ready. You can put her there.”
    “Thank you. I’m sorry for all of this intrusion into your life,” Paige told her. Roxi looked at Damien and said,
    “This is what you do for family.”
    Paige took her mother down the hall and guided her to sit down on the bed. “You need to rest Mom, okay?” Crystal nodded like a zombie. Paige started to leave the room but when she reached the door she heard Crystal say,
    “Paige...”
    She turned back around and Crystal had new tears running down her cheeks. “Yeah Mom?”
    “I’m sorry.”
    Paige sighed. She went back over and sat down next to her mother. “This isn’t your fault. Kelsey would have found a way to get to me one way or the other.”
    “Not that,” she said. “Well, that too...I’m just sorry for everything. This all started with me. Thank God you and your brother were so self-sufficient. Your father was the love of my life. When I lost him...I think I just went a little crazy.”
    Paige was old enough when her father died to remember how her mother used to be. Her Dad was the rock of the family and it was easy to see that was where Crystal had drawn her strength from. “I know Mom. It’s all in the past now. We just need to make it through this rough spot and move forward from here, okay?” Crystal nodded. Paige put her arm around her and pulled Crystal into her side. “I love you, Mom.”
    “I love you too baby.”
    Paige left her to rest then and went back out to the dining room. When she got there Jake said, “We can put all of that to rest for now. We’ll talk about it again before they have you all go in and give your statements. I wanted to talk to you about the other evidence you gave me. I had my father consult on this. As far as the audio goes, it will be difficult to prove who is doing the talking there...not impossible, but difficult. Besides, if you use that, it directly implicates Jackson and I understand you don’t want to do that, correct?”
    Damien looked at Paige. She nodded. She wasn’t going to force him to bring down his entire family. She did what she needed to do, now she wanted what Damien did...to be left alone to live their own life. “Yes, that’ correct,” Damien said. “Trust me when I say that he deserves more than anyone to be brought to his knees. But when we talk about bringing Jackson down, were also talking about taking down the rest of my family. I don’t want to do that to my uncles and my aunt and my brother.