“Damn, Gabby. Your life is as messy as mine.”

“Liam could go to jail. Hell, I could go to jail. Detective Schone made it quite clear I should support the allegations about Liam or risk something even worse.”

“All I know is what I was told.” Jessa sucked at tiptoeing through tough topics, but she tried. “No one I know had anything to do with Baines’s death.”

“Be specific. You’re saying the group didn’t order or arrange for his murder?”

“I’m not saying there’s a group. You never heard me confirm the nonsense you’re spewing. Do you understand me? I will lie, cheat, and leave you flat if you try to say I did confirm.” Despite the carefully chosen words, Jessa blew past the point of plausible deniability. If Retta found out . . . Yeah, Jessa didn’t want to think about that. “But no hypothetical group I’ve ever hypothetically heard of killed Baines. You’re wrong about that theory.”

Instead of feeling anxious, Jessa experienced a pulse of relief. If anything awful happened to her, if she did end up being sacrificed for some greater good she still didn’t fully understand, Jessa knew the one person other than Faith who might question her end was Gabby. A woman who would fight this hard, risk this much, for an ex who’d spent most of a divorce trying to destroy her would fight for the truth no matter what.

“Retta’s husband and Baines were locked in some sort of business fight. Baines had stolen documents,” Gabby explained.

“I don’t know about that and don’t want to.” Jessa was already in too deep and breaking all the rules. “This conversation—the one that never happened—is over. We both said things that no one else can know.”

“Agreed.” Gabby rubbed her head as she stood up. “I know you won’t to listen to me, but get out of that group now. Feign an illness. Fake some sort of emergency. Whatever you need to do. Save yourself before it’s too late.”

Jessa heard the concern in Gabby’s voice and knew it was genuine. “I have it under control.”

Gabby shook her head. “Neither of us believe that.”

Chapter Sixty-One
Gabby

The next day, Gabby hurried back to Liam’s house. She rushed inside and dropped her keys on the entry table, not expecting to see him standing in the middle of the family room. “Why didn’t you wait? I came to the police station to get you.”

She’d lost count of how many rounds of questions he’d answered. This time, his lawyers had stopped the meeting and shut off access. The next move belonged to the police and prosecutor, which meant they could drag him away at any moment.