Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 91212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
"Okay," he easily agrees.
"Okay?"
"I thought I was going to have to argue with you about coming along."
"You wanted to go with me."
I watch his face, hating how he seems to struggle with what to say next as if he's trying to be diplomatic. It tells me exactly where we stand, and although I should feel relief in that, it saddens me a little. Any idea I might've had about shoving away my pain and getting lost in him curls up and vanishes because it's clear that's not going to be an option.
"The Agency wants someone there to witness their reactions firsthand. There are some things cameras just can't pick up."
"Of course," I say, walking toward the front door of the suite. "Let's head out."
He doesn't press his hand to my back like he did when he lead me everywhere yesterday. He simply exists beside me, staying quiet on the elevator ride down to the parking garage. He opens the passenger side of the car and takes my bag to put in the trunk before climbing in behind the wheel.
"What will we tell them?" I ask halfway to the airport.
"Who?"
"My brothers," I clarify. "What will we tell them is the reason you're at the house?"
A moment of silence passes between us as I wait for him to answer.
"We can't lie about who I am because William was with you at the meeting, but we can tell them that I've hit a snag in the investigation, and I'm there to go through Sadie's things to see if I can find something useful."
Oh how I genuinely wish that was the truth, it would mean there was still a chance Sadie was alive and she could be saved.
"Chris doesn't even know we hired you."
He pulls in a deep breath as he chews on the inside of his cheek.
"I guess it doesn't really matter. They won't see you until right before we get the call, so it really won't give them much time to think it over. I know William won't be very impressed with you being there," I say, turning my attention out the passenger side window.
There's a lot that doesn't add up where my brother is concerned, and when I strip away all the emotion and really take a hard look at his behavior, I see less of a man trying to protect his family name and more of a man agitated that someone is trying to steal his limelight and doing so in such a negative way. I hate even letting my mind drift in that direction, and I wonder if it's my mind's way of putting a protective shelter in place in case it does turn out that he's responsible for our sister's death.
I sense his hand move, but instead of it reaching over and covering mine, he lifts it from his lap to clench the steering wheel.
I pull in a ragged breath, trying to come to terms with how things will be going forward. I hate the vulnerability I let myself feel around him. It sure as hell makes it that much harder to resurrect that stone wall that crumbled so easily when he offered comfort.
Although I spend fifteen minutes in one of the airport stores picking out a new book to read, I simply hold it in my lap once we get on the plane, keeping my eyes closed for hours even though I was very much aware of every shift in his seat. I imagine him watching my face, torn up and pining for me the way I can't seem to avoid doing about him, but I know better.
Men like Eddie Yarrow jump from one case to the other. He's not even available. If he were, I'm sure some lucky woman would've scooped him up by now.
Chapter 27
Ace
Much like the plane ride, the wait for the rental car and the drive back to her family home are spent mostly in silence.
I can see she's lost in her head, and she spent the entire flight pretending to sleep just so she didn't have to talk to me.
I shouldn't take offense to it. She's been met with tragedy in the last couple of days, and we all have our ways of dealing with that sort of thing.
Knowing all of this doesn't stop me from wishing she wouldn't dart her eyes away from me every time I look in her direction.
I knew the risk I was taking last night. I knew she could wake up this morning and regret it happened. That's why I let her sleep as long as I could this morning. I didn't want to see the contrition in her eyes when she woke up wishing she'd put a stop to things before they went too far.
"Left here," she says, and I turn the car onto a driveway so long most people would probably think it was a road if it didn't have the gate twenty feet from the main road.