Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 75193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
The more I did it, the softer she got in my arms until she was giving me all of her weight.
This was different than all our other embraces.
This wasn’t about sex.
This wasn’t about anything but her and the comfort she needed.
“You didn’t tell me you were married,” she whispered, almost so softly that I didn’t hear it.
Almost.
“Yeah,” I said softly. “Aerie. We got married right after I got out of the army.”
She didn’t stiffen like I expected her to. Instead, she stayed limp in my arms, her face still placed against my neck.
I felt her breathing, strong and steady, so I continued without her asking.
“We were friends in high school and wrote to each other while I was in the army. That grew into a relationship. I only had eyes for Aerie, and the same for her with me,” I explained. “She was killed during a robbery at our house.”
Her gasp had her sitting up and staring at me with shock and pain etched all over her face.
“Who?” she asked.
“Hanson Coller’s son,” I answered.
Her eyes widened.
“Yeah, now you can see why I freaked out the way I did,” I said. “He never got over the fact that his son was killed.”
“Did you kill him?” she asked softly.
I nodded.
“Responded to my wife’s 9-1-1 call,” I answered. “Saw him in the house…and I killed him. But he’d already killed Aerie right before I got there.”
A lone tear slipped down Freya’s face.
I caught it with my thumb, wiping it away as if it’d never been.
“Don’t cry,” I told her roughly. “It’s over.”
“It’s not over,” she countered. “Otherwise you wouldn’t still be beating yourself up over her death.”
“How do you know I’ve been doing that?” I challenged, knowing she was right but refusing to tell her so.
She gave me a look that said she could see straight through me.
“You’ve told me what your favorite food is. Where you like to go when you need time to think. What your favorite brand of socks are. Who your brother was. All about your sister and her man. All about your niece. If you’d been able to talk about Aerie, you would have,” she explained.
She had me there, and she was right.
I would have if I could have.
I wasn’t sure what exactly had changed, but cleaning out my room and taking everything that reminded me of Aerie out had been a cleansing of sorts.
I felt, almost, free.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I wish I could tell you that it wasn’t on purpose, but it was. Talking about her hurts. Right here.”
I pointed to my chest.
Telling her about that familiar ache that never seemed to go away made her eyes light up with commiseration.
“That’s what I feel about each and every time I think about Corey,” she said. “I think of something I want to tell him, and I can hardly breathe it hurts so bad.”
I looked around then, finally allowing myself to see Corey’s things, and my eyes caught a white note on the table.
Breakfast with F. 0900.
“It’s my fault,” I said again. “I asked him to take Kitt.”
She was shaking her head before I’d even finished.
“He had a secret crush on Kitt,” she said. “That wasn’t his first time taking her. He told me about it. He neglected to tell me he used to take your spare bike out afterwards, but I knew. He could’ve just as easily died on the job, or on his way home from work.”
I knew that.
But it didn’t make it any better.
I still felt guilty over it.
Kitt did, too.
“Your sister needs to let it go, too,” Freya sighed. “I had that talk with her tonight.”
I pulled her to me and hugged her tightly.
“You ready to go to sleep?” I asked.
She pushed away from me and looked around, staring at all the things she had brought over in boxes and had yet to go through, and nodded.
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll come back tomorrow. Check out everything.”
A wet nose touched my hand and I moved to pet Sharpy on the head.
She licked my hand, and I absently stroked her as I said, “We’ll come tomorrow. I have the day off.”
She grinned.
My phone rang in my pocket and I shifted to reach it.
Freya got off my lap, giving me easier access, and I answered before pressing the phone against my ear.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Deputy Walker, this is Agent Fork,” the FBI agent that’d shown up earlier in the day, no nonsense in his voice at all. “I need to get you to meet me down at the office.”
I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“Why?” I asked.
He didn’t pull any punches.
“The establishment that you visited, Daisy’s Tattoo Parlor, was broken into last night. The woman that owns it, Daisy Mendes, was killed. We need you to meet us down here and answer some questions.”
“Fuck,” I said. “Can you give me thirty minutes? I’m not at home, I’m down the street with my woman.”