“It’s true, isn’t it?” Sadie pressed, ignoring Mom’s reddening face. “Along with your pending job offer in the Florida Keys. Are you taking yourhusbandwith you this time or ditching him again?”
HowSadie knew wasn’t Laurel’s chief concern. It was Laurel’s fault for not locking her bedroom door—something she never had to do when Sadie wasn’t home. She set aside her irritation, focusing on the damage control.
“Enough!” Dad yelled, rattling even Sadie.
Through the tense silence, Laurel felt Chase’s hurt gaze burn into her. She reached for his hand resting on his thigh, but he pulled it away when she tried to squeeze it. The rejection stung more than it should have. “Come with me,” she pleaded to him quietly. “Please.”
After several beats of reluctant silence, he nodded once. They carried their plates into the kitchen and slipped out the back door before the real tension took over the dinner table inside. Raised voices penetrated the enclosure of the house. Because half of her family could see them on the deck, she led Chase around the house to the driveway.
“I’m so sorry about that,” Laurel said immediately. “I’m not taking the job offer. It’s why I never said anything. I had no idea Sadie knew about any of that—”
“I can’t do this.”
Whatever apology Laurel had been in the middle of, she lost the words. Her chest squeezed painfully. “What are you saying?”
“I love you, Laurel.”
Her hands trembled at her sides as she felt her world falling apart one shaky breath at a time. “There’s a but in there.”
“I can’t do all these secrets. They’re going to ruin everything good in your life.” He paced in front of her briefly, ultimately heading down the driveway toward his truck. Halfway there, he stopped. “Sign the papers, Laurel. It’s what you want to do, and I don’t have the energy anymore to convince you to change your mind.”
Chapter Thirteen
Chase
“Don’t look at me like that,” Chase said to Zeus who was staring up at him from the foot of the bed, moping when he got out of the shower. For hours after Chase returned home from the disastrous Evans’ family dinner the night before, the pup had paced, whined, and constantly stared out the window. Even though the dog couldn’t tell him, Chase knew he was waiting for Laurel.
In only a few days, Zeus had bonded with her.So easy to do.
He didn’t know how to make his dog understand that Laurel had hurt him with all the secrets she’d kept. Not only from him, but her family. If she’d been open and honest from the beginning, Sadie wouldn’t have been able to stir up a single ounce of drama. The frustration he’d been pushing down for days because of the ticking clock had all bubbled to the surface at once.
Time had run out for him.
Jenkins would open his doors within the hour, and that would be the end of it.
Another whine, and Chase’s heart nearly cracked in two for the pup. “I’m sorry, okay?” He dropped onto the bed and wrapped his arms around the dog, hugging him close. “Sometimes things don’t work out. I thought fate had other plans, but I was wrong.”
Zeus licked his wrist.
“You’ll still get to see her sometimes,” he said, certain they’d run into each other at cookouts but not dwelling enough on that thought to upset him. She was a master at compartmentalizing her emotions; he could do it, too. “I’ll take you fishing soon, with yourgirlfriend.” Zeus’ ears perked at the one word the smart pup had associated with Rowdy.
The clock on his dresser warned him he needed to get a move on it. Today was all he had to figure out these fires before he had to submit the reports, or Bauer would take over and submit his own, likely never again fully trusting in Chase’s abilities. “You have to stay here this morning,” Chase told Zeus as he dug through his dresser for a pair of jeans without a tear in them.
He found a pair in the bottom drawer, banging his elbow on the dresser on the way up. The stack of books on the corner toppled to the floor, along with a pamphlet he didn’t recognize. He considered leaving the mess for later, but the headline on the brochure made him do a double-take.Adoption: Understanding Your Options in Alaska.
“Another secret, Laurel?” he grumbled, remembering she’d been in his bedroom twice recently. Why she would hide this here was beyond him, but none of the reasons he could think of made him any less upset.
Zeus hopped off the bed, sniffing at the pile of books, then the brochure.
Collecting the fallen items, Chase couldn’t help but wonder if their whole marriage had been built on secrets he still didn’t know. What else hadn’t she told him? The job offer in the Florida Keys had been shock enough. Butadoption? He’d had enough of secrets to last him a lifetime. Maybe longer.No time to dwell on this anymore. Too much at stake.
“C’mon, Zeus. I’ll get you a treat before I leave.” That cheered the forlorn pup right up.
At the fire station, Chase lost himself to the case. The one he would have to solve all on his own before the clock struck five. He put his phone on silent, closed the office door, pulled out a neglected whiteboard from the closet, and set to the task of studying the photos, notes, and evidence from both scenes. It would be so much easier if he could question people without a barrel of grief from Ryder and Glenn. He scribbled his notes on the board, drawing lines to oddities that seemed to connect and starring questions he would risk via a couple of phone calls before the day was over.
“You hunting a serial killer?” Marc Evans entered the office, dressed in khaki pants and a dark blue polo with the vet clinic logo stitched above the breast pocket, and closed the door behind him. He looked too refreshed to be at the station for another therapeutic inventory.
Chase capped his marker and cautiously turned toward Marc. “I’d probably have more support if I was.”
