Thomas and I crouched low to the ground, quickly crossing the fifty or so feet to the fence gap.
Whatever Kane was doing was risky. Even more so now that he’d let us live. Hopefully, Maya’s phone would power on and give us some clue as to why she was murdered.
I wasn’t telling Cora what happened either. It would only make her worry. Until I had real, tangible information and access to Maya’s phone, she’d stay in the dark.
Chapter Twenty
CORA
I knewJason wasn’t being honest with me.
He’d returned to the house long after it’d turned dark, filthy and evasive. With some ridiculous story about a flat tire.
Two days later, he was still being secretive, and it was eating at me. I just couldn’t figure out why. I mean, I was used to him being cagey at times when we were in Chicago. At least when I first started working there. It hadn’t taken long to figure out that his business wasn’t entirely… legitimate.
I didn’t care. He’d been good to me and helped me keep my apartment. That’s what mattered.
I shoved the bottle brush into the opening of one of Elias’s bottles with a little more force than necessary, as if taking my frustration out on it would magically fix my mood.
Elias had picked up on my agitation too. It’d been nearly impossible to calm him down for his afternoon nap. Finally, I’d set him in the swing and that’d done the trick.
My lips pinched together as I scrubbed the bottle even harder.
“What did that bottle do to you?” His voice came from behind me.
“It was dirty and wouldn’t tell me where it’d been.”
That was sort of true. It’d shown up on the counter roughly ten minutes ago with some sort of alien life form growing in it. I should have just thrown it away, but the practical side of me couldn’t just toss a perfectly good, albeit nasty, bottle away.
“Maybe it isn’t telling you where it’s been because it’s an inanimate object.” He chuckled.
When I didn’t laugh, he sighed.
“Look…”
I turned on him, bottle brush in hand, pointing it at him. “No, you look. I’m a big girl. I know Colter is a bad guy. I know you…”
His eyes narrowed. “You know I what?”
“Aren’t just the owner of a construction company. I see the type of people that come and go at the office. The fact that you carry a gun. I’m not dumb.”
In seconds, he stormed across the kitchen, standing in front of me, towering over me, menacing. “Don’t open doors that are better left closed, Cora. It’s better to be dumb than dead.”
I shrank back. At his angriest, he had never looked at me the way he was looking at me.
For a moment, I was in such shock that I just stared at him. I didn’t know what to think or to say. This wasn’t the man I knew. The one who let me cry until I fell asleep, changed dirty diapers, and kissed me with such tenderness I didn’t want to be kissed by anyone else.
“If you’ll recall, thedoorwas thrown wide open earlier this year.” I couldn’t keep the wobble out of my voice or the tears from streaking down my face. “I’ve still got the nightmares to prove it!”
Instead of standing there like a hurt idiot, I pitched the bottle brush into the sink and bolted for the stairs. I didn’t stop running until I was in Elias’s room with the door shut.
Elias startled and began crying. I wilted and groaned. Elias was a wonderful little guy, sweet and bubbly. But the older he got, the crankier he became when he missed a nap or didn’t get a whole one. For a three-month-old, he could be a real grumpy pants at times. And I’d just interrupted his midday nap.
I locked the nursery door, pushed off, and walked to him, gathering him up in my arms. “Hey, it’s okay. Momma is here.”
If Anna was here, I’d have run to her. She would’ve straightened Jason out, but she’d returned to Chicago with Ari for an OB appointment. I could’ve texted her. I’m sure she wouldn’t have minded, but I didn’t want to drag her into this spat with Jason. Not when she was doing something so sweet and special.
So, I did what any normal person would do. I sat down in the glider with my baby and cried while my mind went in a hundred different directions. Why had I let him come with me in the first place?
