“That’s such a normal thing to do,” Sailor said, smiling at me. Finally, she appeared more relaxed than she had been since this all started. “I’d love to see it on my next day off.”
“And then we have Vicki and Gio’s wedding in a few weeks,” my father added. “I’m excited to watch them exchange their vows. It seems both of my children have finally found their partners.”
Her cheeks reddened, but Sailor sounded sincere when she responded. “I think you might be right, Benito. And I know you kept trying to push us into dating, so if you bent Noah’s ear, then I have you to thank for giving me a family.”
She grinned at me, innocence personified, her face so beautiful it actually hurt to look at. We’d somehow found the impossible, and it was unraveling faster than I could stitch it back up.
For once, Sailor’s presence didn't soothe my headache. Instead, the pain ravaged through me, tensing my shoulders and neck. Added to it was the way my stomach had been swirling all day, threatening to make me embarrass myself. All I could do was push my dinner around my plate, pretending to eat so no one would notice I couldn't choke it down.
That was how I was meant to live out the rest of my life. Happiness tempered by knowing what I’d done. Never able to be entirely truthful with my wife, if I could even convince her to marry me. Saying stupid things like ‘anything is possible’ when she asked me a direct question. Deflection, half-truths, and outright lies. I had become Judas, betraying the woman Iloved in exchange for my thirty pieces of silver. If she discovered it down the line, would we blow up our lives in a deeper destruction than if she found out sooner?
Sailor’s phone went off, and she flipped it over to glance at the incoming message. She frowned heavily, swiping it open and looking more carefully. All the color drained from her face, and she shoved her chair back.
“Excuse me,” she croaked, racing to the bathroom.
“What the hell?” Dad said, pushing up from his chair.
Reaching over, I picked up her phone. The messages screen was still open, and my body began to shake as I saw what she’d just read. Not a patient’s outcome; not something ugly but trivial in the grand scheme of things.
“What? What is it?” Dad repeated it several times before I could find my voice.
Meeting his gaze, I managed to grind out the words. “Someone named Lauder just informed Sailor that we have always been the prime suspects in her parents’ murder.”
Chapter Twenty-five
Sailor
Over and over, I sat on the floor of the hotel bathroom, throwing up what was in my stomach. Thought after thought swirled through my head as I flushed the toilet and sat down.
Was Lauder lying to me again?
Or was Noah the one lying?
Who was actually responsible for the accident?
And, finally, how could I live with myself after all was said and done?
“Who the fuck is Lauder?”
Noah’s lashing voice made me jump. Of all the fucked up things I’d been thinking, his finding out about Agent Lauder had not been in the top ten.
Sinking back against the tub, I used the hem of my shirt to wipe my mouth. Pain lanced its way through my body, knowing my world was about to erupt.
“Special Agent Patricia Lauder of the FBI.”
I spoke quietly, both because I couldn't make my throat work and because I was keenly aware of the neighbors on the other side of the wall.
And to protect myself from the storm of fury I knew that man was about to unleash on my head.
“Why the fuck is the FBI communicating with you, Sailor?”
Finally, I forced myself to look up at him. He stood in the doorway, simultaneously a foot away and a million miles away. He held my phone in one hand, the other gripping the door frame so tightly I feared it would break under the pressure.
Exactly like my heart.
“You have a lot of goddamn nerve being mad at me after what I just learned. Did you do it, or did he?”
His nostrils flared as he inhaled and exhaled heavily. “How long have you been working with the feds, Sailor?”
