“They’re going to skin you alive,” Alistair warned.
Wanda sighed. “At least if they kill me I won’t have to deal with this mess.”
18
“Opal?” Sam asked as he climbed out of the car. Paladino did the same, hand on the gun beneath his jacket, eyes sweeping the area in case of an ambush. “What are you doing here?”
“Sammy—finally. I was starting to think I’d be sitting here for the rest of the night.” She rose to her feet as he approached, and he finally got a good look at her.
Opal had never been fashionable—the idea was practically sinful—but she’d always been neat. Now her hair was falling out of a haphazard bun, her gingham dress creased from travel, and her shoes long past needing a shine.
She took a step forward, and Paladino asked, “Everything okay here, Mr. Cunningham?”
“Yes,” he said automatically, though in truth it was far from it. “You can go.”
“I’ll wait until you’re inside with the door locked, if it’s all the same to you, boss.”
Opal craned her head to see past Sam, frowning as she did so. “Who’s that?”
“A colleague from work.” He needed to get her inside, before she started asking too many questions. “Just let me get the door open.”
He unlocked the door and undid the alarm hexes, glad Alistair wasn’t home yet. Though it would be nice to have him here, the odds of Alistair starting an argument with his sister were better than even, and Sam wasn’t in the mood to mediate between them.
Opal went inside ahead of him, leaving her suitcase for him to carry. “I’m starving—I’ve been sitting out there in the cold for hours.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make dinner.” He put the suitcase down and relocked the door. A part of him was panicking—Opal couldn’t stay here, she’d be in danger. If she died because of him…
God, he’d already gotten Jake and Mom killed. He couldn’t live with more blood on his hands.
The rest of him fell into old habits. “I’ll make some hot cocoa to warm you up, then get dinner started.”
She gazed around the small house with an air of disapproval. “Where am I staying? I need to freshen up.”
He wanted to put her on the sleeping porch, but it was too cold for that. “You can take our bed—I’ll change the sheets real quick.” Alistair wouldn’t be happy, but Sam could hardly put her out on the street.
Opal seemed annoyed, but it wasn’t as though he’d known she was coming. Hopefully he could get her back on the train to Gatesville tomorrow. She couldn’t stay in Chicago; it wasn’t safe.
He changed the sheets as fast as he could, then made her cocoa while she was washing up in the bathroom. While she settled at the table, he hurriedly cooked a simple meal of skirt steak and vegetables, the sort of thing they might have had back in Gatesville, and served it with two bottles of ginger ale.
“You don’t know how nice it is to eat a meal I didn’t have to cook,” she said. “Even if the steak is a little dry.”
Had she forgotten he cooked almost every night when he’d lived at home? He didn’t bring it up, instead inquiring about her train ride. She expressed her disdain of the other passengers, who were either the dregs of society or putting on airs, depending on whether she thought they dressed the way she did.
When he thought he’d given her enough time to get around to the reason for her visit, he said, “Why are you here, Opal? And where’s Ed?”
She poked a carrot with her fork. “He’s back home with Dad. They don’t know I’m here.”
That wasn’t the Opal he knew. But she’d sounded unhappy in her letter; maybe she’d decided to leave the way he had. “Did you run away?”
“Of course not, don’t be stupid. They think I’m in Naperville, visiting Dolly.”
Dolly was a childhood friend of Opal’s, who moved away a few years back, after she was married. “Again, why are you here?”
“You don’t know how it’s been, Sammy.” She blinked rapidly, as if about to cry. “After you left…it was like everyone lost all their patience. I had to pitch in more to make up for you being gone, but I’m no good at cleaning or cooking, you were always better at that sort of thing.”
Considering she’d just told him his steak was too dry, he wasn’t at all sure about that. “Didn’t you get my check? I thought you could hire some help.”
“And let the neighbors think I can’t keep my own house?” She stared at him, scandalized.
