Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Mom had been right. Salem was going to give it all up for me. She’d even mentioned that she might stay longer instead of going back to school. If I allowed it, she’d stay with me, and I’d cling to her—I wouldn’t be able not to. And in the end, she’d hate me for it when she looked back ten years from now and saw that she’d lost her dream because of me. I’d fucking hate me too.
I already hated myself. I’d never forgive myself for this.
A hand touched my arm, and I jerked away from it as if it were acid. Snapping my head around, I glared down at Mindy. It wasn’t her fault, but so much hate and agony were crashing around inside me that I needed somewhere to unleash it.
“What is wrong with you?” she asked incredulously.
Everything. Everything was wrong.
“Salem saw us.” My voice sounded hoarse.
She scrunched her nose. “Is that your girlfriend’s name? The one who comes by here sometimes?”
I shook my head. “She’s not my girlfriend.” I said the words that had always been too weak for what Salem was. It went way beyond girlfriend.
“Then what is she? Because she acts like it.”
I struggled to pull in oxygen before I replied, “My home. She’s my home.”
Present Day
The lights were on in Pepper’s bar when I followed Liam inside, but it still looked dark after I’d been in the bright sun. I squinted while my eyes adjusted. When I could finally see clearly, I saw a tall blonde woman, wearing a pair of bright blue-rimmed glasses, standing near the taped outline of where Hatter’s dead body had been. She was looking at the two of us as we made our way toward her.
“He wasn’t that big of a man, was he?” she mused, then turned her gaze to the outline on the floor. “But then Ezra isn’t a big guy either.”
I didn’t know who the fuck Ezra was or why Marlana Newbury was comparing him to one of the Landiagos. Liam had said we were meeting with someone who had some intel on Salem’s husband and who could clear up some things for us. He hadn’t given me any more than that. I guess he didn’t realize I’d met Marlana when she’d been with Salem once before.
“Ms. Newbury,” Liam said. “I’m Liam Walsh. We spoke on the phone.”
The woman smirked. “I know who you are and that Rome—aka Tex—Bower is the man behind you, scowling at me. Is it the glasses? Not everyone likes the bright color.”
Liam glanced back at me with an amused gleam in his eye. “Tex, this is Marlana Newbury. The DEA agent who was working undercover at the art gallery with Salem.”
“I know who she is. We’ve met. Before I knew she was undercover,” I told him.
How had Liam gotten her to meet us to tell us anything? She was fucking DEA. She didn’t have to tell us shit. But she could clear Salem’s name…or she could tell us something that would have me taking Salem and running.
“She is absolutely nothing like I expected her to be either. It was a relief. Rarely do I like the people I have to work with when undercover. I think I’ll make myself a dirty martini.” The woman then walked over toward the bar. “I’d offer to make you one, but I have issues serving a man. How is Salem doing? Since Tex is here, I am assuming things have changed with the two of you.”
She jumped from one topic to the next so quickly that it was hard to keep up.
“They have,” I replied. “She’s handling things okay, given the circumstances.”
The woman took a bottle of Tito’s from the shelf. “She is tough, but she doesn’t seem to think she is. That was an oddity I couldn’t figure out. That, and she’s completely oblivious to the attention she gets from men. As if she doesn’t even notice them.” She turned back around with the bottle and a glass. “Except you. She noticed you.”
I didn’t respond.
The woman had done her research on Salem. She’d probably known every detail of her life before Salem even came in for the interview at the art gallery. Our past would have come up in her research. My mom had been Salem’s legal guardian from the age of fifteen through eighteen. That had to have been in the records.
When I said nothing, Liam cleared his throat and made his way over to the bar. “Yeah, seems Tex and Salem have a history. One that happened before her marriage.”
Marlana let out a short laugh. “That’s one way of putting it,” she replied while continuing to mix her cocktail. “But her past with Tex wasn’t of any concern to us, although your interactions that I was lucky enough to witness were a nice break from the reality of my job. It was like watching a live-action TV drama. If only Rí had stuck around on earth long enough to see the moment the two of you reconnected,” she said, pouring the contents of the shaker into a glass.