Page 105 of The Complete Truth Duet
As the days passed, my patience was slipping with Drew. But if there was one thing I’d learned in the thirteen years since Nic died, it was that anger got me nowhere. However, an unassuming smile and a well-thought-out plan? Yeah. I was in business.
“Anyone else coming today?” Drew asked, flipping the lock on the top of the door after Jennifer left.
I sat beside River on the bed. She moved the laptop to her other side to allow me space.
I shot him an appreciative grin. “No, it was just those two today. How much are we down to?”
He pulled his phone out, his fingers swiping across the screen on what I assumed was the calculator. “I guess depending on how much college costs these days, a little over six hundred left.”
I groaned. I had so much to do. I wasn’t eager to give any of the girls a ton of cash. It’d be all too easy for them to get robbed or blow it twenty dollars at a time until they had nothing left. Instead, I was paying as much as I could to businesses, apartment complexes, colleges, doctors, and, soon, a few different rehab facilities. Seeing as to how this all had to be done via cash transaction, it was incredibly time consuming.
But staying busy was far better than the stabbing pain I felt each time I thought about everything we’d lost.
River looked up at me. “You’re really just going to give away all this money?”
“You got a better idea?”
She turned the computer to face me. “Yeah. We find an apartment that costs more than seven hundred bucks a month. These places aren’t much better than the last one.”
“Baby, we have over a million dollars in cash and I have a record and no job. If we get anything that costs more than seven hundred dollars a month, we might as well hang a red flag on the door ourselves. Besides, you just gonna forget about everybody else? What do you think will happen to them next? Dante is gone, but that doesn’t mean that someone else isn’t waiting to take his place. And who knows? Maybe that guy is worse. We take care of each other. That means me and you. And us and them.”
She shifted uncomfortably and flicked her gaze back to the screen. “Okay. I’ll keep looking.”
I tossed my arm around her shoulders. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll bump it up to seven fifty. Does that make it any easier?”
She started scrolling through apartment listings again. “Nah, seven hundred’s good. We’ll be fine.”
God, she was a good kid.
Drew settled on the bed beside us, grabbed the remote, and aimed it at the TV. “So what are we doing tonight, ladies? You want to rent a movie or something?”
“Why don’t you go out?” I suggested.
His head snapped my way. “You trying to get rid of me?”
Yes, I thought.
“Maybe,” I teased.
His jaw slacked open with mock injury, but before he had the chance to reply, a loud knock sounded at the door.
The humor in his face disappeared as he asked, “You expecting anyone?”
I shook my head, panic erupting inside me. River must have felt it, because she set the computer aside and sat up.
He knifed up off the bed and walked to the door, breathing a curse before pulling it open. “Detective Morris, how can I—”
“Where’s Cora?”
I flew up off the bed, my heart lurching into my throat as the detective—flanked by two uniformed officers—entered the room.
The detective’s dark-brown gaze shot over my shoulder. “River Guerrero?”
“Yeah?” she drawled.
One of the uniforms advanced on her, muttering a, “We got her,” into the radio at his shoulder.
Spreading my arms wide as though I could hide her, I cut him off. “You got who? What is this about?”
The detective’s gaze flicked back to mine. “You need to come with me. Both of you. Now.”
River hit my back, her body already shaking. My heart thundered in my ears as I intertwined her hand with mine.
“Why?” I asked, scanning the room. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as the officers continued to close in. “What’s going on?”
He planted his hands on his hips and uncomfortably shifted his gaze away. I didn’t know Detective Morris well by any means, but I’d seen him enough over the last week to be on a somewhat friendly basis with him. He’d been kind each time we’d spoken, gentle as though he almost felt bad for me.
And the nerves in my stomach peaked when I got the distinct feeling that he didn’t want to be there any more than I wanted him to be.
“We have a warrant for your arrest, Cora. I’m going to ask you to kindly step away from the child and come with me.”
My lungs seized as my hands started to tremble. “Wh…what for?”
