Page 7 of Now Until Forever
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s because I just found a guynailed to a table.” She blew out a breath. “So how are you?” Before he could comment on that, she followed up with, “How is what’s-her-name? Beatrice.”
“Bethany.” As if she didn’t know he’d gotten a divorce three years ago. Carlos lifted his left hand. No ring. “It’s been over for a long time.”
“Right.” She didn’t look guilty. “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. Bethany certainly isn’t.”
“Listen…”
He studied her expression. “Are you actually okay?”
“No.” She scrunched up her nose, the way she always had when she didn’t like something. “That was…”
He glanced over his shoulder, then took her arm and drew her away. There was nothing in her life that had prepared her forthis. He had to remind himself of that. “Death isn’t peaceful or comfortable. It’s jarring. It should be.”
“My mother wouldn’t agree. She’d think it was a regular Tuesday, right? This is what she does.”
“It isn’t whatyoudo, Lia. You aren’t…this.”
She stiffened and pulled away. “You need to call me Hope. Or pretend we don’t know each other. You’re good at that.”
“It was high school.”
“Funny, it still stings.” She backed up and turned away from him, and he watched her walk away. Again.
He could keep an eye on her without talking to her. They didn’t need to be on speaking terms for her to be safe.
And for him to keep his promise to her parents.
Chapter Three
Eliana grabbed a water bottle from the fridge in the break room two doors down from the locker room. The small space housed a kitchenette and always smelled like old lasagna, no matter how often the microwave was cleaned.
She twisted off the cap and sipped slowly, trying not to think about the dead man with his tongue cut out.
How did her mom do this?
Part of her wanted to text her parents on their group thread, but they were currently on a case in Alaska. The couple of messages she’d had said they were in the thick of something big. If she told them what she’d found, they’d drop everything and swoop in, rescuing her and solving this case. She would rather they lived their lives, and she was going to live hers, which involvednotpurposely trying to find a killer.
“There you are.” Sylvia stepped in and looked around, discovering it as empty as Eliana had a moment ago.
Except that now there were two people in here.
Eliana lifted her chin. “You were looking for me?”
“Let’s sit.” Sylvia motioned to the small round table with four chairs. In the other arm, she carried a wooden box about the size of a cash box, with an emblem burned into the side. “How areyou doing? That can’t have been easy for you, discovering Doctor Splitfield like that.”
Eliana set the water bottle on the table, then closed her eyes for a second. “I’d rather talk about nearly anything else.”
Sylvia flushed, smiling. “Good, because I wanted to ask you about that police officer. Ryson.” She leaned forward as if reaching for some juicy gossip off a shelf. “It seemed like the two of you know each other.”
Okay, make that two things she’d rather not talk about. But Eliana had walked herself into this corner and she needed to get herself out of it.
“Carlos is a family friend,” she explained. “His dad is friends with my parents, and we kind of grew up together. Seeing each other in the summer or over the holidays. I went to his high school for a while, as well.” She didn’t want to talk about the reason it didn’t last long, or the fact she’d put a crimp in her parents’ plans for her to graduate.
Eliana had found other ways to fulfill the requirements. But only out of desperation, and ugly crying over the heartbreak the entire time. All she felt for him now was annoyance.
“Right, I recall that from the files on your parents.” Sylvia nodded. “Your mother did a good job of keeping Javier and Valentina Ryson out of the spotlight forDominatus. And you, of course.”
