Page 22 of Violent Little Thing

Court hissed in a breath. “How long’s that been going on?”

“A little over three months.”

Court pulled out before Seraphina could get out of the car, but he didn’t do it fast enough that she didn’t notice Court and me together.

“Do you think she knows?” I asked.

Court had only signed the documents yesterday that gave him majority ownership.

“She will by the time that we head out for tomorrow’s game.”

I looked at him. “Do you want me to go to that one?”

He shook his head. “I think it’s best that you don’t go until next week’s game…if we win.”

I breathed out a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness.

I didn’t want to be there, not even a fly on the wall, when they let her know that Court and I were taking over.

There was bound to be one epic meltdown, and even though I enjoyed those, my ears weren’t fond of bleeding. Her whining always did that to me.

Five

“You look happier.”

Thanks, I just ate.

—Court’s secret thoughts

Court

In the thirty minutes that it took to drive her back to her place from Great Dane’s, she got no less than thirty calls from Chris.

I knew this because each one she got, she angrily punched the red button on the screen with a muttered “God.”

By the fourteenth one, I’d come to a decision.

She wasn’t going to be alone today.

She could come with me to my first job, which happened to be a second home to her.

“Where are we going?” she asked when we bypassed the turnoff to her road.

I’d only learned this morning where she lived, which happened to be a hop and a skip from where I lived. Which was information that I did not need to know. For the last year, I’d told myself that it was a terrible idea to think about Charleigh, that it was better for Charleigh’s health if I didn’t. Hence why I refused to know where she’d moved to, or even where she went to work every day.

I’d gotten really damn good at avoiding her.

But now I knew where she lived. I knew where she was going to work for the next year.

“But why?” she asked when I told her she was going to the shop with me.

“Because the fact that he’s called you thirty times makes me nervous,” I said. “That screams unhealthy to me.”

She didn’t comment.

In fact, she kept her mouth so tightly shut that I knew that she was hiding something from me.