Page 38 of Wicked Games

Shuddering, he hugs me, and I wrap my arms around him. He breaks down in the quiet and sobs into my hair.

It’s a long time before he stops.

“You can use the bathroom in here. I’ll go across the hall,” he says, letting me go and rolling off the bed. It’s nice that he’s not embarrassed to cry, simply wiping his cheeks and pulling his pants up.

“Thanks.” I’m not as messy as I could have been, and I scoot off the bed as Seth steps into the hallway. I go to the bathroom, clean myself up, and put my panties and shorts back on. I look in the mirror, and my eyes are bright but tired. This thing with Hattie is weighing on me and I don’t know what to do. I should probably tell Detective Crane that I think she was there at the playground, but what would that prove?

Seth’s already downstairs in the kitchen, leaning against the counter and sipping a beer. He holds out his arm and I melt into his embrace, cuddling into his side. Kissing the top of my head, he holds me, his hand splayed across my back. This is turning into something and Bill’s warning echoes in my head. Neither of us are ready.

The doorbell rings, and he says, “I’ll get it. You tip him already?”

“Yeah. I’ll get a couple of plates and bring our beers into the living room.”

“No, this house has a family room in it. Toward the back. That’s where the TV is.”

“Okay.”

We meet in a room full of books, a large TV on an entertainment center in front of an enormous stuffed couch. Seth sets the pizza box on the coffee table and looks for the remote. “I might have to sign into a streaming service. I don’t know what’s hooked up here. What’s on the pizza?”

I set our beers next to the white box that has an outline of a chef flipping a piece of dough on the lid. “I have a couple too, if you need them. HBO, and ah, Netflix. Anchovies and pineapple, what do you think?”

He glowers at me over his shoulder. “Are you serious?”

I push back a laugh. “No. Meat and extra cheese.”

Shaking his head, he turns the TV on. “I’ve got those and Disney and Hulu, too, so we should be covered. What do you want to watch?”

“Whatever, I don’t care.” I sit on the couch, lift the lid, and serve us each a slice of pizza. It looks good, but from various lessons I’ve learned in my life, I know that doesn’t mean it will be.

He sits down next to me and brings up HBO MAX. “Aliens, unnatural disasters, love, war, or love and war.”

“Ummm, unnatural disasters?” I set his plate on his thigh.

“You got it.” Scrolling, he chooses Greenland starring Gerard Butler and Morena Baccarin. I haven’t seen it, and I settle in, holding my plate with my beer bottle tucked between my legs.

Halfway through the movie, he drags a pillow into his lap. “Come here.”

I lie on the couch and use the pillow to prop my head up. Immediately, he lifts the hem of my tank top and presses his hand to my belly. I wait for him to want more, but that’s all he does, and I focus on the movie.

It feels almost normal to be doing something that people take for granted, and I can tell Seth thinks so too, his body not as rigid as it usually is. He plays with my hair while the credits scroll across the screen, and I don’t sit up until the app wants us to watch something else. He turns the TV off, but it’s not dark in here. The sun has a couple of hours yet before it will completely disappear. I’m getting used to sleeping with him and I wonder if later he’ll send me home or if I’ll want to go.

I sit up and lean against the back of the couch. “What angle is the detective on your son’s case taking?”

He frowns. “What do you mean?”

“Are they thinking he was taken by someone you know or do they think it was random?”

“Maybe a little of both. It doesn’t seem like they have a solid direction,” he says, lifting his beer bottle to his mouth. We ate half the pizza and he only has an inch of beer left. “Why?”

“I was just wondering. Who knew Theo and his nanny would be at the park that day?”

“Brooke, of course. Me. Marcy was good with letting us know whenever she and Theo left the house. She said she didn’t tell anyone else.”

“So if they targeted you, they followed her and Theo there. Don’t you live in Rosewood Parkway?”

“Yeah, but everyone knows that, Avery.”

Rosewood Parkway is a posh section of Ashfield, and only the richest families can afford to live in that community. Everyone does know where Seth and Brooke, well, Seth now, lives, and it would be difficult to hide in a neighborhood like that and not be seen . . . unless they had a vehicle that fit in there. Like Hattie’s new Jeep. But even if she’d been able to watch their house, she must have had a reason, and I have no idea what that reason would be. It wasn’t to prevent Theo’s kidnapping because if she was at the park that day, she didn’t do anything to stop it.