Chasing China White by Allan Leverone

Author:Allan Leverone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Down & Out Books

3

It took awhile for Brenna to realize she was no longer alone in the house.

Between picking up after breakfast, crying, and trying to figure out how the hell she was going to save a relationship that had once been the source of her greatest happiness but was now crumbling before her eyes—or whether it was even worth saving—she was simply too preoccupied to focus much on her surroundings.

So when she looked up from the dishwasher and saw Greg’s brother standing in the hallway just outside the kitchen, she gasped and dropped the water glass she’d been drying onto the floor. It smashed into a million pieces, the shards exploding outward in all directions.

And she barely noticed.

She barely recognized Derek.

He was pale and dirty, his clothes at least a week overdue for the laundry, and she doubted he’d shaved since he last washed his clothes. Even from across the room she could see his whole body shaking, which was strange since he was the one who’d broken into her house, not the other way around. She should be the one shaking, from fear and rage at the fact this man had entered without her knowledge or an invitation, but right now she was too shocked to be afraid.

It wasn’t like she and Greg were so close to Derek that it would be normal for him to stop by for a visit, much less stroll right inside. Brenna doubted she’d met Greg’s brother more than a handful of times, and even then it was only for a few minutes here, an hour there. She tried to recall the last time she’d spoken to him and could not.

And the smell. Ugh, he smelled like sweaty armpits and dirty feet and…

“Wh-what are you doing here, Derek?” She spoke without thinking and winced inside at how bitchy the question made her sound. But still, it was a question that needed to be asked, and ugh, the smell. And he was standing in her house without an invitation.

And for that matter, how the hell had he gotten in? She was sure she’d heard Greg lock the front door before leaving. She’d been hyper-focused on him as he got the hell out of the house and recalled with vivid clarity the sound of the deadbolt lock thunking shut.

Without waiting for an answer to her first question, she moved on to her second. “How did you get in here, anyway?”

Then to her third. “And what…what do you want?”

He chose to address the second. The answer was simple and straightforward and heartbreaking. “Greg gave me a key after you bought the place.”

He said it without a moment’s hesitation, and Brenna knew instinctively he was telling the truth. She felt her face redden from anger and shame. Without asking her—hell, without even telling her—the man with whom up until a short time ago she’d thought shared everything had handed out keys to their home like spare change to a vagrant.

And that was damned close to the truth. Brenna knew Greg’s relationship with his brother was a sore spot for her husband.

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