Secret Sins: (A Standalone) by CD Reiss

Author:CD Reiss [Reiss, CD]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flip City Media Inc.
Published: 2016-09-15T18:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27.

1994

“I thought you were going to be the easy one,” I said. The rain had lightened to dime-sized splats and rushing veins on the windshield. The inside of the car smelled of salt water and sticky tar.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Drew asked, brushing his fingers through his hair as he drove. It had loosened from its stiff lawyer-do and fell in his face the way it used to.

I’d settled into a mellow trust with him. The same zone as I’d fallen into eleven years earlier. “Strat was like an animal in a jungle. You were comfortable. Accessible.”

“Accessible? That sounds a little demeaning.”

“Just a little? Shit. When that flew out of my mouth, my subconscious was going in for the kill.”

He smirked, elbow on the edge of the door, rubbing his thumb on his bottom lip. Had he done that before? At the Palihood house? I didn’t remember. He seemed pensive and maybe a little hurt. I felt protective of him, even if I was the one I was protecting him from.

“If it’s any comfort, you were the one who hurt me most.” I put my hand on his knee. He put his hand over mine and squeezed my fingers together. “After that night, when it was just us, I really started to like you.”

“That’s no comfort whatsoever.”

“Didn’t think so.”

The rain stopped as if God had flipped a switch. If it were daytime, the sun would have come out.

“I wasn’t out to hurt you,” he said. “I was out to not get hurt.”

“Get off here.” I pointed at the exit, holding my next thought until I knew he wasn’t going to drift on the slick road. “You know you don’t have a case. Your cellist.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“Make a left here. And you knew I was working in the LA office.”

“Read it in the company newsletter. Fine print on the last page. New hires.”

“Martin Wright? Does he really think he was ripped off?”

“Every couple of weeks. Especially when he doesn’t take his meds.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. If I was being honest with myself, I’d known it all along. The case was built out of ice cubes and set on a frying pan. He didn’t have to come to Los Angeles for it either. He could have managed the whole thing with faxes. So why? I’d gotten easier to find. There were a few hundred TV channels and libraries had computers now.

Fuck it. He was a goddamn lawyer. He could have found me anytime.

“What do you want?” I asked.

His Adam’s apple bobbed down and back up with a deep swallow. He squeezed my fingers again. “Something came across my desk. I don’t do international cases, but I was helping an associate, and I saw your name.”

“House at the end of the block with the hedge and the gate. Where did you see my name?”

“It wasn’t yours. Your family’s.” He pulled up to the gate and stopped. The gate was closed, and outside his window sat a wet keypad waiting for my code.

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