Studfinder by L.B. Dunbar

Author:L.B. Dunbar [Dunbar, L.B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Heart Eyes Press LLC

Incredulous. I do not want to believe any of it, but I break away from Scarlett, racing away from the farmers’ market. I don’t want to think anything until I speak to Jake. I’m a woman of facts and principles, and the best solution for answers is to go to the source.

I didn’t know Jake’s exact address other than he lives in Ashbury, a small town on Montpelier’s west side. Calling Albert, I make up some excuse for needing Jake’s address. Seconds after hanging up the phone, I don’t even remember what I said, certain the excuse was not feasible but necessary.

Pulling up in front of the small, run-down home, the ramp before the house hardly stalls my ire. I stomp up the slight incline and harshly knock on the front door. When a man in a wheelchair opens it, I’m still not deterred although my breath catches at the similarity between brothers. Fuller in shoulders and rounded in face, he’s still a twin to his older brother minus the salt-and-pepper scruff.

“Well, hello beautiful,” he says, immediately flirting with me and giving me the charming smirk of a Drummond.

“Don’t hello beautiful me, cookie. Where’s your brother?” My body vibrates as I speak through the screen door. I’d like to open the barrier and let myself inside but refrain.

“Rita?” The questioning sound of my name and the smile I hear within his voice quickly fades when he sees me standing on his porch. “Rita, what’s wrong?”

Jake steps outside, and I step back, putting much-needed distance between us. My body hums while the sickening sensation coils through my veins. I let this man enter my body. He’s crawled into my heart. He stole my soul.

“Tell me why you went to prison, Jake.”

“Rita,” he whispers, taking a step toward me, hands lifting to touch me, but I stalk backward down the ramp, keeping space between us.

“Tell me,” I demand, fisting my hands at my sides.

“I was accused of setting a fire.”

I shake my head at the simplistic answer. “Not enough, handsome.” The endearment is bitter, and Jake flinches at the term.

“What did you hear?” he questions, but I’m not here to speak. I’m here to listen.

“Talk,” I command.

“There was a fire at a local high school.”

“Which one?” I snap, not wanting anything left out and briefly closing my eyes as I brace myself for the truth.

“Waterson Community. It was a misunderstanding. I’d seen the blaze and stopped to investigate. As I was around the back of the building, an explosion happened.”

My imagination runs wild. Visions of Ian I don’t wish to see haunt my thoughts like ash floating in the air.

“Because you started the fire,” I clarify, shaking so badly I’m surprised words even form in my mouth.

Jake sighs and tilts his head for the ground, shaking it side to side. “I was seen on the school surveillance cameras. It looked like I was exiting a side door and then wandering behind the building when the blast occurred, but I had not been inside.

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