The Leander Welles 02 - The Rationale of Leander Welles (mf) by Ashlyn Drewek

Author:Ashlyn Drewek [Drewek, Ashlyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

For the first time in as long as I could remember, I slept without dreaming. Inside my head, a speck of light danced like a dust mote, twirling and dipping, growing brighter. Inhaling a slow breath, I stretched, mindful of the scratches on my back. My shoulder and the side of my neck burned with teeth marks, but it was worth the pain.

Blinking myself awake, I was met with a sight more radiant than the sunlight streaming in through the window.

Lorelei was there.

Although I hadn’t considered it after my exhausted collapse, in the moments before I opened my eyes a ribbon of dismay slithered through my abdomen. I expected her to be gone with only the scent of her perfume and a faint impression in the pillow remaining.

But, no. She was still there. Her cheeks flushed when she smiled, acknowledging my wakefulness.

I slipped my hands under the sheet and slid them over her hips, pulling her closer.

“Good morning,” she said, drawing lazy loops across my chest.

It was far too early for conversation. I burrowed my nose into her hair and breathed it in. It wasn’t just the Lily or the bergamot that was intoxicating. It was her. Her skin, her shampoo, everything.

For a brief moment, everything was perfect.

Then the doorbell rang.

Lorelei shot out of my arms and sat up. Clutching the sheet to her chest, she stared at me. “Who is that?”

Shit. Richard.

I ran a hand over my face and sighed. “Stay here.”

Rolling out of bed, I surveyed the room for my clothing. Keeping track of black clothing in the dark wasn’t exactly easy, especially when the woman of your affections flung it to every corner.

Slipping into my pants by the closet, I plucked my ruined shirt off of the floor lamp near the door. A majority of the buttons were missing. My housekeeper and part-time tailor was going to give me an earful. Again.

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I closed the bedroom door and jogged down the stairs. I gestured Richard into the house unceremoniously. “I assume you have good news.”

“Not exactly.” He sighed, adjusting the weight of his briefcase in his hand.

I stared at him. “...And?”

“I spoke to the judge last night. He knows there was another murder in Easton, just like the others. I’ve already gotten a copy of the preliminary report. He’s just…”

“He’s just what, Richard?” I was not in the mood for asking questions after every statement.

“He wants to wait. To make sure.”

By the time this conversation was done, I’d have a degree in dentistry for all the teeth-pulling I apparently had to do. “Make sure about what? How could I have murdered someone nearly two hundred miles away when I’m stuck here with a goddamn tracking device on?”

“I’ll get it taken care of. I’m going to the courthouse as soon as I leave here.”

“How much longer?”

“Tomorrow at the earliest, I’m hoping.”

I tried not to sneer his words back to him. “You’re hoping? What was it Shelley said about hope? ‘Worse than despair, worse than the bitterness of death’?”

Richard sighed.

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