Bride or Die (Claire Hartley Accidental Mystery Book 1) by Madison Score

Author:Madison Score [Score, Madison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: That’s What She Said Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2024-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

To Do:

- Call phone company and get them to block J’s number

- Distract mom from break-in news by asking questions about crystals

-Send apology card to Barney

When her eyes flew open the next morning, Claire expected to see an intruder leering at her. Instead, she spotted Luke sleeping on the couch next to her, arm tucked under his head. Memories of the previous evening came flooding back. She sat up and glanced around, clutching the blanket to her chest. Rosie lay in a nearby pool of sunlight. Everything was quiet.

Was that a yellow legal pad on the coffee table? Maybe it was notes on his project. It was pretty unprofessional of him to leave them lying around. Glancing at him, she leaned forward. The sheet was covered in small, messy handwriting. She squinted. A few words jumped out at her.

Apprentice. Ball. Bookshelves. Mead. Turkey legs. He had taken notes while watching the movie. Something tingled in her stomach. Pulling the blanket off, she draped it over his sleeping form. Then she scooted off the couch and tiptoed across the carpet and up the stairs with Rosie on her heels.

The kitchen was filled with glorious morning light that made the granite countertops gleam. The break-in the previous night wasn’t as scary in the light of day. Who was to say the Widowmaker was the one who broke in? West Haven had a crime rate just like any other city. It could have been a junkie or Jason looking for something she had neglected to throw down the fire escape when she kicked him out.

But the photos. An average, run-of-the-mill drug addict wouldn’t know her mom and certainly wouldn’t have the time or motivation to stalk her in Florida. Ugh, her mom. She really needed to call her. Claire stretched her arms up to the ceiling and stood on her tippy toes, limbering up for what was sure to be a migraine-inducing conversation with her mother. Luke’s T-shirt skimmed her thighs, buttery soft. Would he notice if she didn’t give it back? None of her T-shirts were this comfortable.

She needed to refocus on the task at hand. Rolling her shoulders back, she pressed the power button on her phone. Shit. It was in low battery mode. How could she be so thoughtless? What if a client needed her? A glance around the kitchen showed it was bare of the charging cords that littered her entire apartment. She dug through her purse and withdrew an emergency cord, allowing her phone to charge a bit while she gathered her thoughts.

Should she be completely honest with her mother and become responsible for the DEFCON Level One meltdown that would occur? Or should she shelter her from the truth until they had more information?

“Rosie, what would you do?”

Rosie looked up for a moment and sneezed before turning back to her bowl of water.

“Bless you. But that wasn’t helpful.”

It wouldn’t do any good to tell her the whole truth until they knew more. The intruder’s only interest in her mother was her relationship to Claire—surely she wasn’t in any real danger.

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