Page 85 of Broken Boss

I’ve spent the last two days hanging out at their house and evading questions about why I suddenly want to spend so much time with my big bro and his family. Eva is thrilled, obviously, and has been insisting that we reenact Rapunzel every few hours. Even Gen seemed relieved to have someone to hand the baby off to now and then.

But I can sense that I’m pushing my luck. Especially when Nate walks into the living room and tells Eva, “Can you give me and your uncle a few minutes to talk? Gen says she needs some help with dinner.”

Eva looks a little suspicious but hops off the couch to go help with dinner as Nate sits across from me in an armchair.

“Alright,” he deadpans. “What’s going on? What’s driven you away from home?”

“I haven’t been driven away from home,” I scoff, crossing my arms and legs and pretending that’s not a deeply defensive move. “I just figured I’d spend some time with you all before the wedding?—”

“Oh, please. You’ve been distracted for the past two months, Chris. I know something is up. And I have a feeling it has to do with that woman Autumn.”

His use of that woman offends me, especially since they met. I open my mouth to defend Autumn, but snap it shut quickly.

With a sigh, I give in. “Alright. You’re right, I owe you an explanation.”

Over the course of the next twenty minutes, with Eva and Gen banging around in the kitchen, I spill. All of it. Autumn’s ex stalking and threatening her, inviting her to stay at my place (insisting, actually), and the hooking up, which was totally accidental. Nate rolls his eyes.

“Sure it was.”

“It was. I didn’t mean to…for it to…”

“Get serious?” he asks. “Just how serious is it, Chris? You do remember what we found out about her, right? Who she is?”

I purse my lips for a moment. But I’ve already come this far, so I fill him in on the rest—her visit to Stephen in prison, her confession, her insistence that he didn’t do it, and the similarities between that crime and the one that was just committed.

“Wait, her ex was on camera? In the same bar where another girl’s throat was slit?”

“Yeah. Almost the exact same MO. Weird, right?”

Nate goes back to his characteristic brooding, stroking a few-days-old scruffy chin that I’m curious if Gen will let him keep.

“I hate to say it, but it sounds like she’s on to something. You might’ve put away the wrong guy.”

I nod solemnly. “I know. With everything that’s happened, I’m pretty sure, at this point, that her ex is the one who committed both crimes. And I’m looking for a way to pin him. It’s just…”

Frustrated, I recount the day at the precinct, the words Kieran said. How adamant he was that Autumn knew something.

“Do you think she does?” Nate asks, tipping his head. I know my brother well enough to know he’s past his initial distrust of Autumn, and now he’s fully invested. He might be a generally distrusting guy, but he’s got a heart of gold. He’ll help her just as readily as I’m willing to.

“I don’t know. She says she doesn’t, and I think she’s telling the truth. But I’ve been so blind to everything. There’s a chance that I’m wrong and she’s playing me.”

Nate snorts. “More than she already has.”

We sit in silence for a while, both of us mulling things over. Then Nate waves his hand like he’s waving off an insect.

“Eh, none of it matters.”

“What?”

“It doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter if she knows something or not.”

“Sure, Nate. How do you figure?” I ask sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

“Well, either way, you’re certain Stephen Cooper didn’t kill that woman and Kieran Tate almost definitely did. In fact, it sounds like the evidence is adding up.”

“Right, I just need a nail in the coffin.”

“So whether or not Autumn knows something, you have a wrong to right.”

---