Page 54 of Killer Kiss

Isn’t that what I’d convinced myself of while I’d been fucking that woman on the windowsill, knowing Ophelia was watching?

My phone buzzed on the table, and both Ophelia and I looked over at it.

The message preview showed Bert Leddith’s name, the private investigator sending a text beginning with, “Eddie is…”

I snatched up the phone, my heart rate increasing while I scrambled to get the message open. I hadn’t heard a word from the man in the days since I’d hired him to search for Fawn.

“What does it say!” Ophelia demanded, leaning over the table to try to peek at the screen.

I jerked it back out of habit but then relented and put the phone back on the table between us. She had as much right as I did to see any information about Fawn.

And fuck. Maybe it would finally convince her I wasn’t the bad guy here.

At least not this time.

That hadn’t always been the case.

Ophelia craned her neck, twisting it into the most uncomfortable-looking position.

I stared at her. “Do you want to maybe just wait two seconds and I’ll read it for you? Your neck is very ostrich-like right now.”

She glared at me. “Get on with it then. You’re so slow.”

But there wasn’t any real malice behind our verbal spars. For a minute, bonded over a common goal, it seemed we might have put that aside.

“Eddie’s been spotted in Providence,” I read from the message. “With a woman and a man.”

“Fawn?” Ophelia asked hopefully.

I shook my head. “It says the woman was unable to be identified as Fawn from the photos I sent Bert. But he also couldn’t say it wasn’t her.”

“How long ago was this?”

I stared down at the message, skimming over the section where Bert reminded me I owed him more money, and found the bit where he gave the time and address of the sighting.

I glanced at my watch. “It was ten minutes ago. At a café in Providence.”

Ophelia was already on her feet and shoving her purse strap up her shoulder. “I’ll drive.”

I blinked at her in surprise, easily catching her by the door with my longer strides. “Ah, no. I’ll drive.”

We strode out into the bright sunlight, both of us shielding our eyes from the glare.

“Your car is a piece of shit, Augie.”

“True, but I’m the one who knows the address.”

For some reason, neither of us pointed out that we had two cars here. We had no real need to drive together, even though we were going to the same place. I pretended not to notice, and she did the same, eventually following me to my car.

“Ugh, fine. God, you’re annoying.”

I grinned as I opened the passenger-side door for her. “I think you like my brand of annoying, sweetheart.”

“I can open my own door, asshole. Get in and drive already.”

I hadn’t even noticed I’d opened it for her, but I waited until she got in and shut it for her anyway, before running around the other side, half expecting her to jump in the driver’s seat and take off without me before I could get there.

She didn’t though, and I got us on the road to Providence via a shortcut I took whenever I wandered that way to check on my brother.

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