Page 83 of Defending Casey

They had only gone half of a block when he spoke up again.

“What?”

Before she could even begin to understand what he was talking about-

“What are you hiding from me? Did she see you?”

“Uh-”

Brian turned to glare at her, and she had to point at the car in front of them.

“Look out!”

He managed to avoid the car, but almost hit the man crossing the street in front of it. Casey’s heart was in her throat, and she turned to look in the backseat. Thank heavens that Nora was still sleeping. It wasn’t a peaceful sleep, her daughter’s brow was furrowed and her lips tense, but she was still asleep. Brian was upset and she didn’t know how he’d react if Nora woke up and started questioning what was going on.

With a soft sigh, Casey willed Nora to sleep on. There was always a chance that someone would realize they were gone and then, she knew that Hale would come for them.

Brian was muttering under his breath and his gaze swept both sides of the street. “She didn’t see us. She would have waved or something. Right? She didn’t see us. Did she?”

If he was thinking clearly, he’d realize that the motions would only draw attention to them.

Casey hoped that Sparrow had seen them, but she knew that Sparrow hadn’t. Her attention was fixed on the job, maneuvering her vehicle through the cars safely. Sparrow was really, really good at what she did because she had that kind of focus. If she had seen Casey’s car, she wouldn’t have thought anything was strange.

Sunlight sliced through the gap between buildings and flashed across the inside of the windshield. Casey’s heart fell and her stomach clenched. Her pendant.

When Brian swerved it probably slipped free of her blouse.

She lifted her hand to move it, drop it back into the neckline of her top, but she never had the chance.

“Is that it?” He smirked at her in the rear-view mirror as he turned onto Iron Mountain Road between the Firehouse and the Post Office building. “That necklace he gave you?”

Casey held the pendant between her thumb and forefinger and tried to wrap her head around his question. “How-”

“That’s where I’m working now. The furniture store, Casey. I saw you two come in. Saw the way he put his hands on you. The way you let him.”

She shook her head. They hadn’t done anything scandalous in the store, but the way Brian was worked up it didn’t seem to matter what had actually happened. Brian was getting worked up all on his own.

“That’s the necklace, right?”

She wasn’t sure if she should lie. Maybe if she said the right thing, or-

Brian’s knuckles made a glancing blow on her chin as he reached for her. The bright light of pain stunned her for a moment and all she felt were his fingers against her skin and then a searing pain across the back of her neck.

The golden chain dangled from the sides of his clenched fist. He opened his hand and looked at the golden pendant, sneering at it before he set that hand on the steering wheel. “You fall for this kind of stuff? It looks cheap.” His laugh was more of a snort. “Well, you don’t have to worry about this anymore, Casey.”

It didn’t seem like it took more than a second. As she sat there, wondering what he meant, she heard a sudden gust of air as the window opened and Brian cast the necklace out of the car.

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