Page 64 of Ace

"Pfft," she says swiping her hand in front of her, a clear dismissal of my offer. "I'm not washing his sheets. Boysare gross."

She gives me one more once-over before turning and leaving the room.

"Ignore her," Cora mutters. "I'll show you to your room."

"She called me a boy as if I don't have a full head of gray hair," I mutter as I trail along behind her, doing my best not to stare down at her ass.

She's in jeans, and even though a woman in jeans is no big deal, it's the first time I've seenherin jeans, and the way the woman works denim ought to be a fucking sin.

"She's been with my family since before I was born. She has no family, and she has nowhere else to go," Cora explains as she climbs the stairs.

I imagine she doesn't see the generosity in what she's doing to help the elderly woman, but I don't have to have her explanation to know she's a kind woman. I knew in the first time I laid eyes on her when she was struggling to remain hopeful about her sister but also not to have too much hope because she was fearful of disappointment. She wants the best for people in her life and takes it personally when they're disappointed.

"I'm going to put you in the blue room. It has its own bathroom, so it'll be more convenient for you."

Cora steps to the side after opening one of the doors in the long hallway.

My brow furls as I walk inside. "This is the blue room?"

The walls are a soft gray, the trim a stark white.

"It was blue," she explains. "It was just the blue room for so long, the name kind of stuck I guess."

The room is plain by most standards, providing a bed, dresser, and night table, but the blanket covering the bed looks lush, like something that would make most people want to fall into it and go to sleep.

I hate the place immediately, but I know that has more to do with wanting to be in a different room, her room to be exact.

Those thoughts and feelings have no place in this moment, so I shove them down, finding it hard to hold my tongue and even harder to keep from reaching out to her.

I wanted to tell her earlier that last night meant something to me, but she shut me down before I had a chance. It proved that I had no business having any sort of feelings for anyone. I was sure she felt the same way, but she didn't hesitate to put me right in my place.

"Make yourself at home," she says, still standing on the other side of the threshold. "Dinner will be ready at six. Faye's room is right next door, but you don't have to worry about being quiet. She takes her medicine at dinner, and she's out like a light before Wheel of Fortune is over."

She's gone before I can think of a topic of conversation to keep her near, pulling the door closed behind her.

There was no way to predict that I was coming here with her, but despite that fact, I still pull a mobile scanner from my overnight bag and ran it along every surface in the room and bathroom looking for bugs.

Finding none, I lock myself in the bathroom and make a call.

"How was your flight?"

"Fine," I tell Kincaid. "We're at her house in Columbia."

"Has she been able to make arrangements for the meeting?"

"Not yet."

"She can't put it off too long."

"I know," I say, pinching the bridge of my nose, wondering how things would work out if I had met her at a different time in her life. "Any news?"

"We have nothing more," he says, and I can hear just how unimpressed he is not to have new information for us.

I conferenced him into the conversation I had with Mike yesterday, trying to find a way that we could get to thebottom of all of this shit without having to put her through undue strain, but we all came up empty. The Full Deck Killer has covered his tracks for years, and unlike other killers, he seems just as particular about hiding his identity now as he was during his first murder.

"I'll let you know if we find something."

Chapter 28

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