Page 53 of Skeletons in the Closet

It was a near thing, and I sucked in a breath, shaken by what had almost happened.

Tallus didn’t move or flinch, yet my hand hovered an inch from his mouth. I was hot and cold at the same time. Fire and ice. Poison ran through my veins. I shook with fear and anticipation. I boiled with rage.

Tallus’s wide hazel eyes stared into mine without blinking. They radiated a calmness that was so out of place with the situation I wasn’t sure how to process it and thought I was seeing things.

My heart jackrabbited. A whomping sounded in my ears as blood pumped too fast through my body. I wanted to apologize for almost decking him. I wanted to scream in his face to never fucking touch me unexpectedly when I was caught in a vise likethat, but how was he supposed to know where my head was at? How was he supposed to understand the power of Leroy Krause?

I wanted to go back in time to before I hunted Tallus down to help with the case. I was a mess. I would always be a mess, and he didn’t deserve to be part of it.

I lowered my fist to my lap, still trembling, still with labored breathing.

“Should we step in?” Tallus’s voice was a quiet contrast to the roar inside my head.

Step in?

It took a second for me to process the question. I peered back at the arguing couple, but Beth had escaped her abuser, and Sean was alone on the front stoop, still shouting as Beth backed out of the driveway and drove away.

Once she was gone, Sean kicked a ceramic flowerpot, sending it crashing over the edge of the stoop. “Bitch,” he yelled loud enough the rain didn’t cover it. I recognized in Sean the essence of a violent man. I knew the signs. I knew the results. He peered along the street in both directions, knowing others might have seen him in the act. The abuser never wanted to be caught. He didn’t notice us in the Jeep.

Sean’s aggression explained a lot. If Beth had been stepping out with Noah, Sean could be why. Also, if Noah had felt threatened, Sean could be the reason why.

Unhappy, abusive marriage. A woman seeks comfort in the arms of another man. Man finds out and goes ballistic. I’d seen this story play out many times before. It was…

“D?” Again, Tallus’s voice penetrated my noisy thoughts. At least he knew better than to touch me that time. “We’re gonna lose her.”

“What?”

“Beth. She drove away. We need to follow, remember? It’s why we’re here.”

“Oh. Shit.” I fumbled with a shaky hand to start the engine, struggling to get my head on straight.

Sean had gone back inside the house, and part of me wanted to knock on the door and give him a taste of his own medicine.

I put the Jeep in gear but didn’t know which way to go. I hadn’t seen anything beyond the look in Sean’s eyes and the violent way he’d grabbed Beth’s arm and popped her on the side of the head.

“That way.” Tallus pointed. “To the stop sign and take a left. I got her license plate number.”

I followed Beth, gripping the steering wheel with both hands as I worked to calm down. We caught up with her a few blocks from the house. It was a good thing her neighborhood was quiet and filled with stop signs. It slowed her progress.

The sun was almost down, and thick cloud cover brought the night before it was scheduled to arrive. We drove for twenty minutes before Beth pulled into the parking lot of a Motel 8. I turned into a strip mall next door, angling the Jeep so we could watch where she went.

A lone parking lot light cast a washed-out yellow glow across the puddled ground. Beth parked and ran into the office, emerging a minute later and glancing around. Eight cars occupied the motel lot, but all of them seemed empty. Beth veered toward one of the rooms, knocked, and was greeted by the shadowy form of a man. I couldn’t make out his features. He was taller than her, had a wide midsection, and might have been bald. It was impossible to be sure in the dark.

Beth collapsed in the man’s arms, and he hugged her for a long time. Her shoulders bounced, which told me she might be crying. It stirred more anger, and I didn’t have an ounce of sympathy for Sean if Beth truly was fucking around. The indistinct man encouraged Beth inside and closed the door, effectively shutting us out.

“Fuck. They couldn’t have met at a restaurant?” Tallus spoke my thoughts out loud.

I moved the Jeep to the Motel 8 parking lot, securing a spot at an angle to avoid being seen from the office but with a clear view of the long line of exterior entrances to the rented rooms.

“It’s interesting, though,” Tallus said, breaking the ice after we’d been there a few minutes.

“What?”

“Sleazy motel. Secret meeting. Is she fucking this guy too? He called it the old haunt. It was hard to tell, but he seemed a lot older.”

I grunted a nonresponse.

I couldn’t think about Beth. I was still processing my actions from earlier. My flying fist. The near connection. Tallus seemed to have let it go, but I couldn’t. I felt ten kinds of ugly for almost hitting him. My gut soured and churned until the southwest chicken bowl threatened to revisit. It took effort to keep it down.

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