Page 12 of Shadows of Before

He rang the doorbell twice more and was swearing like a sailor when it opened. Dressed in pajama bottoms and a T-shirt, hair a mess, she said, “Sorry, I was asleep. I got home late.”

Hmm. “Where did you go after work?”

“I drove out to the dump.”

“Why?”

“Are you coming in or not?”

He walked inside. “Make me some coffee.”

Her brow furrowed.

“Please, Katie. I want some and it’ll help you wake up, too.”

“All right.” She set the pot up and when it started to drip, she sat across from him. He shocked himself when he took her hands. “Why the dump?”

“I found a dead bird on the front seat of my car. It was mangled and messy. But it was bigger than most birds I’ve ever seen.”

“I heard there’s some suspicion of cock fighting going on in Westwood.”

Her eyes widened. “I’ll bet it was a rooster.”

“Not sure the kind of bird matters.” His gaze narrowed. “Maybe it was Landry or Lawrence who put it there.”

“Of the two of them, I’d bet Landry would get involved with something like cock fighting.”

“Report it.”

Her gaze narrowed on him. “I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of making a fuss.”

His fingers touched the now smaller bandage on her hand. “Have you forgotten his role in this?”

“No. But he couldn’t have planned for a knife fight in the reception area.”

“So you’re going to ignore the bird?”

“I said I was.”

Fuck. He bolted up. “Come on, let’s go upstairs.”

“What about the coffee?”

“Forget it. I wanna fuck.”

She stood. “Fine by me.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the kitchen. Upstairs. Once there, it got very wild very fast.

* * *

After Will left, Katie went for a run. She used to belong to a gym but had to give it up, like she had to trade in her car and sell her little house. The latter made her throat close. But she didn’t make enough money now to keep it either. She’d been demoted from detective to officer status.

At least running was free.

She started off by walking and increased her speed. Once she got to the path around Westwood, she went faster. And faster. And forgot about everything. How satisfied Annie and Maisyseemed at the eclipse party. How Will had gotten so angry he’d stalked upstairs. She didn’t mind rough sex and so she went with him, but by the time he got to her bedroom, his passion turned…gentle. Nowthatshe didn’t like. But she couldn’t stop him.

She cooled down and walked to the end of the path and out onto the street. A man and woman wheeling a stroller came toward her. Up close, she recognized Jeff Lawrence. They stopped. “Hi, Kate.”

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