Page 53 of The Devil's Torment

“I found a friend of Mum’s from years back. She’s only a few miles away. I called her yesterday and asked if we could go visit her. Figured she might have an idea what that key opens. She agreed, and that’s where we’re going.”

My life’s been so chaotic these last few weeks, I’d almost forgotten the little mystery Xan and Imogen uncovered a few weeks ago. Xan’s obsessed over finding what that key opens. Me, I’ve been far more consumed with hunting down Elizabeth’s murderer or murderers, but it seems Christian’s stayed on the case.

“Did you mention the key to her?”

“No. I didn’t want to lead the witness.”

I roll my eyes at his over-dramatization. “Then, for all we know, it might be a pointless trip.”

“It might… or it might not. Besides, what else are you going to do? Your wife couldn’t wait to get away.”

I heave a sigh. Ribbing each other is what we do, but it doesn’t mean I have to sit and take it. “Fuck you.”

Rolling his eyes, he gives me another shove. “Come on. Sooner we go, the sooner we’ll get back.”

“I have meetings,” I grumble, although I’m in no hurry to get to them. All I can think about is my afternoon siesta with my sexy wife.

“I canceled them.”

My nostrils flare as I let out a frustrated breath. “Jesus, Christian. I’ve already missed a ton of important shit.”

“Slacken your butt cheeks, brother. Nothing’s that urgent.”

He walks off, knowing I’ll follow. “Does Xan know?”

He stops, waits for me to draw level, then shakes his head. “He’s too close to this, too infatuated in finding out a truth that might never surface.”

“You think it’s a wild goose chase, too?”

He doesn’t answer until we’re outside the house and the door is closed behind us. “Xan believes this key holds some kind of importance, and as our brother, I’m willing to go along with his need to find whatever it opens. Do I think we ever will? No, I don’t. Even if we did catch a break, do I think it’ll give us new insight into why Mum killed herself? Also no. We know why she did it. She couldn’t live with what happened to Annabel. I’m not sure what else there is to find.”

A spear pierces my chest, the agony of knowing I wasn’t enough for her as fresh now as that day I went looking for her and found her lying beneath the water in her bathroom. She and I were incredibly close. She meant everything to me.Everything.Finding out she hadn’t felt the same has haunted me for years.

Pushing aside the memories that engulf me in a cloud of the blackest grief, I check my watch. One-fifteen.

“How far away is this woman?”

“Twenty minutes.”

“Fine. I’ll come. But I have to be back by three at the latest. Two forty-five is better.”

Christian angles his head, studying me. Then he laughs. “I get it, Mr. Newlywed. Don’t worry, I’ll have Cinders home by midnight.”

“It had better be a lot fucking sooner than midnight,” I growl.

I made a promise to my wife, and I damn well intend to keep it.

ChapterTwenty

VICKY

“How was the honeymoon?”

Paint and fabric samples are scattered all over the coffee table of the living room, but Imogen’s plea for me to help her choose which ones to decorate the baby’s nursery was clearly a ruse. And from the piercing look she’s giving me, until I give her a few details I’m not escaping her clutches.

“It was…” I search for the right word, but I’m not sure there is one to describe my surprise at the version of Nicholas I got on my honeymoon. “Different from what I expected.”

A crevice pops up between her eyebrows, and she cants her head to one side. “Different, how?”

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