Page 47 of Between the Lies

‘Are you happy alone?’ He shook his head. ‘Even introverts need someone to rely on.’

‘Technology is something we can depend on. If we rely on someone else to sustain us… Robert, we aren’t set in stone or made of concrete. We’re bound to come and go. If everything you are depends on this other person, you become so fickle.’

Dickheadson’s words came to him then. The one thing his boss had said that had been true. Oh so bloody true. Robert had been a shite husband.

He placed his elbows on his knees. ‘It’s commitment that ensures we each hold ourselves responsible and go the extra mile. When Anne wasn’t happy, I was supposed to level up and give her the comfort she needed. I failed. I was a bad husband. And the only thing I can do now is find her justice. So I’m going to do it. Because I committed to her. And I hold that commitment to a high standard. I don’t run away.’

‘You make yourself miserable. She’sgone. It’s time to move on.’

Robert jerked his head towards her. ‘Excuse me? I lost mywife!’

‘You did.’ Nina nodded. ‘Yet here you are. Instead of grieving, you’re trying to find her killer. Even when you’ve been told it was an accident. What if itwasan accident?’ Nina waved her hands. ‘Have you thought about that?’

Robert fisted his hands. He knew Anne. They didn’t have secrets. He might not have been there for her, but they hadn’t been so far apart that they didn’t know each other. ‘She had no reason to be there in the middle of the night.’

‘Why would someone hurt her? Did you stop and even think what motive I might’ve had to kill her? I think your mirror has cracked and you can’t see what’s clearly staring back at you.’

Before he knew what he’d done, Robert had taken Nina’s shoulders in a tight grip. ‘Shut up.’

Instead of shoving him away, Nina smirked at him. ‘You wouldn’t be angry if you didn’t agree with me.’

‘Like I don’t know you, you don’t know anything about my marriage.’ Nor did she, apparently, understand what love or marriage even meant. She was a vagabond going through life with a fucking backpack.

‘I know your marriage wasn’t perfect, otherwise you wouldn’t be here, doing the things you’ve been doing. I saw you with Billy. You’re inherently good. You want to help, save others. I’ve met people like you. You wouldn’t have gone against the institution you spent fifteen years of your life serving – on sick leave or otherwise – to find out what happened that night. You just said you weren’t a good husband. So now you’re projecting that guilt into solving a case that might not even exist.’

‘What are you? A people reader? After spending so much of your time avoiding people, you think you know them?’ He had to get up, leave. This woman was driving him crazy. They couldn’t have been more dissimilar. And yet her words held some truth.

Robert rose from the sofa and stalked to the window. Sometime after she’d returned, Nina had drawn the curtains. It held some of the cold at bay.

He couldn’t see outside, and he didn’t need to. All that kept flashing in front of his eyes was Anne’s tear-streaked face after that second miscarriage. And then him turning his back on her.

Could what Nina said hold some truth to it? Was he lying to himself? Looking for someone to blame for Anne’s death when the simple explanation was they had grown too far apart? Maybe she’d met someone who was truly there for her and she’d died in that fire because… her lover had also been there. Or she’d been at the club to let loose, despite how adamant he’d been that it wasn’t the sort of place she’d go.

He didn’t know because he’d stopped being there for Anne when he’d left her weeping in their flat. When he’d taken the night shifts.

Robert crossed his arms over his chest. ‘I’m there for everyone except Anne.’

A hand landed on his shoulder. ‘Robert?—’

He dug into his pocket and handed his wallet to Nina. ‘Open it.’

Nina frowned but flapped the slim leather case open. She gasped when she saw her picture inside, taken from one of the CCTV shots. ‘Why do you have my picture in your wallet?’

‘Finn asked me that. Anne didn’t want me carrying a picture of her in my wallet. After the honeymoon, I stopped pushing the matter. Maybe the truth is that Anne and I had grown so far apart that there was no going back for us. I barely shed tears at her funeral. I just thought if I avenged her death that there would be some explanation for it, that I’d right all my wrongs.’

Nina was still staring at her photograph. Then she snapped the wallet shut and dropped it into his pocket. ‘In this life, we’re alone. We aren’t otters or wolves.’

Robert sighed, his heart thudding now for an entirely different reason. Perhaps she was right. They were ships adrift at sea, floating side by side until the waves inevitably pushed them apart.

He reached for her just as she did for him. Her hands fisted the lapels of his coat; he looped his arms around Nina’s waist and smashed her to him.

Their lips met in a frantic dance, just like they had in the alley. He hungered for her, craved her taste. Spice and fire – that’s what she tasted like.

He angled his mouth and nibbled at her lower lip. Nina groaned and gave him his way.

Robert’s hands slid down her back, over the softness of the leather coat she wore everywhere, then to her arse. He squeezed, earning another moan from her lips.

‘Robert.’ She kissed the spot between his lips and cheek, then his jaw. Her hands found the zip of his jacket and pulled it down.

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