Page 47 of Edge of Secrets

You’re not getting her. Fuck off and die, shithead.

Oh yeah? Burke would die for that. Antonella would, too … but much more slowly.

First, she would pay for everyone’s sins.

Chapter Seventeen

Duncan

It was the oddest sensation. I observed it as I drove to the parking garage, parked in my spot, and tipped the bewildered garage attendant. Like a helium balloon was inside me, lifting me up. Floating me along. People were giving me strange looks.

Of course, I realized. I was grinning like a fool. My face hurt, for fuck’s sake.

But damn, was it so abnormal to be in a good mood? Was I that bad normally?

The middle-aged lady behind the coffee counter in the building lobby gave me a strange look when I tossed a few bucks in her jar and told her I liked her as a redhead. It was the truth. She’d looked like hell as a blonde.

Damn. It was like nobody’d ever seen a guy in a good mood before.

I headed up to the office. The grizzled divorce attorney in the elevator gave me a dark look and harrumphed. Maybe dealing with divorce all day gave a guy gastritis.

I strode into the lobby. Derek was there with piles of paper on his desk, briskly collating something. He dressed for a Saturday, in jeans and a T-shirt.

“Morning, Derek,” I said.

Derek looked at me as if I’d sprouted wings. “Uh, hi, boss. Everything okay? You’re, uh, later than usual.”

“It’s all good. By the way. I really appreciate you working Saturdays,” I told him.

Derek’s big eyes bulged even more than usual. “Uh, it’s no problem.”

I clapped him on the shoulder as I passed his desk. “You get paid extra for Saturdays, right?”

“Time and a half.” Derek’s face was almost fearful.

“Good. I’ll tack on a bonus. You deserve it. Keep it up.”

The hell? Derek didn’t blink an eye when I snapped and barked at him, but a simple compliment scared him to death. Come to think of it, all of my die-hard Saturday employees were giving me a nervous look and a very wide berth. I started glancing down to see if my shoes were mismatched or my fly unzipped. Everything seemed to be in order.

I shrugged inwardly. Fuck it. I was having too good a time to worry about it.

The phone began to ring the moment I walked into my office. My private line. A fully formed fantasy leaped into my mind, that it was Nell calling to tell me she was in a good mood, too. This daydream was quickly deflated by the recollection that Nell did not have my office landline number. Answering the phone became suddenly less appealing. I sighed and grabbed the phone. “Burke here.”

“So you finally came in to the office!” My mother’s voice sounded even more chirpy than usual. “What on earth is going on?” She paused expectantly.

“Nothing at all,” I said blandly. “Same old stuff. Business as usual.”

“Well, if you don’t tell me, I’ll just have to find out some other way. Have you talked to Elinor?”

My good mood was about to be put to the test. “No, Mom. I haven’t had time yet.”

“Duncan, it’s so important that she change her mind before she makes decisions she can’t go back on! She’s determined to rebel. Please, you have to back me up on this?—”

“I’ll call her,” I said. “As soon as you get off the phone.”

I extricated myself from the conversation as quickly as I could, and punched in Elinor’s number without even thinking about it. Might as well get this over with quickly. My mother was a piece of work if not managed carefully.

Elinor’s roommate, Mimi, picked up the phone. Loud, incoherent music pulsed in the background. “Who is it?” Mimi shrieked.

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