Page 137 of Right Number, Wrong Man
“Just my feelings… and the deed for this building. In your name.” He waves a hand. “No big deal. The feelings are still the same. And I’ll get a new deed for you.”
“You want me to have theRetro Reeland your apartment?” I squeak.
“That was always the plan.”
“God, I—Fuck.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Listen. I need the truth. All of it, about everything. After Mike’s betrayal, I can’t stand being lied to again.”
“No more lies. Ever. You have my word, Spitfire. Thank you for coming here and giving me a chance to make things right.”
Colt gives me a small smile and reaches for my hand. His palms enclose mine in warmth, and it’s like being touched by sunshine, chasing away the storm clouds that settled behind my ribs since our fight.
“Then start with Justin. I want to know what happened to him,” I demand.
“Cody and I took him to Dad’s old huntin’ cabin. There, I tied him up in the basement and tortured him to death for wanting to hurt you. We sawed his body into pieces and dissolved them in acid.”
My heart pitter-patters. Wow, that sounded way more romantic than it should have.
“Did you find out anything more? Like… why he picked me?” I ask, internally telling the butterflies in my belly to cool it.
“Beyond your extraordinary beauty, I couldn’t take a guess why he chose you.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere tonight,” I warn, but a grin sneaks across my face.
“We did find a book in his bag, belonging to one Elizabeth Mary Burns from Ohio. Cody did some diggin’. She lived with her older brother way out in the countryside. When she didn’t turn up to work as a hotel cleaning lady, the cops did a wellness check and found her at home, stabbed to death with her eyes missing. The brother had hung himself in another room, but his fingerprints didn’t match the knife. Her killer was never found. Therewasevidence of a teenager living in the house, but no birth records and?—”
“You’re not saying what I think you’re saying, right?” I cut in, nauseated. “He said his father killed himself after his mother cheated. That means she was his first victim and… Oh God?— ”
Colt nods solemnly. “Yeah, Justin was a whole sandwich. No wonder he wasn’t all good in the head. That’s another reason why I wanted to spare you the gruesome details.”
“Wait, a sandwich?”
His brows waggle. “Inbred, get it? In bread… it’s a wordplay.”
I shove my elbow into Colt’s ribs, hiding my laugh in exasperation. “Inappropriate!”
His face falls. “But there’s somethin’ else you don’t know.”
My stomach twists into knots. “So therearemore lies.”
“Yeah, and this might be the worst of ‘em…”
52
HAILEY
Colt’s eyes drop.“Halloween when you and Mike… your first time—” His throat bobs as he swallows thickly. “No, wait here. It’s easier to show you.”
He sprints up the stairs, rummages around in the dresser and comes back down, holding a sealed plastic bag.
“The man behind the mask was me.Itook your virginity,” he says. “I didn’t even open the bag once cause I wanted to preserve your scent. To you it’s just underwear, but to me it’s a holy relic.”
I’m stunned out of words as I stare at the pink panties behind the plastic. Of course I recognize the lingerie.
I should feel used. I should get angry again, because this isn’t just another lie. It’s a willful deception he’s kept up for half our lives, and that might really be worse than pretending to be Jax.
But I can’t be mad. There’s only relief.
Relief that I didn’t give my first time to Mike, a man who disrespected me, shamed me for my fantasies, and cheated on me.
