Page 35 of Inside Silence
“No, you and I aren’t, but he doesn’t know what really happened yet, because I didn’t tell him. I’ve barely had a chance to process that information myself.”
She drops her hand and turns her back to me, bracing herself against the railing of the deck as she looks out at the view.
“I’m overwhelmed, Nathan. I have had the biggest case in my career land on my doorstep, I’ve got pressure from the mayor’s office to get it solved but I’m shorthanded on deputies, I haven’t had much sleep in a week, and, to top it off, your return to Silence has stirred up a lot of confusing feelings I’m not quite sure what to do with.”
She turns and leans back against the railing, a hint of vulnerability in those pretty brown eyes when she fixes them on me.
“I had no idea he was coming here or I would’ve stopped him. I’m sorry you have to defend yourself against a reputation you didn’t deserve in the first place. I want to set the record straight, not just with Auden, but the whole town. Let them know we failed?—”
I don’t let her finish and cut off her words when pure instinct has me lean in and cover her mouth with mine.
There was no thought involved in the kiss, just an overwhelming need to taste her lips, feel her body against me, to see if we still fit as smoothly as we did a decade and a half ago.
Her arms slip around my neck as she presses her front against mine, and my hands automatically settle in the small of her back, one hand up, and one sliding down to the curve of her round ass.
Yes.
This is what I remembered in unguarded moments when my resistance to dwell in the past was at its lowest. This is what I have been imagining for the past few weeks since I first looked her in the eye again.
This is what I sacrificed years ago, because I was made to believe leaving was my only choice.
I was wrong. As I taste her and feel her breath brush my skin, I know it down to my soul; I should’ve stayed and fought for her.
For myself.
Chapter 11
Savvy
* * *
“Take a breath, Wanda.”
The poor woman is hysterical, and I can’t blame her.
Dispatch called me twenty minutes ago that an incident call had come in from the Rogers’s place. Since our last encounter there, I’d instructed dispatch to call me first for any future disturbances at that address.
Another sleepless night and another interrupted weekend.
At least I got my run in this morning. I needed it to try and clear my mind. Last night’s unexpected kiss had been dominating my thoughts, when I should’ve been focused on my case. Only one kiss that stopped as abruptly as it started when Nate’s daughter came looking for her father, but it had packed a punch. One that made me question everything I thought to be true, and left me feeling guilty.
The crisp morning air on my run went a long way to gaining some perspective, and by the time I received the call, I was buried in the case file I brought home.
I quickly changed into my uniform and contacted Hugo to meet me at the Rogers’s place. I figured I should have some backup—I’m not an idiot—and we showed up here in tandem, prepared to tackle Ben Rogers.
Except, he wasn’t here.
When the judge allowed Ben to be released on bail on the Monday after we booked him for assault, Wanda wisely decided to head out of town to visit her sister and let things cool down a bit. But when she wasn’t able to get a hold of Ben for the past day and a half, she drove back home, only to find her husband gone.
She was sitting on the porch steps when we arrived, rocking back and forth. I left Hugo to check her out while I went ahead inside, sidearm drawn just in case. Despite his truck in the driveway where it’s usually parked, there is no sign of Ben anywhere in the house.
However, when I entered the garage through the mudroom, it was clear something had happened here. A sizable brownish-red coagulated pool of what likely was blood, marked the concrete floor. Laying right beside it was a ball peen hammer, the blunt side coated in the same sticky red substance. I immediately contacted Auden and asked him to call in the crime scene techs.
I may be jumping the gun, since I don’t know what happened here yet, but my gut tells me my worst fears may have come true.
I hope I’m wrong, and there is a simple explanation for this. Perhaps he injured himself, became disoriented, and wandered off somewhere, but either way, I’m making sure all bases are covered.
“Try again, deep breath.”
