Page 106 of ILY
He gestures for me to sit in front of a tablet with one of those really heavy, military-grade cases on it. “I also have something to confess.”
I blink at him. “What? That itwasmy aunt in the conservatory with the lead pipe?”
He laughs and leans down to kiss right under my ear. In spite of all this, it makes me shiver. He sits down after, and oh, his face looks serious.
I’m not sure I’m ready to hear anything more.
“I found your cousin’s number, and I video called him.”
“You called Rain?”
He nods. “He was willing to talk. He was upset but kind about it. He also remembers an incident with your aunt that might be the night she sealed up the cellar, which means we could have a date on her last possible victim.”
Holy shit. Rain has never mentioned a word to me like that before. “Is…did he…see something?”
“Nothing concrete, but enough to traumatize him. He said he was never alone with his mom after that.”
Shit. I feel terrible. How did I never notice it was that bad? Though, to be fair, I was rarely around. But goddamn. Has he suffered in silence all these years?
I make a mental note to call him when I can.
“I didn’t want you to be upset that I involved more of your family.”
I stare, then scoff when his words hit me. “Babe,no. I don’t give a shit about them. I don’t want to live in some secret murder house, okay? Fuck, I don’t even know why she left this to me. It’s…it feels mean.”
He reaches out and takes my hand. “I don’t know if we’ll ever figure out her motivations now that she’s gone, but what we can do is let the team do their job to find what they can. Maybe we can give the families of those victims peace.”
“Yeah,” I breathe out. “What do I do?”
“Sign the consent forms. Let them tear this place to the studs if they need to. We will rebuild when it’s over and everything is gone.”
“Okay. I can do that.” I swallow thickly. “Then what?”
He meets my gaze. “I’ll send the forms to my boss, then we’ll go upstairs and pack everything you can fit into my car that you don’t want anyone going through or destroying.”
“Okay,” I whisper, and I can tell he misses it, so I lift my hand and sign it to him. “And then?”
“And then I take you back to the hotel and spend all night making you forget this is happening,” he says in a low voice.
Heat rushes through me, and god, just being with him is good enough, but knowing he will take my mind off it is even better. I reach for the table, and panic hits me, and I freeze. “Shit.”
His eyes widen. “What?”
“Don’t let me forget to pack up my drawer with my dildos. If some detective goes through those, I will fucking die.”
His eyes glint. “You have a drawer full of dildos?”
I shrug, and my ears go hot. “I was lonely for a long time.”
“Well, that’ll never happen again,” he vows, then leans forward and draws a touch along my jaw. “But you don’t have to be lonely to have fun with those, do you?”
My hands are trembling as I yank the tablet close and scribble my signature on the highlighted lines. And for the first time since all of this started to become real, I am not shaking from fear.
I trip up the stairs to get to my room, grabbing a large suitcase from the closet.
“Can you grab the other little one? It’s on the top shelf. For the dildos,” I explain to Thorne, whose eyebrows are nearly in his hair.
“Sure thing.”
