Page 2 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

Forever and always,

Joel

Six years ago we had planned to run away together. He was going to take me to LA. We had big dreams, the two of us. Until he decided he didn’t want to be a we. He was probably a screenwriter in Hollywood by now. I wouldn’t know. I didn’t own a TV. And I never went to the movies. I barely left the freaking house. He had never needed me to accomplish his dreams. All I'd ever done was hold him back.

I stared down at the page, still confused about what possibly could have changed in the several hours between him writing this note and the time that evening that he skipped town early

without me. But in my heart I knew. He had figured out my secret. And abandoned me. I needed him more than ever and he had abandoned me. Big lies have big consequences. My mom’s words rattled around in my head again. She was certainly right about that. The problem was, I never meant to lie. I was always going to tell him. I was just waiting until he whisked me away from this town like the knight in shining armor I thought he was. Yup, he was most definitely a hotshot in Hollywood by now. I wasn’t much of a dreamer, yet I had believed every word out of his mouth. Surely the box-office numbers would reflect his master storytelling.

I tossed the letters back in the box. They weren’t the reason I had opened up the floorboard. A few harmless notes from an ex weren’t incriminating. All they meant was that I was a creepy broken-hearted loner in the woods. No, the letters weren’t the incriminating thing hidden beneath my floorboards. It was the handgun that I was worried about.

Chapter 2

Tucker

Cops and firefighters were already swarming the scene, ruining any chance we had at gathering untainted evidence. Not that I was expecting any evidence. It was probably a gas leak. Tragic, but just an accident. Case closed.

I pulled up to a house on the opposite side of the street and put my unmarked Dodge Charger in park. There wasn’t anything to be done except wait until the fire was under control. I was drawing close to the end of a twelve-hour shift, and this mess would be better handed off to someone who wasn’t dead on his feet. Or the cops could just handle it. There was no point in sitting here counting down the minutes.

“Think the captain will care if we leave it to the night shift?” I asked and turned to my partner.

“She was the one that requested we get our asses over here,” Damien said. “So I’m guessing yes.”

Fair enough. I drummed my thumbs on the wheel. It took me a minute to realize that the song stuck in my head had played the first night I had met Julie. I remembered dipping her in my arms and her smile making it impossible to stare at anyone but her. I used to be able to look forward to going home to a warm bed after a long shift. Until I realized that I wasn’t the only one she’d been sharing our bed with. My hands tightened on the wheel.

“You have to stop thinking about Julie,” Damien said.

“I wasn’t.”

“You were.” He put his feet up on the dash. “She sure as hell isn’t thinking about you, though, so why are you wasting your time?”

I ignored him.

“When was the last time you got laid?”

“Recently enough.” It was a lie. It had been four months since I broke it off with Julie. And I hadn’t found anyone else I was interested in. I didn’t have time to date anyway.

“You’ve been hard to work with ever since the two of you split.”

“You’ve been hard to work with ever since we got paired up.”

Damien put his hands over his heart. “That hurts, man.” But then he immediately smiled. “Not that I believe it for a second. I’m the best thing that ever happened to you.”

I shook my head. “It’s questionable that you think another man in your life is the best thing that ever happened to you.”

“You’re switching my words around. I said that I was the best thing that ever happened to you.”

“Yeah right.”

“Let’s hit the bar after this. Get you out of your slump.”

“I’m not in a slump.”

“So you have gotten laid since your split?”

It wasn’t worth the time lying to him. We could both sense a liar a mile away. It was part of the training.

“Tucker.” He drew out my name in a weird seductive way. And I was worried that he was right. If I thought him saying my name was seductive, I was most definitely in a slump.

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