Page 14 of Pretty Little Wife

Jared’s work ethic was the problem. It ran at 100 percent all the time. He spent so many hours in the office that no woman could compete. He’d dated a few in more than a casual way during the almost four years Lila had lived there and watched the ritual unravel. None lasted for long. They’d meet, have couples’ dinners, and then Tara would be traded in for Dawn and then Linda. Jared’s bedroom door tended to be a revolving one.

One girlfriend also shared that he liked sex pretty wild. Lila went out of her way not to think about Jared and his bedroom preferences.

She wrapped her fingers around her mug and let the warmth of the liquid seep through the ceramic and into her hands. “I expect Ginny any minute.”

He frowned. “Who’s Ginny?”

“The investigator.”

“There’s already one assigned to look for Aaron?” Jared dumped a second packet of fake sugar into his coffee. “Shit, this is happening too fast. Where the fuck is he? It’s not like him to disappear.”

“Not at all.” Aaron left a note when he went outside. It was one of the little things she’d found endearing at the beginning of their marriage. Since she’d found the videos, everything he did filled her with rage.

“So...” Jared winced. “Did you guys fight?”

She started to reach her hand across the counter in comfort then stopped. A foot separated their fingertips, and she didn’t want to bridge that yawning abyss. “Why would you ask that?”

“Because after two days of him sleeping in my guest room weeks ago I sent him back here to work it out with you.” He lifted the mug to his mouth but didn’t take a sip. “Did you two settle whatever that was?”

Six weeks. It had been just over six weeks since they’d gone from a tenuous peace to a showdown.

An unexpected coolness washed through her. “He didn’t come back to your house again, did he?”

Jared started to talk then stopped. It was a full minute before he tried again. “Aaron refused to give me any details. I got the sense he wasn’t over it.”

Her fault. Jared didn’t use the words, but she heard them as if he’d screamed right into her ear.

She stood up and went over to the long table stretching across the back of the sofa and separating the kitchen from the living area. She grabbed her laptop then returned to the bar. Took the open seat next to Jared. “I was going to look at our bank accounts and his credit cards to see if that would give us a hint where he went.”

“Hey.” Jared put his hand on top of the computer to keep her from lifting the lid. “You can’t think he walked out on you. He would never do that.”

Her gaze shifted from his long fingers to that sleek black watch that cost more than most people paid for six months of mortgage. Jared’s one nod to the mix of money he’d inherited, earned, and stockpiled.

After a few seconds, they fell back on comfortable, unflinching eye contact.

“He should be at school. I don’t understand why he’s not.” And that was the truth. The SUV should be where she’d parked it. He should be in it. Dead but there.

She’d turned the mystery over in her head. Spun it around, flipped it over. Nothing she did, no matter how much shereasoned it out, led to a comprehensible answer. Was he alive? Injured? Playing with her?

“I called everywhere I could think he might go if he needed to clear his head,” Jared said.

That stopped her from fidgeting. She rubbed her hands together under the safety of the bar overhang. “WhatdidAaron tell you about the fight?”

“That you both said some things. I know he regretted however it rolled out. I’m sure he told you that.” Jared started to say something else but stopped when his cell buzzed. He pulled it out of his jacket pocket and read the text on the screen. “Brent wants to take the afternoon off and drive around.”

“Doing what?” She’d assumed Brent would be the kind to fade into the background if things got tough. That’s how he’d mismanaged his marriage until it finally sputtered to a halt. He’d put more into his friendship with Aaron in five hours than he had with caring about his ex-wife’s obvious unhappiness and spiraling depression during the last two years of their marriage. Lila knew because she’d had a front-row seat to that disaster.

“Looking for Aaron.” Jared shrugged. “Brent thinks he might have driven to the lake. There are places he likes to go there, like that one hiking trail.”

Her mind blanked for a second. “You think that instead of going to work Aaron took off on a drive and went hiking?”

“I don’t know, Lila.” Jared pushed the mug away from him and shifted until he faced her. “Look, you can talk to me.”

She could hear the thread of concern in his voice. See it in his eyes. “About what?”

“Anything. I know Aaron can be tough. People think he’s outgoing, but we both know he’s not emotionally very open.” Jared hesitated for a few more seconds before sitting up straight again and leaning away from her. “Are you going to be okay with the detective on your own?”

“Investigator.”

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