Page 82 of The Woman on the Jury

I tried to brace myself for the smell of him all around his closet, but it still felt like a kick right to my libido as I moved inside and smelled that spicy scent that was all his own.

I stole three shirts, wondering what the hell he did about laundry, because even with his impressive clothing collection, he would run out of t-shirts for me to borrow eventually.

It wasn’t until I was on my way out of his closet that something caught my eye.

Well, not something.

A wholestackof somethings.

Little rectangular boxes.

Curious, I made my way over, finding not one or two, but eight smart phone boxes just sitting there.

I knew enough about criminals to know they used a lot of burner phones. But they were always depicted as those cheap ones you could buy and put minutes on and stuff like that. Not actual thousand-plus-dollar smartphones.

I fought with my conscience for all of ten seconds before I grabbed a box and took it downstairs with me.

Obviously, they weren’t hooked up to any kind of service, but after doing some fiddling, I managed to get it hooked up to a phone number via my email service, and was able to call the hospital, chatting with my grandfather for upward of an hour, finding myself glad that he was finally starting to sound a little better, more like himself. Hell, maybe evenbetterthan he had been before, since he was getting treatment for those issues he didn’t even know he was dealing with.

I managed to get to talk to the doctor as well, feeling my heart swell a little as I was told he would be able to move to the step-down facility in another three or so days, depending on how well he continued to do.

It wasn’t until I hung up that I realized that him being moved would mean I was going to have to talk to Cosimo.

I would get there.

Ihadto get there.

I just needed another day or two to really put the whole situation in its place, to stop feeling so raw and exposed about it.

Then everything was going to be fine.

Because, Lord knew, Cosimo wasn’t going to be making a big deal about us having had sex.

Or so I thought.

Until two nights later.

When my locked door flew open.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Cosimo

“Cos, you listening?” Gav asked, voice raised enough to make me think he’d already asked me something else, and I hadn’t responded.

Because, no. No, I hadn’t been listening.

I couldn’t seem to make my mind concentrate on anything, actually.

Or, more precisely, anything other than Halle.

And why she’d boarded herself up in her room every night.

Clearly, she was out during the day. The guards said they’d seen and heard her. She ate the breakfast and lunch delivered. She even ate the dinner I ordered the night before then put away when she hadn’t come out to eat it.

The urge I had to go home early was strong. And that fact was precisely why I couldn’t do it.

I didn’t know what the hell was wrong with me.

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