Her Vengeful Rebirth novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Dot's Kitchen

"Not here," I said.

I could still feel his mouth on mine and my voice was not steady.

"Cameron is standing in my lobby."

"If you tell me what I think you're going to tell me, I'll fall apart in a parking garage."

Jericho looked at me for a long moment.

Then he nodded, once, and stepped back to give me room.

"Tomorrow," he said. "Bring Dot. We need her anyway."

"Why Dot?"

"Because she's the only person in that building who's ever told you no."

I hadn't known he had noticed.

He walked me to the service stairs and stood there with his hands in his pockets until the door closed between us.

Dot lived in a narrow brick house in Somerville with a crooked porch and a cat who hated everyone.

It was a big orange cat, and it sat on the kitchen table.

"Don't pet him," Dot said, taking our coats. "He'll only bite you. Sit."

Jericho looked at the table, and at the chairs, and at the cat.

"Is that your seat?" he asked the cat politely.

The cat stared at him with a complete lack of interest.

Dot snorted into her sleeve.

"Oh, I like him," she told me. "Keep him."

The kitchen smelled of burned onions.

On the stove, a pot the size of a bucket was giving off a gentle, menacing bubble.

"It's chili," Dot said proudly.

"It smells like a tire fire," said Jericho.

"It's my mother's recipe."

"Then your mother hated you."

I choked on my water.

Dot pointed her wooden spoon at him and glared, and then she laughed her bark of a laugh and ladled out three bowls.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Her Vengeful Rebirth from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.