Chapter 9: Spokane

Russ's POV

I left once she had fallen back asleep, so I would not have to look at her.

If I had looked, I would not have gone.

It is a six-hour drive from Detroit Lake to Spokane.

I spent most of it telling myself that last night was the stupidest thing I had ever done.

She had started it.

That did not make it smart.

She was my brother's wife, and she was in the middle of the worst month of her life.

And last night I had been inside her, saying her name.

I drove with both hands tight on the wheel and the windows down.

The salon was in a strip mall on the north side, between a nail place and a tax office.

It was called Cut and Color, and the woman inside was sweeping hair into a dustpan at four in the afternoon.

She was about forty, short, with a purple streak in her bangs.

She looked up when the bell rang.

"We're closing."

"I'm not here for a haircut," I said. "I'm Russ Prewitt."

The broom stopped.

"Prewitt."

"Nolan's brother."

"Get out."

"Give me five minutes. I'll stand by the door. I'll leave when you say."

She looked me up and down, as if she was checking me for a wire.

"I've had two Prewitts in my life," she said. "One was a man in a good suit who emptied my savings."

"And the other?"

"His mother, who gave me a check to never mention it."

"She did what?"

"You didn't know that?"

"No."

Her expression softened.

She leaned the broom against a chair.

"Sit," she said. "Five minutes."

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Husband Who Lied to Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.