Chapter 8: Under One Roof

By six o'clock Marlo had moved into Cade's third guest room with two suitcases, a stand mixer and a baseball bat.

"You said somebody cut your brakes," she told him at the front door.

"Yes."

"I brought a bat."

"I see that."

"I also brought banana bread. It's a two-part plan."

Cade looked at her for a long moment.

Then he took the mixer out of her arms.

"Second door on the left," he said. "Thank you for coming."

"You're hot and you're polite," Marlo said to me over his shoulder, in a stage whisper. "I hate it."

Two officers had already been through the garage.

They had photographed the brake line, shaken their heads and left a card.

Cade had paid for a second security man to sit in a car at the end of the drive.

My ribs ached where the seat belt had caught me, and my hands would not stop trembling.

Cade noticed.

He noticed everything.

"Come on," he said after dinner, when Marlo had gone upstairs to unpack a rolling pin.

"Where?"

"You're freezing. You need a hot shower."

"I can shower alone."

"I know you can."

He took my hand anyway.

In his bathroom he turned the water on, and steam climbed the glass.

He stood behind me and slid my sweater up over my head.

His knuckles brushed my ribs where the bruise had come in, and he went very still.

"I should have driven," he said.

"You'd have died."

"Better me."

"Don't say that."

I turned in his arms.

His eyes were dark and wet and furious, and I put both hands on his face.

Keep reading free with an account. Start QB! Look what you made me do! from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.