Never In Another Life novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Parking Lot

I worked the rest of my shift with an envelope full of cash in my locker.

At two in the morning I took my break and walked out to the parking lot.

I knew which car was his before I saw it.

A gray sedan sat alone under the one working lamp, engine off, windows fogged.

Declan sat behind the wheel with both hands resting on top of it.

In the back seat, under his coat, Sammy slept with his mouth open.

I knocked on the glass.

Declan rolled it down, and the cold air carried his smell out to me, soap and coffee and something under it that I used to know with my eyes closed.

"You should be asleep," I said.

"I couldn't leave him. I couldn't leave you." He swallowed. "I'll go if you want."

"I want to ask you something first."

"Ask me anything."

I held up Margo's envelope.

He read the front of it without touching it.

"She gave you that?"

"A bus ticket to Vancouver and two thousand dollars. I have until Friday."

His jaw moved.

"Or what?"

"Or she hands Constance's old report to the county."

He shut his eyes.

"I didn't know she had it out," he said. "I swear on Sammy."

"You say that a lot."

"I know."

I stepped back so I could see all of him.

I had rehearsed this for three years in the dark of my apartment, and now every sentence was gone.

So I asked the one that was left.

"How long were you with her?"

He did not pretend not to understand.

He looked at his hands on the wheel.

"Eleven months."

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