Vindicate (Recovered Innocence #1)(22)

He studies me as though he’s trying to get a read on me. “You and Cora?”

Me and Cora. There are no words for me and Cora. “Not really,” I answer truthfully.

“Huh.” He does that quiet thing again where it’s like he’s trying to do a mind meld with me or something. “It’s because of me, isn’t it?”

“It’s because of a lot of things, but yeah, mostly you.”

He takes a moment to process this. “Ask me anything you want. I’ll answer. You can call. I get phone privileges once a week, so you don’t have to drive out.” He stands. “Don’t let her get away with that shit. I’d give up the rest of my days for just one more day with Cassandra.”

He disappears through a door before I can form a response.

I walk out of the prison into the sunshine to find Cora leaning against my car. Her head is bent over her phone. I walk straight up to her, lift her chin with a finger, and kiss her. She doesn’t react at first, and then she’s melting into me. This is the first time I’ve kissed her with her body up against mine. She feels so damn good. I move closer, pressing her between the car and me. She’s not very experienced, but I don’t care. I like it. She’s a very fast learner. Kissing her has been all I’ve wanted to do for weeks, and now that I am, I’m imagining so much more. I want to take her clothes off and lie down next to her. I want to explore her body and make it mine. I want so many things with her.

I break the kiss and look down at her, rubbing my knuckles across her cheek. She’s so damn beautiful. I get lost sometimes looking at her.

She wraps her arms around my waist. “What was that for?”

“Would you go out with me tonight?”

“Did Beau tell you something? Do you have a new lead on Edith Wheeler? What did he—”

I press a finger to her lips, cutting her off. “I’m asking you out on a date.”

“What? Why?”

The fact that she has to ask makes me wonder if she’s ever been on a date. “Because I want to pick you up at your place, take you out for dinner, and kiss you good night.”

“I was thinking of talking to a friend of Beau’s tonight who knew Cassandra pretty well—”

I silence her again. “Tomorrow. Tonight you’re going out with me.”

“What the hell went on in there? What did Beau say? Did he—”

“I’ll tell you over dinner.” I walk over to the other side of the car and open her door. “Wear something pretty.”

She climbs in and glares up at me. “I don’t know what the hell happened in there or what Beau said to you, and I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know.”

I close the door and get in on my side. It’s a long ride back and a long time to dodge Cora’s questions. I turn up the radio and take her hand.

“Just enjoy the ride,” I tell her.

Beau’s whispered declaration of love for Cassandra haunts me. Somewhere out in the middle of the nowhere desert I decide I’m not ever going to give up on Cora.





Chapter 11


Cora


Something pretty. I don’t own anything pretty. I own useful and comfortable, and that’s about it.

Leo makes me leave the office earlier than I want to. He’s going to pick me up in an hour and a half. I don’t know how it got this far or why I haven’t stopped it before now. I shouldn’t be going on this date. I shouldn’t want to be pretty for Leo and I shouldn’t like him as much as I seem to. That last thought has me wondering again—how in the hell did this happen?

The other day I caught myself staring at him instead of at the computer screen. What’s the matter with me? He’s somehow wormed his way in through the cracks in my defenses. And the thing is I never saw it coming. There was nothing overt or forthright about his approach. He stole in like a thief and dismantled all of my defenses against him. I don’t protest at all when he takes my hand or hands me something I was just about to look for. I answer when he calls. I let him kiss me.

I pull up to my friend Jamie’s house and park. She still lives with her mother in the house she grew up in. Someone else lives in the house I grew up in. Some new family, pressing new memories into the walls and pushing my family’s out. Dad moving out during Beau’s trial was the beginning of the end. A few months later I came home from school to find a For Sale sign in our front yard. I never told Beau they sold the house. I didn’t have the heart to.

Jamie answers the door, chewing a wad of gum as big as her tongue. I don’t know what it is with her and gum. It’s some kind of oral fixation I don’t want to know the roots of. People say we look alike, but personality-wise we’re opposite in every way. Somehow we work. I don’t question it. I just roll with it.

“I’ve got just the thing.” She yanks me into the house and tows me down the hall to her room. It’s a mess—clothes everywhere. She pulls a couple dresses out of her closet and holds one up to me. “I like you in black, but not this one.” She tosses it on the bed and holds up another one. “This could work.” She hangs it on the door of the closet. “So tell me about him.” She does some more rifling through the racks.

“His name is Leo.”

Her head pops out. “Leo Nash?”