Alone (Bone Secrets, #4)(28)

“She’s tough.”

“Can you blame her?” Seth clamped his teeth together. He’d said too much. If this cop didn’t know Tori’s history, it was because Tori didn’t want people knowing her past. It was no business of his to share her story.

Callahan’s gaze sharpened, and Seth felt him shift into cop interview mode. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Forget it. If you know nothing about her, then that’s how she wants it. But maybe you haven’t given her a chance. The Tori I know took a bit of digging to understand. Have you ever put any effort into talking to her? Have you ever asked her a question outside of a case?”

Callahan stared at him. “I don’t recall.”

“Probably not. Next time ask her what she does in her spare time. And don’t let her push you away. It’s a natural reaction. Keep at her and I promise you’ll be surprised at what you find under that cool exterior.”

“You do know her.”

“I know her well enough to understand she was dealt a shitty hand a long time ago. A few hands, actually. She grew those prickly defense spines for a reason. A good reason.”

Callahan looked fascinated. “Holy shit. The ice doctor has a history. And you were part of it, weren’t you?”

“Fuck off.”

Callahan grinned. “You aren’t the uptight medical examiner you pretend to be, are you?”

“Uptight? I seem uptight?” Seth didn’t know how to take that.

“Sure. The morgue is your kingdom, right? No one has the right to question your skills?”

Annoyance bubbled up in his chest, and he fought the urge to tell the detective off. Instead he counted to five and stared down the detective, comprehension dawning. “Jesus Christ. You had me going there. Did you think I’d spill Tori’s history because you pissed me off?”

“Ah, it was worth a shot.” Callahan winked at him and finished his beer.

Seth chuckled. “I don’t ever want to sit across the interview table from you.”

“A bar works just as well sometimes. You’d be surprised what people want to reveal. They’re usually looking for an excuse to talk.”

“Tori’s story is her own. Get to know her, and maybe she’ll let you in on it.”

“But my understanding is that you two haven’t seen each other in a long time. Maybe you aren’t the Victoria expert you think you are.” Callahan pointed at Seth’s chest.

The detective had a good point. There was a lot Seth didn’t know about the woman he’d once planned to spend the rest of his life with. If he was going to stay in Portland, he and Tori needed to talk.

But would she ever let him inside her walls again?





Eighteen years ago


His hands shook. Seth stopped and held them out in front of him, palms down. Definite shakes. They looked like he’d been drinking for hours; he felt like he’d been drinking for hours, but was experiencing only the bad effects, not the good. He shoved his hands in his coat pockets, continuing down the sidewalk, pushing through the rain. It wasn’t cold outside, but damn, he couldn’t get warm. He wanted to vomit.

A night of tossing and turning and stressing and thinking had left him exhausted. He’d skipped his classes today, unable to focus. The rest of the day wasn’t going to get better. He’d asked Tori to meet him at the coffee shop, the same place he’d first approached her eight months ago. Eight months. It’d been a whirlwind. His senior year had sped by with top grades and a gorgeous, smart girl on his arm. He’d been accepted to the Stanford School of Medicine, and Tori planned to follow in a few years. They knew the path was going to be hard and lean, but they were excited to do it together.

But a wrench had just shattered their plans, and he had to tell Tori today.

Just tell her. Tell her and be done with it. You have no choice.

Some people would say he had a choice. He didn’t have to do what he was about to do. But Seth knew if he ever wanted to look himself in the eye, he had to make the right choice. His life wasn’t the only one at stake. There was an innocent involved and he had an obligation.

He would be a better man than his father. His sperm donor.

That was the type of man Seth would never be. His father had walked out on him when he was two, leaving Seth’s mother with no means of support. Seth’s biological father was the perfect model of the deadbeat dad. No courts hunted down child support. If they had, it would have been impossible to squeeze money out of a man with none. Growing up, Seth had lied to his friends, saying his father had died when he was an infant. His father never turned up to prove him wrong. He’d spent a few sleepless nights, worrying he’d be caught in the lie, but it never happened. His mother didn’t remarry. She’d been crushed by her husband’s deception. Her life became a stereotype of depression and alcohol, and she decided she couldn’t handle a teenager.

Seth went to live with his mother’s brother, whom he’d never met. Dave was single. He’d grudgingly taken the boy, angry at Seth’s father for abandoning and mentally destroying his sister.

“Your mother was always a little soft,” he’d told Seth when they met. “I knew nothing good was going to come out of her shacking up with that * father of yours. But now here you are. Let’s see if we can make a man out of you.”