Dead to Her(12)

These raggedy shells of humanity disgusted her on a visceral level, but she needed her disgust. Jason would never understand that. Sure, he’d had problems with his father, but he’d never been poor in his bones. He’d come from the right blood and the right blood rallied around and helped pick him back up when Maddox Senior had done the honorable thing in his disgrace and killed himself.

She caught herself. That was blunt, even for her. Everything was setting her on edge. She felt claustrophobic. The plastic gloves on her hands felt too tight, suffocating her skin. The weight of this life, one she’d done so much to secure for herself, had at some point settled around her neck like a noose.

Jason. She was embarrassed by her behavior of the day before. It wasn’t like her to either feel so weak or show weakness like that. To allow the jealous paranoias of a younger woman. She cringed when she thought about it. Maybe she’d go and surprise him. Yes, that’s what she’d do. Take him somewhere lovely for lunch, somewhere decadent and not like this. Try and get some of the good of their relationship back.

As soon as her shift was done, she freshened up in the staff-only restrooms and then rushed out to her car, eager for this run-down part of town to evaporate behind her—out of sight, out of mind.

He was her husband. Hers. Thoughts of this little bitch weren’t going to sour that. She’d make it right. Keisha was no one. Jason might want her physically, but no matter who she was married to, Keisha didn’t fit in and she never would. As Marcie put the car in drive, she tried to ignore the quiet voice at the back of her mind that whispered, But why would she ever want to?



“He never goes for lunch before two.” Marcie frowned, quietly fuming. It was only one thirty and there was no sign of Jason in his office. She’d tried his mobile, but it was going straight to voice mail. So much for her big romantic gesture. Where the hell was he?

“He was with Mr. Radford,” Sandy, the partners’ assistant, told her. “They left about thirty or forty minutes ago I guess.”

“Did he say where they were going?”

“No, just lunch. Did you try his cell?”

“It’s been a bit glitchy. I can’t get through.” How stupid did Sandy think she was? Or was she enjoying seeing Marcie on the back foot? Damn you, Jason, for embarrassing me.

“Oh, Elizabeth was here earlier!” Sandy exclaimed. “She probably made the reservation, since I didn’t. You could try her?”

Back out in the heat, still annoyed and sweating, Marcie wondered if she should leave them to their boys’ day, but after the morning with Virginia immersed in the grime of the city, she wanted to see Jason. To settle any choppy water beneath them. To feel like she belonged again, not a cuckoo in the nest like Keisha. And what else was she supposed to do? Go home and drink wine alone? She dialed.

“Hey, Marcie!” Elizabeth’s voice crackled, distant, as she answered. Still chirpy though. Ever chirpy, that was Elizabeth. “What can I do you for? You’ll have to talk loud, I’m in the car and this hands-free thing doesn’t work so good.”

Typical Elizabeth. Surely she could afford something better, or get William to pay for it. She probably didn’t want to be a bother. Elizabeth survived in this luxury jungle of theirs by not being a bother. “I’m looking for Jason. Wanted to surprise him. But Sandy said he’d already gone for lunch.” Why did she feel so ridiculous asking? It’s not like she normally knew where Jason was every minute of every day. It hardly screamed problem in marriage. In fact, if she did know where he was all the time, that would be more of an issue.

“You’re not with him?”

“Obviously.”

“Sorry, sorry.” The irritation in Marcie’s voice must have been clear even if the line wasn’t. “It’s just that I thought you would be. I booked the table for all four of you. The Terrace at Carmello’s. For one o’clock? They’ll still be there I imagine, if you want to go find them. The food is great but the service is slow, but William said to book somewhere nice to sit out.”

Marcie was barely listening and muttered a thank-you before hanging up. She was supposed to be there? So why hadn’t Jason called?

All her unease. Her gut feeling that Jason was pulling away, wanted someone who wasn’t her. She was right. There was something to it. Heat rose through her. She looked at her watch. It was nearly two. All four of you. Jason and Marcie and William and of course Keisha. Keisha, Keisha, Keisha. Sandy hadn’t mentioned her though, so maybe the men had decided to go on their own? She dithered by her car until the heat got too much.

Perhaps she was overreacting. There was a reasonable excuse. It’s only lunch, she told herself. Stop making a deal out of it. Just go. If the men were on their own she’d be charming for one drink and then leave them to it.





9.

The men weren’t on their own.

“Ah, there she is. The wife!” That blunt, strange accent.

Marcie’s blood chilled, turning her stomach to ice water. Keisha was sitting between William on one side and Jason on the other—a very startled Jason, Marcie noticed as her face flushed pink in a surge of something she couldn’t blame on the weather. He quickly leaned back in his chair but a moment too late to hide that he’d been leaning in, hanging on every one of Keisha’s words, so much so that he hadn’t even noticed his own wife standing by the table. Splinters of her heart broke off and she wanted to stab him with them. Stab both of them.