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“Then it should go to your stepbrother.”
His head tilts to the side. “Why?”
I cross my arms and prop my elbows on the counter. “Because the only important information you could possibly need from a dead guy is something that will help the cops in his murder.”
His eyes narrow even further until they’re little, accusatory slits. “Are you implying that I don’t want to find my brother’s killer?”
I shrug a little to hide the fact that I hadn’t thought muchabout it until this very moment. In fact, I’m starting to see it much more clearly. Derek and Neil didn’t get along. There’s legal evidence of it. And the fact that Derek received absolutely nothing from his parents, nor would he receive anything from him in the will…Yeah.Yeah, that’s suspicious as hell. “If you don’t want the binder turned over to the cops, then yes.”
He leans a little more so that he’s in my face. Again, I don’t back down. I don’t know why, but I’m a little protective over my ghost. I may have said that I don’t want to find out what he wants, but as the days go by, it’s obvious that he wants something. The question is: Do I feel an obligation to him? I don’t have an answer to that yet.
And then there’s the matter of Cole’s job and living situation.
“I assure you,” he begins slowly, threateningly. “I want nothing more than to find my brother’s murderer. I even have a reward out for it.”
I scoff. I know by now that Derek is cheap. He hoards his money. The only reason he’d put an award out for his brother’s killer is if he knew they’d never be found. Why else would he have a reward for evidence to find out what happened to a brother he hated? To a brother that was leaving him nothing if he happened to pass on?
Yeah, I see right through that.
“Well, you’re not getting the binder. The binder will be turned in to the police.”
His hand snatches out so fast that I gasp when his fingers wrap tightly around my upper arm. “Youwillgive me the binder, Tegan,” he hisses.
I try to yank my arm out of his grasp. “You’re hurting me, Derek.”
“What’s going on?” a deep, familiar voice asks beside me. I glance over to find Cole glaring at Derek’s hand. Heraises his dark gaze to Derek, and dare I say it, a little nervous flicker crosses Derek’s face.
“She won’t give me the binder,” Derek explains defensively as he roughly removes his hand from my arm.
I rub at the skin that will surely have bruises. “If the cops want you to have it, they’ll give it to you.”
He opens his mouth to say something, but Cole holds up a hand. I don’t peek at Cole to see what sort of look he’s giving him, but whatever it is, it silences him in a second. “I don’t ever want to see you touch her again.” Cole’s voice is deep and dangerous, and it sends a shiver over my body.
“I-She –” Derek stutters and points at me.
Cole leans a little into the counter. “No excuses. Lay another finger on her and I’ll break it off.”
“You can’t threaten your landlord like that!”
“And how do you think the cops will take it when they find out you’ve threatened your tenant over what could possibly be evidence?” Cole asks so quietly that I barely hear him. It’s then I realize that we’re drawing attention, and if I don’t wrap this up quickly, people will start to ask questions. He leans away from the counter, and a little more loudly, he adds, “I don’t know why you want it, Derek, but you’ll have to fight the cops for it.”
Derek’s face pales a smidge, making the dark circles under his eyes stand out. God, he looks horrible. Whatever illness he has is wasting him away. For a split second, I almost feel bad for him.
Cole gently takes my elbow and steers me away from the counter. I follow him without a fuss for a few reasons. One, because I know Cole is close to the breaking point and he needs me to be his rock in this moment. Two, because I want the hell out of here as much as he does. Bynow, everyone has stopped to stare at us. I can feel their eyes crawling all over my skin as we pass.
Instead of cowering under the weight of it, however, I remove my elbow from Cole’s hand and twine my fingers with his. They can stare all they want. They can speculate, draw conclusions. It’s Cole and me against the town, and I won’t give them any reason to believe otherwise.
Chapter 19
Cole Garner
Cricketssing as Tegan takes my hand while we stride up to her front door. She’s only let go of it when necessary since we left the bowling alley. I know why, too. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. She saw my true side, a small piece of me that I keep buried, and because of that, she has to know I’m on edge.
With her fingers between mine, it keeps my demons at bay. I saw Derek’s hand grasping her forearm, the look on his face, and I almost lost it completely. For a second, my past had come back to haunt me. For a second, I became that seventeen-year-old boy.
But her hand. Her warmth. Her comfort. It reminded me that she was okay, that the situation was handled, and with her hand, I could breathe. It was the exorcism of my ghosts. I don’t know if she knows how grateful I am for it, how much I don’t actually deserve it but how greedily I’ll take it.
I open the door for us and flick on the lights as we step inside.
