Or had another disciple of Cox’s reared their ugly head to poison the world with their “correction?”
CHAPTER TWO
Derek Hammond sighed and leaned forward on his desk.He rubbed his temples, trying not to dwell on the ache growing behind his left eye.That always meant a migraine, and the last damned thing he needed right now was another migraine.
“Two days,” he muttered.“Two freaking days.I can’t have two freaking days?”
In two days—if all went well, Hammond Realty would close a deal with Heartland Pharmaceuticals that would see them purchase a property of Hammond’s in Oklahoma for nearly seven times its current market value.This would come with some extremely favorable terms on future purchases from Hammond and would probably guarantee that no future deal with the company was remotely profitable, but that wouldn’t matter because this deal would give him the money to pay off every cent of his debt and reestablish his company’s reputation in the real estate market.
And with that settled, he could work on his own reputation.
His phone buzzed, and for an absurd moment, he actually hoped it was Sarah.It wasn’t, of course.It was a spam email from a political research poll.
He set the phone down and laughed.Maybe due to his exhaustion, the laughter lingered longer than it should have.Oh man.Imagine that.Missing Sarah.
But he did miss her.Deep down, he wished he’d never strayed.In some ways, he regretted that more than the other thing, the Big Dark Secret.The secretary he’d banged was by far the best sex he’d ever had, but if he could do it all over again, he’d leave all of her secrets to the imagination and go back home to the woman who was the only person to stand by him after the Big Dark Secret, the only one to believe him when he said he didn’t do it.
But like many an overworked, overstressed man struggling to keep the wheels on a boat overladen with debt and leaking from more holes than a cheese grater, he’d caught sight of a thin sliver of black lacy panties and decided he wanted to know what was underneath.And after three wonderful nights of utterly breathtaking sex, he’d come home to pictures of himself enjoying aforementioned sex courtesy of some fat slob of an ex-cop PI.
And divorce papers.
So yeah, he missed Sarah, but there was no way in hell she’d be texting him at midnight for any reason other than to tell him their dog, an Irish wolfhound named Nemo that he’d loved better than he’d loved his wife, had died.
The worst part was that hehaddone it.That was the Big Dark Secret.The worst lie he’d told his wife wasn’t that he was working when really he was gripping his secretary’s ass while her legs hooked the back of his own ass.The worst like was that he had done that other thing he swore he didn’t do.Everyone else was right.She was wrong to believe him just like she was wrong to believe that he’d never stray from their wedding vows.
He heaved a sigh and got back to work on the contract.A thud sounded downstairs, but he barely noticed it.Juanita worked late sometimes, and while she kept his house spotless, she did so very noisily.He actually didn’t mind it.If she didn’t make any noise, then the house would be silent, and he wasn’t sure he could handle that without losing what little remained of his mind.
The door opened.He frowned, not lifting his eyes from the contract.“That’s fine, Juanita, you don’t have to clean the office today.”
The voice that spoke wasn’t Juanita’s.It was higher-pitched, reedy, and monotone, like a damaged voice recorder stuck on a pitch setting halfway between Alvin the Chipmunk and Robot from the oldLost in Spacetapes he sometimes watched while visiting his grandmother’s house in Boise.
The voice was almost comical, but the words it spoke were far from it.
“He who sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.”
The blood drained from Derek’s face.His head snapped up, and when he saw the figure in the doorway holding the knife, he knew his past had caught up to him.His Big Dark Secret had stepped out of the shadows, and now it was time to pay the piper.
The figure stepped forward.The knife moved.Fire exploded in Derek’s chest.
Justice had found him at last.
CHAPTER THREE
Kate ran through about a thousand different ways to say what she wanted to say on the flight up to Portland.They were all stupid.Not even close to workable.
Hey, I know we’ve been feeling things about each other…
Hey, not at all trying to say anything about Cheryl, but…
Marcus, if you tell me you’re happy with her, I’ll never bring this up again, but I have to ask…
Marcus, please leave your wife, run away with me, and let’s have nasty, steamy sex in the back of my car.
It bothered her that the last statement wasn’t the dumbest one she’d come up with.
By the time she reached her car, an old beat-up SUV she’d bought for a surprisingly small amount of cash, she had decided to give it up.This was stupid.Everything she wanted to say was stupid because this, this entirethingwith Marcus was stupid.He was her partner.Her friend.Her confidant sometimes sorts of, but not anything more than that.She was lonely, even more so after things didn’t work out with Mike, and she was projecting those feelings onto Marcus because he was a guy she liked and trusted and who happened to be in her life.
And he wasmarried.Capital M-A-R-R-I-E-D.And who was Kate to say that he wasn’t happily married?She didn’t know that.She barely knew Cheryl.Marcus, like most law enforcement officers, kept his personal life away from his professional one, so although he’d been dating Cheryl since before they met, Kate had only met her once, and other than during a few serious incidents, every attempt she made to talk to Marcus about her was deflected or rebuffed.
