G lifted his. “To fewer dead ends.”
“Amen to that.”
We clinked our glasses, then tapped them on the table, and drank.
After we finished eating, Gibson challenged me to a game of pool.
“Fifty bucks, I can beat you.”
“You’re on. You grab a table, I’ll order another round.”
I ordered the next round and paid the bill so the server could free up our table.
G racked the balls. “I’d say we’ll flip for it, but I don’t have any coins.”
“Neither do I. Rock, paper, scissors?”
“What are we, five?” He laughed, already warming up his hand for the game.
“Best two out of three.”
My paper beat his rock.
Expecting him to throw paper, I threw scissors and lost.
Thinking he wouldn’t be dumb enough to throw rock a third time, I made a fist. And lost to his flat hand.
Ryan Gibson was one big, badass, scary motherfucker, and he’d just reminded me that his brain was far more dangerous than his brawn.
He sank three balls on the break; the two solids meant he’d given me a freebie by sinking my first stripe.
We dropped more hints about how we’d have to start over on our investigation.
They’d mean nothing to anyone without a working knowledge of the case.
We hoped that the right person would overhear.
Chapter 27
Nina
Back in my room, I curled up on my queen sized bed and cried into my pillow while clutching the grainy photocopy of my parents’ picture. My mascara stained the pale yellow case.
I studied the blurry image, memorizing every line around my father’s eyes and the curve of my mother’s smile.
My parents.
I always assumed they gave me up because they didn’t want me.
Austin said he thinks they did it to protect me.
Could he be right?
I cried as I replayed the last few days in my mind. Last week I’d been a normal twenty-six-year-old working her way through college while taking care of her sick grandmother.
Now my entire world was upside down. Inside out. Backwards.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t normal. Or boring.
