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“Cartman, Carmine—same difference. I’ve known you a few months now, honey, and I’ve yet to see that guy. He doesn’t call, he doesn’t write, he doesn’t visit. He may as well be a ghost, but that fine specimen in the kitchen? He’s real, he’s tangible, and there comes a point where you have to give up the fantasy for the reality.” She paused and glanced down the hallway as Corrado headed back in their direction. “And it doesn’t hurt when the reality looks a hell of a lot like my fantasy.”
Corrado stepped in the room, slipping his phone in his pocket as he gazed at Haven. “You should be safe here, but I’m going to have the locks replaced.”
A tense silence fell over the room as Kelsey’s eyes clouded with suspicion. “Did something happen?”
“Someone broke in,” Haven mumbled. “They were here when I got home.”
Kelsey’s eyes widened. “Did they get anything? Did they hit my place, too?”
“She scared them away before they could make it that far,” Corrado chimed in. “No harm done.”
Haven nodded, confirming the lie. She looked at the clock as another bout of tension swept through the room. “I need to get ready. We have somewhere to be.”
“I’d rather you skip it today,” Corrado said.
Haven shook her head. “I can’t.”
He gave her a curious look. “Can’t, or won’t?”
“Won’t.”
He nodded as if he had expected that answer. “Proceed, then.”
Haven left the two of them alone in the living room to get dressed. Kelsey was sitting on her couch eating when Haven returned, but Corrado was nowhere to be found.
“He stepped outside,” Kelsey said before Haven had a chance to ask. “Got a call from what I assume is his wife. Major mood killer.”
Haven shook her head. “He’s not your type. He’s a serious person.”
“I noticed,” she said. “He’s intense. You’re not in, like, WITSEC are you?”
“What?” Haven asked.
“WITSEC. You know, witness protection, where the government gives you a new identity so gangsters can’t find you?”
Haven cracked a smile at the irony, considering it had been the gangster to give her a new identity to hide from the government. “No, it’s not like that.”
“So how come I’ve never seen him here before?”
“He doesn’t live around here.”
“Where does he live?”
“Why are you so nosy?”
“Because I am,” she said, laughing. “How did you meet him?”
“He’s a . . . friend of the family.”
“Really? He looks really familiar, like I’ve seen him somewhere before,” she said, standing. “It’s strange. He is a cop, though, right?”
“Why the questions?” Haven asked.
She shrugged. “I’m just trying to figure out who he is. Is it a crime to want to know about my friend’s life? You don’t talk much about it.”
“There’s not much to tell.”
Kelsey rolled her eyes. “Whatever, let me get dressed and we’ll go.”
