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I try to pull open drawers and cabinets with no luck. I understand why the office door was unlocked now.
“Belle?” I hear Maddox call from the other end of the building.
“I’m over this way,” I say, breathless, rushing out of the office before I’m caught. I have no idea how I would explain nosing around in Chet’s office without looking suspicious.
“There you are.” I’ve been done for like ten minutes, but I couldn’t find you. I never realized how easy it was to get turned around in here.
“You make one wrong turn, and you can’t figure out how to get back,” I say with a nervous chuckle, hoping he doesn’t catch on.
He grabs my hand and leads me around the building, showing me different rooms and pictures. He’s so proud of himself, as he should be. We don’t get too personal with each other, but I know he didn’t have things easy growing up, and he’s made something of himself now.
“This is really nice, Maddox. You should be proud of yourself.” He looks over at me with a smile.
For a split second, it’s almost as if we’re two normal people. It’s like we’re not the two toxic people that we actually are. It’s almost as if we’re a regular couple starting a life together.
Normal isn’t something someone like me has in their future. That’s not my destiny. The only thing in the cards for me might be turning into ashes at the bottom of a pile of rubble in a burnt down trailer.
The white picket fence with kids and a husband hasn’t ever been in the cards for me.
Chapter 20
Maddox
There’s something going on with Belle. Don’t get me wrong, she’s always cold and distant, but it’s even more so now. I can feel her slowly pulling away from me. I don’t think there’s any way to prevent it from happening. I know that’s how she was when I met her. If there’s one thing about Belle that I do know, it’s that she’s honest. She isn’t afraid to tell you exactly how she feels, even if it hurts your feelings.
It’s a blessing and a curse.
Since we’ve been in California, she’s been hiding something. That’s not like her. I fully intend to get to the bottom of whatever is going on.
I’m not stupid. I know that even if I do find out what’s going on, that doesn’t mean she will just magically fall in love with me, and that this will end with some ‘happy ever after.’
In this story, we're the villains. The villain doesn’t get the storybook ending. We don’t deserve it. We deserve each other, but that doesn’t mean it will be sunshine and roses.
“You okay?” Her voice interrupts my thoughts.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Just have a lot on my mind lately. We have a couple of projects that really need to get finished and not a lot of time to get them done.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Depends. How good are you with numbers?” She cocks her head, studying me.
“What do you mean?”
“I need someone to look at our books. I need to make sure everything's adding up like it should be, but I also need to be on site helping the guys. I can’t be in two places at once.” I shrug. I don’t know enough about Belle to know if she is good with numbers.
“Let’s bring everything home tonight. You can walk me through what you need and see if it’s something I can handle,” she says so nonchalantly, like it’s not out of character for her to offer to help with something in my life that doesn’t involve throwing a body in a creek.
“Don’t look at me like that. I owe it to you for letting me live with you.”
“It’s not like you’re my roommate or something. You don’t have to pay bills. I’m in love with you.”
“Can we not do that right now.” She throws her hand up, trying to stop me from saying anything else.
“I thought we decided we were going to be honest with each other? Even if it was something we didn’t wanna hear.” She flips me off, walking back towards my office, and I laugh.
We’re just gathering up the last of the paperwork when I see Chet pull up the driveway.
If I wasn’t so in tune with Belle’s body, I would have never noticed, but I am. Her body stiffens, just slightly. I glance down at her fingers that are tightly gripping the strap of the bag I just handed her. Her breathing has kicked up just a small notch. These are small, tiny things that the normal eye wouldn’t even catch.
