AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jamie reached for me and helped me to my feet. “I’d say sit down, but…”
“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered. “Outside. I need some fresh air.”
Jamie helped me out to the veranda, guiding me to sit down on the steps. “Do you have anything in there for some water?”
“What do you think?” I snorted, leaning forwards. “There’s some in my car, if I can have that? My keys are just inside.”
He ducked back in, and my car beeped a moment later. I buried my face in my hands as he walked past me.
This was a dream, right? A bad dream?
Declan Tierney wasn’t dead in my sunroom. I hadn’t just had a panic attack. This was all a bad, bad dream, and I’d get pinched and—
“What are you doing?”
There was no mistaking that voice.
That voice wasn’t just familiar. It was one I’d know from a million miles away.
One that, a mere few years ago, I’d have given anything to hear again.
Today? Not so much.
“Getting her some water,” Jamie replied. “She’s just had a panic attack. Here, Charlotte.”
I peered up at him. “Thank you,” I said scratchily, taking the half-empty bottle from him. My lips were dry and chapped, and my throat was raw from the scream I’d let rip when I saw—
Well.
It.
I glugged down several mouthfuls of the lukewarm water before shakily putting the bottle down on the step next to me.
“Better?” Jamie asked softly.
I nodded. I wasn’t sure I could talk—partly because I was in some kind of shock, and partly because I knew that if I did, I’d end up having to talk to Noah, and I hadn’t even looked at him yet.
If he was here, that meant only one thing.
He was a police officer.
And he was about to be all up in my business.
I watched TV. I knew how this went. The one who finds a body is always the first suspect, and I’d had a very public disagreement with Declan some sixteen hours ago.
The odds were not in my favour.
And, also, it was Noah.
The only man I’d ever loved.
My first boyfriend. My first kiss. My first…bedmate.
All in this very building.
Who had I hurt? Why did someone have it out for me? This probably wasn’t the best time to start a woe-is-me rant given there was a dead man not too far away from me, but honestly?
I’d just found that dead man.
