Page 78 of The Grump I Got Stuck With

I forced a smile. “Hey, Ken, you want to go build a fort?”

Kenna abandoned her biscuits and skipped to my side, taking my hand. “I love forts!”

I sure hoped so, because when Alistair got back, he was going to lock this place down like Fort Knox. I tightened my hold around her hand, leading her back upstairs to her playroom.

“Can we watch a movie inside?”

“That sounds like an amazing idea,” I said, grabbing a clean sheet from a hall closet.

“You’ll stay with me?” she asked.

“Of course I will.”

Kenna beamed at me, and my heart broke for her because she had no idea it was time to batten down the hatches all over again.

23

ALISTAIR

Jessica wore a jumpsuit as she was escorted into the interview room.

Not the bright orange kind from American movies, but a dull gray one with a faded HM PRISON stamped on the back. She looked a far cry from the dolled-up brunette who had waltzed into my life by dumping a cocktail on my shirt.

“There’s a sight I never expected to see again,” she said as a guard clipped the chain of her handcuffs to the interview table.

I adjusted my tie which suddenly felt strangling. When I’d donned this suit—the same one from my trial with the Voyages board—it had felt like armor. Sitting here now, it felt like nothing more than fancy dress. A false front, and not a very convincing one. It was as if Jessica could peer right past it and pick me apart if she wanted. Pull me back layer by layer until she unraveled my secrets.

How was it that she was the one in official custody, yet I was the one who felt like I’d lost?

Then again, maybe we’d both lost. My eyes did another quick once-over. Her hair—blonde now, she must have bleached it—was lank and greasy, pulled into a low bun at the nape of her neck. Her face was bare of makeup and those curling false eyelashes she’d always loved. Her nails weren’t done. In fact, it looked like she’d been chewing on them. So she couldn’t be having that much fun with those millions she took.

“Would you believe this is all just a big misunderstanding?” Jessica quipped with a sly grin.

“What, you just popped down to the pub for a pint?” I forced out past months of anger and frustration and confusion.

“You know that was never my style. More like to the hairdresser’s for a chat and a cig.”

“And just decided to never come back?”

She drummed those chipped nails against the table. “Maybe I was taking my time.”

I could tell she was darkly amused by this whole thing, and it disgusted me. After all the damage she’d done, her nonchalance was sickening. I curled my hands against my knees beneath the table, squeezing until I had control of myself.

“You look like you’re just bursting to say something,” she said, one eyebrow arched. A muscle in my cheek twitched. She shifted, those handcuffs rattling. “Go on, then. Let me have it. I know you want to.”

“You don’t know a bloody thing about me.”

“I know lots of things,” she said, smug, lips pursed.

“But not enough,” I shot back. “You still got caught. Even though it certainly doesn’t look like you’ve been living large with those millions.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly, and I knew that had stung.

“Was it harder to keep up the hair routine while on the run than you imagined?”

Jessica leaned back in her chair, nostrils flaring as she exhaled. For a beat, she didn’t say anything, just looked at me. I wondered if she hated me the same way I hated her. “You know, I didn’t get to keep most of the money,” she said. “I had people that I owed, so they ended up with a big chunk of it.”

“What a hardship,” I said, voice flat.