Page 8 of Unburied

“I—”

“When was the last time you made time to talk with her? Huh?” She poked him in the chest. “I was the one who moved all the way down here because she knew she couldn’t count on you.”

Harrison tried to intervene. “All right, let’s just calm down and⁠—”

Elijah’s face flared bright red as he glared at Vivi. “I won’t let this happen.” He turned to Harrison. “You can expect a call next week.”

With that, he stormed out of the room, leaving Harrison and Vivi in stunned, awkward silence. Guilt rose up, along with regret. He was upset, and she never should have said the things she did, even if they were true. He was just lashing out, and she happened to be the closest target.

Vivi finally tore her gaze from the empty doorway and swallowed hard. “He’s right, I⁠—”

Harrison shook his head as he closed the lid of the laptop. “Ellen had very specific reasons for doing this. Elijah has his own life, his own family.” He offered a little smile. “Ellen loves you very much, and she wants you to be taken care of.”

Vivi knew Ellen did, and she appreciated it, but it filled her with guilt at the same time. Ellen had given Knox money to start Vantage. This was her way of taking care of Vivi. She blew out a breath. “Thank you for letting me know.”

The house wasn’t technically Vivi’s yet, not until Ellen passed. But one thing was absolutely certain—she couldn’t leave now.

CHAPTER

FOUR

Knox slid a file folder Mason’s way and gave him a little nod. As soon as he got back to his computer, Mason knew he’d find an audio file to match the paper copy he held in his hands. Though most of the words made sense, he occasionally missed something, and he couldn’t afford to slip up. Dyslexia was a nightmare.

He could memorize anything and was full of trivial information that no one would ever care about. But hand him a book and tell him to read it? That was a hard no. The more stressed he became, the worse it got. The letters and numbers jumbled together until they were almost unrecognizable. It had gone undiagnosed for most of his school years without a mother around and a father who didn’t care about them as long as he and his brother kept their asses out of juvie.

On top of his inability to decipher words, he had been a troublemaker. The teachers had shoved him into special education classes and left him to flounder, unwilling to deal with him. It pissed him off because he knew he wasn’t stupid, even though the other kids had teased him mercilessly. He got tossed out of school for more fights than he could count, and he skipped so much school that he barely graduated.

He refused to play sports for fear of looking like an idiot if he got confused between his left and right. He could have learned the plays through muscle memory, but to be put on the spot? It was something he hadn’t been willing to risk at fourteen.

He hadn’t figured out what was wrong with him until his sophomore year of high school. His girlfriend, Samantha, mentioned her brother being dyslexic. When he inquired about the symptoms, he found that he experienced a lot of the same things.

He looked more into it and finally spoke with the school nurse. She quietly reached out to a teacher willing to tutor him, and with his help, he was able to control it well enough that he got into the military and left home the summer after he graduated.

For the first time in his life, he wasn’t the kid from the wrong side of the tracks. He did well in the Marines, and he and Samantha planned to get married once his tour was up. Except, it hadn’t quite worked out that way. About a year and a half in, he found out she was sneaking around with some other guy. When he confronted her, she blamed him for being gone despite the fact that they’d talked about it repeatedly.

After Samantha’s betrayal, he turned his focus solely on his work in the military. He had quick, easy hookups but never anything serious. He didn’t need that in his life. He couldn’t stand to be cheated on again, passed over for some other guy who worked an average nine-to-five.

The girl from the hotel came to mind. Those several hours he’d spent with Virginia had played on loop in his mind for the past forty-eight hours. He wasn’t sure he’d ever enjoyed a woman so much.

The way she’d made him feel was dangerous in more ways than one. But maybe it was a sign. She’d stirred something inside him when he’d thought his heart had no room for anything serious. Life growing up had been tumultuous, to say the least. With his bipolar mother, they never knew which side of her they would get. His father was constantly on guard. It wasn’t really a surprise, but it hurt when she took her own life when he and Miles were twelve.

It seemed like all the women in his life left without a second thought. A woman like Virginia was long gone, and even if she came back through, all it could ever be was a short-lived affair. He wasn’t the settling-down type.

Besides, she was obviously brilliant, and she deserved way better than him. He had a good job but a lot of baggage. He’d never be able to give a woman like that what she needed.

He cursed himself again for not getting her information before she left the hotel Saturday morning. But they’d both stuck to the original agreement. She never asked his name, and he hadn’t offered it up. But maybe he could find her. There couldn’t be too many women named Virginia, right? Even if she lived on the other side of the country, he could…

What? Ask her to consider a long-distance relationship based on one night? He must be out of his mind. She’d given no indication of wanting more. He had no idea who the woman really was or where she lived. But that didn’t stop him from wanting to reach out to her, no matter how crazy it sounded. Maybe she lived close by. Maybe she would⁠—

A pen hit him in the chest, ripping him from his thoughts of the little brunette bombshell and making him jump.

He winged the pen back across the table at Knox, who hiked up a brow at him. “Nice of you to join us again.”

“Sorry.” He fought the urge to slouch down in his seat like a kid. “My mind was… somewhere else.”

Knox nodded. “Any news on Morrison?”

He shook his head. “I spent Friday night at the Hilton, got a few images of them together. Tom Morrison was at the bar for a while before she showed up. I wasn’t able to follow them out of the bar.”