Page 227 of Show Me

“What happened?”

“Problem with the 8th Street delivery.”

“What kind?”

“The expensive kind.”

I close my eyes. “I’m on my way.”

I shove my phone into my pocket and head for the door, already preparing to put out a different kind of fire.

Chapter One Hundred Twenty

Ruby

I step around the corner into the kitchen. And stop. Someone is standing at the counter. A woman. Tall. Blonde. Perfect posture. She turns at the sound of my footsteps.

Lindsey.

For one disorienting second, my brain refuses to process what I’m seeing. Then my stomach drops.

Her eyes move over me. Cold. Calm. Assessing. “Well,” she says softly. “I was wondering when you’d show back up.”

Every instinct in my body screams to run. Except she’s between me and the door.

“What’re you doing here?”

Lindsey glances around the kitchen. “I could ask you the same thing.”

Something about the way she says it makes everything click. The flowers. Chocolates. Poems. Stuffed pig. Rocks through my window.

Stay away from him.

“Oh my God.” The blow to my head. Not Brent. Not Greg. Lindsey.

Something shifts in her expression. Satisfaction. “You figured it out.”

Sweat pools on my palms. “It was you.”

“You made this harder than it needed to be.”

“The rocks through my window?” I don't know why that’s the thing I ask about.

Irritation flashes across her face. “That should’ve worked.”

The air leaves my lungs. “You hit me.”

“You wouldn’t listen.” She says it like that explains everything. Like cracking me over the head was the logical next step after I ignored her warnings.

My gaze flicks toward my phone on the counter. Too far. Lindsey notices. Her hand disappears behind her back. A gun comes out so smoothly my entire body locks.

“Sit.”

I do. Slowly.

Lindsey starts pacing, the gun hanging loosely at her side. “I tried being nice.” Nice? Jesus Christ. “You were supposed to leave him alone.”

“I did.”