Page 54 of Waste of Worth

Mindful of the pain in his ribs, Dino took careful steps, leaving the bedroom behind as he came out in the open of Karen’s apartment. He wasn’t surprised to be there, though he was surprised that she hadn’t caved and taken him to a hospital somewhere through the night. He’d woken up on and off throughout the night to find Karen at his side each time, her soothing voice assuring him he was fine to sleep … and safe.

Almost like she knew.

Maybe she did.

Dino leaned in the entryway of the kitchen that separated the dining space from the small living room. The apartment didn’t have hallways, and it wasn’t like it was big enough for him to hide inside.

He found Karen sitting in a large chair that seemed to swallow her whole, next to the one window in the living room that overlooked Wicker Street. She barely reacted to his presence, but he could see in the way her gaze dropped ever so slightly that she knew he was awake, and just a few feet away.

Dino counted the seconds—too many seconds—that it took for Karen to finally speak.

“Jeremy helped me to get you here. He won’t say anything, so don’t worry about it.”

The cook, she meant.

Dino’s jealousy flared to life again, and he couldn’t help himself when he asked, “Did he drive?”

“No, I did.”

“So he doesn’t know where you live?”

“What does that even matter? I needed help to get you inside. Did you want me to leave you on the damn pavement since you made it perfectly clear I wasn’t allowed to call the cops, Dino?”

“That’s not what I mean.” Dino glanced at the door, noting it was locked. Jeremy obviously wasn’t in the apartment now, and that meant good things. “Has he been here before?”

Karen’s brow furrowed. “What?”

“Jeremy—has he been here before?”

“No.”

Dino did smile at that, pleased. “Good.”

“Are you … back up, did you just smile about that?”

Why lie?

“I did. I like that. I don’t want other men being here or with you. Why would I be happy if that were the case?”

Karen stared at him for a long while, taking him in like she was seeing him for the first time all over again. “I’m not with other men, Dino.”

“Good.”

He didn’t have to kill anyone.

That was good for all sides.

“And Jeremy is gay.”

Oh.

Well, then.

“I didn’t know that,” he said.

“Seems there’s a lot between the two of us that we don’t know,” Karen replied.

Yeah, there it was.