“Cops must not have shut it,” Austin said when we parked the car and reached the open door. “Dumbasses.”
He stopped right before crossing into Hank’s property and turned to me. “You sure you want to come along? You can easily wait in the car. Listen to a podcast or choreograph one of those viral dances.”
I crossed my arms and quirked my lips. “I haven’t found a podcast to hook me, and I’m a terrible dancer, so neither of those things are happening.”
“Well, I’ve got some recs. Here, listen to this one, it’s about a doctor who—”
“Austin, let’s go.”
I brushed past him, walking through the gate and becoming more impressed by just how nice Hank’s house was.
Although “house” may not have been the proper term. This was a damn mansion, with an entirely separate guest house that looked about as big as the house I shared with three other people. The sun, on its nightly descent down the horizon, painted the stone columns and cobblestone driveway in deep shades of orange and red.
Austin went up the steps and stood in front of the two arching gray doors. “Check it out,” he said, pointing up. “A camera.”
I immediately dropped my head. “Uh, shouldn’t we be avoiding the cameras?”
“Don’t stress it. Looks like someone handled it for us already.”
I looked up again and noticed what he meant. The camera had been unscrewed so that it hung off the wall, one of the wires having been snipped as well, floating freely.
“Think that was the killer?” I asked, the question sending an instant chill crawling down my back. Like a hundred little spiders had fallen down my shirt. I shivered.
“Possibly,” Austin said. He raised the key and looked me in the eyes, his jaw set, a muscle twitching underneath the five-o’clock shadow of his. “You ready?”
That was a very good question, and I wasn’t entirely sure what the answer was. This all felt like it was happening at a breakneck speed, even though I’d been living with the looming shadow of this “accident” now for over four years. It felt like every door we opened, metaphorical or not, led to another set of questions, all of which had to do with who wanted me dead.
I leaned in, kissing Austin, flushing my body against his, smashing my lips against his, taking his breath against mine.
And that was all I needed. Austin was all I needed.
“I’m ready,” I said, drying my lips with a thumb, nerves giving way to excitement.
Austin pushed the key into the lock and turned.
19
Austin Romero
I opened the door and wasn’t hit with any alarms or barking dogs. Good first sign. Charlie looked more excited about this than he should have been. I wasn’t incredibly happy about bringing him along, but I already knew that once Charlie made up his mind about something, he usually stuck with it no matter what.
There was another reason I wanted him along, though: safety. I didn’t want to freak him out more than necessary, but Hank’s suspicious death heightened my fears by a magnitude of a thousand. If someone were really tying up their loose ends, then Charlie could very well be the next end that was getting tied.
For now, that meant keeping Char safe, which meant keeping him by my side.
I stepped into the house first. “The cops didn’t even put up any crime scene tape,” I noted, looking around at the seemingly untouched entrance.
Hank may have had tons of money, but he had zero design aesthetic. The furniture went from four different eras in less than six feet of space, and everything seemed to clash with the gaudy gold wallpaper he had placed on random sections of the room.
“Do you remember ever being in here?” I asked, flipping a switch and turning on the crystal chandelier.
Charlie shook his head. “Never. And I don’t think I’d forget this place, with or without amnesia.”
“Okay, well, stick close to me.”
“That shouldn’t be too hard,” Charlie said, giving me a shoulder bump and a wink. “I wanted to slap your ass, but I felt like it could be disrespecting the dead.”
That got a laugh out of me. “We aren’t at Hank’s gravesite, ya know? But yes, the ass slapping can wait until later.” I smiled back at Charlie. This certainly wasn’t the time to get distracted by that glowing aura of his, competing with the gold on the walls, but damn it, I could barely help it. I never thought I’d be by Charlie’s side again, much less during an active investigation, but fuckin’ hell, I wasn’t mad at this surprise either.
Initially, I might have been. When I first bumped into him at the pet store, I certainly was upset. But not anymore. I put all those old emotions to rest and started to allow the new ones in.
Having Charlie here felt right in more ways than one.