Ari
“That’samazing,Ari.I’m glad your trip went well.”
I sipped my orange juice, then cocked my head to the side and observed Shaw. Something was off about him. I first heard it on our calls when I’d been away, but I shook it off as nothing. After the way he’d fucked me on the vanity last night, I had been sure I had imagined it. But now he’d returned to behaving strangely this morning, barely talking, and I couldn’t even tell if he heard anything I said to him.
If all that wasn’t a sign something was wrong, the way he picked at his breakfast, pushing the potatoes around on his plate instead of devouring them and complimenting my cooking, as usual, was proof enough.
“Did I do something wrong?” I was almost certain I didn’t but I might have without realizing it.
Shaw snapped his head back. “I don’t know, did you?”
“No, I didn’t.” I dropped my gaze to the kitchen table. “He was asking for it.”
“Who was asking for what?”
“The asshole who came to my hotel room. Several times I told him to leave, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
The fork clattered to the plate. “Goddammit, Ari. Did you call hotel security?”
“No.”
He closed his eyes tightly, and the prominent vein in his neck protruded. “What did you do?”
“I might have broken his kneecap,” I said softly. Daddy looked so upset.
“You promised me you would stop this nonsense.” Shaw pushed his chair back and rose to his feet. “We had a deal, Ari. You find another way to cope with this, like calling hotel security and letting them handle it.”
“I didn’t kill him.”
Instead of answering, Shaw walked over to the sink and braced his arms on it with his back to me. Alarm bells rang like crazy in my head. Shaw was acting out of character.
“This isn’t about what I did or didn’t do to that man, is it?” Dread slowly seeped into my bones. “You’re trying to find a reason to be mad at me.” It became painful to breathe. “Are you trying to tell me something, Shaw?” That he didn’t want to be with me anymore? That he changed his mind about us?
I felt smaller than an ant. If Shaw gave up on me, I might as well die. There was no one else but Shaw for me.
He spun around. “No, I’m not trying to break up with you.”
The tension in my chest eased but only a little. “Then what is it? You’ve been acting differently since I got home.”
I scrubbed at his beard. “I-I’ve got something to tell you. I just don’t know how.”
“Just tell me already.”
Whatever it was, it had to be bad for Shaw to be acting this way. My heart skipped a beat. The police hadn’t received any tip that I was responsible for Judd’s death, had they? There was always the possibility Judd’s son would grow a conscience and snitch on me. Maybe I shouldn’t have let him live. After Judd beat him, I just thought he would be relieved I took out the old man for him. Something he would never be able to do himself.
Plus he hadn't seen my face, so how much help could he have been to the police?
“It’s your biological father.”
Oh. My shoulder sagged. Mom must have told him her suspicions that I’d killed the man, but that happened before I told Shaw I would be good. He couldn’t be mad at me for that.
“He was a sadistic bastard, Daddy.” I frowned. “And one of my most satisfying kills. He deserved it even more than Judd deserved his fate.”
“Ari, he’s not dead.”
I laughed, drumming my fingers on the table. An image flashed through my mind of Ken writhing on the floor, the blood seeping from the wounds I’d inflicted on his face. He’d been trussed up like a pig and barely breathing when I left him there to bleed out in the basement. No way in hell could he have escaped.
“I’m pretty sure he is.” I walked over to him. “Is that what you’ve been worried about? I promise you he’s been dead a long time.”