I grind my teeth, fighting against the pain that’s coming. Betrayal fucking sucks. I should know better because I’ve been on both sides of the equation.
Maybe this is karma.Ho-It-All pipes up, and I want to bitch-slap her into submission. The last thing I need is to remind myself that I probably deserve this.
I stalk toward Bernie’s house but pause at the gate.
I can’t go back inside. Not like this.
The other door flings open, and Moses’s massive body emerges from the car right before it pulls away from the curb and rolls down the street like Satan’s chariot.And maybe it is.
The expression on Moses’s face is hard and unreadable. He stalks toward me and opens his mouth, but I beat him to the punch.
Hands on my hips, I steel myself for war. “You married? Got kids? How many?”
“Mama—”
My head slowly moves from side to side. “Don’t you fuckingmamame like it’s going to make me any less pissed. For the first time in a long damn time,I thought I had something. I thoughtwehad something. And now I don’t know what the fuck to think. So, tell me,where’s your goddamned wife, Moses?”
I’m yelling by the end, but I don’t care. It’s not like Bernie will hear me over her stories, and if Norma does, she won’t interfere beyond sending me a text later to see if I’m okay.
Moses inches closer, holding out a hand, and his wild eyes make an effort to plead his case.
I jerk away. “Don’t fucking touch me. I’ve fucked enough married men. I didn’t need to do it again. So unless you’re gonna tell me right now that Mount is fucking with my head for some other goddamned reason, you’d better spit out the truth right the fuck now.”
“I’m not married. No kids, Mags. That ain’t it. Not even close.”
A giant whooshof relief sweeps through me, but I’m afraid to trust it. “You fucking sure?”
He nods. “Never wanted to be tied to any woman other than you. Whether you believe that or not.”
The knot in the pit of my stomach loosens, but who knows for how long. “Then what the hell did you lie about?”
Moses glances around the neighborhood as a car slows at a stop sign down the tree-lined street. “Not here. We can’t take any more chances. Whoever the bastard is who’s coming at you, I’m not taking a chance he’s gonna find you here.”
He takes a step toward his car, reaching for the passenger door handle ... to open it for me. Then he pauses and turns.
“You want to hear it, you’ve gotta come back with me.”
I press my lips together hard.Like I have a choice.All my shit is at his house, put away when I was naive to the fact Moses has been hiding something from me.
“Fine. But I want it all. The whole fucking truth. Every bit of it.”
“Deal,” he says, gesturing to the passenger seat.
With my head held high, I walk to the car and slide inside. The novelty of it being a Rolls Royce hasn’t worn off, but I’m in no mood to be impressed right now.
Moses climbs in, and the engine comes to life with a growl. “I could fucking kill Mount for that,” he says, gripping the wheel until his knuckles turn white. “Fucking know-it-all asshole. He gets a sick kick out of meddling in everyone else’s lives.”
He’s not telling me something I don’t already know, but that’s not what I’m interested in right now. I want the truth out of the man beside me.
Mount and his motives are irrelevant. He’s not the one who lied.
“What are you hiding, and why the hell did Mount drop that shit on me like a bomb?” I ask point-blank as Moses steers the car away from the curb.
His square jaw rocks back and forth as he slows at the first stop sign and flips on the turn signal. Facing me, he looks me in the eye.
“That night, the night we met ...” He trails off as his chest rises and falls with deliberately slow breaths. “I wasn’t in the neighborhood checking on a family friend. I was there doing a job for Mount.”
I blink three times, processing what he just said. “That’swhat you lied about?” My mouth drops open as I blink some more. “Jesus fucking Christ.” I scratch my head, trying to figure out how that even matters now. “Who the hell cares why you were there? All that matters is that you were.”