It Wasn't Me - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,38

he portrayed to the world.

If he was…would he have stood there while three strangers cried on him in the pouring rain? No, no he wouldn’t have.

Chapter 10

Why do women wear underwear? Because it’s the law. All manholes must be covered while not in use. Look it up in the city’s by-laws. Number 4 (b)(2).

-Pace to Jonah

Jonah

I pushed open the door to my place and swept my hand out in a ‘come in’ gesture.

She walked past me carefully, being sure not to brush her shoulder along my chest, and took a look around.

I was soaked to the bone, so it was no wonder that she wouldn’t want to touch me.

She hadn’t said a word since we’d made it into the airport after checking to make sure that I was okay.

Her eyes were swollen and red from crying, and apparently while I’d been gone, she’d given the Hacker a piece of her mind when the woman had complained about the long wait to disembark the plane.

Her face moved in all directions, taking everything in.

I wasn’t sure if the last time she’d been in my house if she’d looked around or not, but this time, it felt completely different than the last.

This time she was my wife, and she was looking at her new home.

Last time she’d been a…friend?

“I like the ceilings,” she said softly. “And your cat is on top of that beam right there.”

I looked up and, sure enough, my cat was on the beam that stretched from one side of the room to the other.

“Yeah, she likes to stay up there,” I admitted. “If you can’t find her, that’s generally where she’s at.”

She set her bag down onto the counter, and I followed suit with the shit that was in my hand.

I took a cursory look through the mail.

When I saw nothing but bills and one letter that looked like it could be another offer to buy my house, I shoved it all to the side and turned to the woman that had followed me into the kitchen.

Her eyes were on me as she waited.

“What?” I asked.

“What was that look on your face?” she questioned.

I gestured to the mail.

“I have a company that continually tries to buy my house. They send me a letter at least once a month requesting to purchase it and the surrounding acreage. I at first called them and told them no. Now I just throw the shit away. But it still pisses me off when I get them,” I admitted.

She frowned. “Did you ask them why they wanted it?”

I nodded. “I did. He said that they had a family member that owned the land before me that wanted it back. I told them I wasn’t interested. Now we play this stupid game once a month. Each time the price on the house goes higher and higher.”

“What are they offering you?” she asked. “Is it a price that’s at least worthy of what you would sell it for?”

I nodded. “They’re up to one and three-quarters of a million right now. It steadily goes up each month by about fifty grand.”

She shook her head. “What’s it worth?”

“About half that,” I admitted.

“Do you think that they’ll ever stop offering?” she asked. “And is there a price that you are willing to sell it for?”

I shook my head. “Nope. I built this house with my own two hands. I’m not selling it to someone that’ll just tear it down. I looked up the company online. They’re land developers. They specialize in outdoor shopping malls. The area that I’m located, which is still within the city limits, is apparently where all the town’s growing toward. The people at the end of my road sold out to Walmart and got about eight times what their property is worth.”

“You don’t mind having commercial property around you?” she asked.

I gestured at the window.

“On that side of me is the Valentine ranch. They’ve owned that property for years. They just acquired quite a bit more a few years ago. On this side of me” —I gestured with my thumb— “is Nico, a member of the KPD SWAT team. He owns about half of what the Valentines own. And on that side of me is an old man that I’ve already got a binding contract with. When he passes away, he’ll sell me his land. That makes about a thousand acres in this particular area that’ll never be commercially zoned. Nobody will ever sell theirs, either.”

She smiled.

“That’s good,” she said. “That you have neighbors like