The Price of Inertia (The Seven Sins #4) - Lily Zante Page 0,118

you?” Jamie asks, probably because the room looks like a crime scene. “You look like shit.”

“I had a rough night.”

“Mari didn’t look too great when she showed up. She had a cut on her forehead.”

“I didn’t hit her, if that’s what she told you.”

“She didn’t say you did,” he counters.

I stop what I’m doing and look at him. I hate this guy. I’ve always had a sneaky suspicion about him. “Does she always go running to you?”

“She has no place else to go. You smashed her phone.”

“I was angry.”

“You’re always angry.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask. When he doesn’t answer, I ask him why he’s here. “You’re obviously not here for the workout.”

“No.”

“That suits me because I’m not in the mood for exercise either.”

“I don’t care what you’re in the mood for. I came to get some of Mari’s belongings.”

I turn around and survey his expression. The guy is pissed about something. This guy, I realize suddenly, has feelings for Mari, and she has no idea. It surprises me that he’s been able to keep up the daily workouts knowing that she and I had a thing going on. “Then you’d better hurry up and get her things.”

“She left everything behind, didn’t even grab her purse.”

“She couldn’t get out fast enough,” I tell him. Now that I’ve had time to think about it, it was fear that I saw in in her eyes. She was scared of me.

Jamie gives me a hard stare. “If I find out you hurt her,” he jabs a finger at me.

“What are you going to do?” I stand up straighter, pulling myself up to my fullest height. Crazy, pining douchebag. I can see right through him. Must have killed him to know that she was in my bed most nights. I don’t hurt people. I would never raise my hand to a woman, but he’s not going to believe me, and I’m not even going to try to convince him. Still, I begin to wonder what he must think of me. What she must have told him.

He presses his lips together, as if stopping himself from saying something, besides, he’s in my house, and I have the upper hand.

“I need to grab a few of her things. Can I?”

“Upstairs. Her’s is the first room on the left.”

“I won’t be long.”

“Might as well take all of it,” I growl. I can’t imagine she’d ever want to set foot in this place again. I’m not sure it would be good for either of us.

“She’s sorting stuff out and needs her purse, and credit cards. She’s getting her phone fixed, the one you broke.”

“It was an accident.”

“I’m sure you have a lot of those,” he says, moving towards the stairs.

Goddamn cocky little shit. What does he mean by that? I wonder what lies he’s been feeding her. “Get her things, then get the hell out.”

Chapter 48

MARI

My cell phone starts beeping. Text messages from an unknown number flood in and just as those stop numerous voicemail messages pour in. I haven’t been able to pick up because my phone had stopped working. I stare in horror because so many messages means something is wrong.

“Are they all coming through now?” the tech assistant asks me.

“They seem to be.” I laugh nervously as I check through the texts.

Call me

Call who? These can’t all have come from yesterday.

Jamie dropped me off at the mall while he went to Ward’s place to get some of my belongings. I should have gone with him but I needed to get my phone fixed. Truth was, I couldn’t bear the thought of seeing Ward again so soon.

“Is there anything else I can do for you, ma’am?”

I don’t recognize the text message numbers and I have at least a dozen voicemail messages from the nursing home number.

My insides freeze.

“Ma’am? Was there anything else?”

“Uh …” I look up, my mind fractured. “N-No, thank you.” I hand him Jamie’s debit card to pay. I have no money, no cards, nothing because I sprinted out of Ward’s house. Jamie gave me his card, and his PIN number and told me to get everything sorted. He trusts me implicitly and I don’t know what I would do without him. I promised to pay him back as soon as I got my purse back.

I rush out of the store and stand over by a wall as I call the nursing home. I have a feeling I’m going to need something to lean on. My stomach doesn’t feel right. There’s no point