Covet

Chapter 28

Funny thing about glass. When you broke the shit up, it got pissed and bit back.

Upstairs in the duplex's master bath, Vin was surrounded by gauze and white surgical tape. What he'd done to his palm squeezing that bourbon to shreds was way out of Band-Aid land, so he'd had to call in reinforcements of the Red Cross variety and things were not going well. With the injury being on his right hand, he was a floundering, cursing nurse, fumbling with all the wrapping and the scissors and the tape.

Damn good thing he was his own patient. The vocabularly alone, much less the incompetence, would have gotten him disbarred—or whatever the hell the candy-striper equivalent to that was.

He was just coming to the end of the ordeal when the phone by the sinks rang, and wasn't that just loads of fun. With a tiny pair of nail scissors locked in his leftie, a strip of gauze in his teeth, and his right hand all but a paw, it took every bit of coordination he had to answer the call.

“Let him up,” he told the lobby guard.

After putting the receiver back, he did a half-assed taping job and left the mess on the counter as is, heading for the stairs and going down to the front hall door. When the elevator binged and opened, he was in the corridor, waiting.

Jim Heron stepped out and didn't hang around for a hello or an invitation to speak. Which you had to respect.

“Thursday night,” the guy said. “I didn't know you. I didn't know her. I should have told you, but to be honest, when I saw the pair of you together, I didn't want to fuck things up. It was a mistake and I'm goddamn sorry— mostly that you found out from someone other than me.”

The whole time he was talking, Heron's arms hung loosely by his sides, like he was ready for a fight if things went that way, and his voice was as steady and even as his eyes were. No prevaricating. No artifice. No bullshit.

And as Vin faced off at him, instead of rage, which was what he'd have expected himself to have toward the guy, he just felt exhaustion. Exhaustion and the thumping pain of his hand. Abruptly, he realized he was getting tired of channeling his fucking father when it came to women. Thanks to that legacy, over the past twenty years, Vin's suspicious nature had found so many shadows where none had existed—and yet essentially missed the actual time when someone he was sleeping with cheated on him.

So much energy wasted, all in the wrong place.

God, he just didn't care about Devina. At this moment, he really didn't care what she'd done while they were together.

“She lied about what happened here last night,” Vin said roughly. “Devina lied.”

There was absolutely no hesitation in the reply: “I know.”

“Oh, really.”

“I don't believe a word she's said about anything.”

“And why's that.”

“I went to the hospital to see her because I was having a hard time believing any of this shit. And she gave me this hearts-and-flowers routine about telling you what had happened Thursday night, how that was the reason you went after her. But you didn't know, did you. She never said a thing to you, did she.”

“Not a peep.” Vin turned away and headed into the duplex. When Jim didn't follow, he said over his shoulder, “You just going to stand there like a statue or do you want lunch.”

Food was evidently preferable to playing marble, and after they were both through the front door, Vin locked it and put the chain in place. With the way things were going lately, he wasn't taking any chances with anything.

“Holy fuck,” Jim said, “your living room…”

“Yeah, it's been redecorated by Vince McMahon.”

In the kitchen, Vin got out some cold cuts and the jar of Hellman's using his left hand. “You got a choice between rye or sourdough.”

“Sourdough.”

As Vin grabbed some lettuce and a tomato from the crisper, he braced himself. “I need to know how it went down. With Devina. Tell me everything—Shit…not everything. But how did she come on to you?”

“You sure you want to go there?”

He took out a knife from the drawer. “I have to, man. Need to. I'm feeling like…I'm feeling I was with someone I didn't know at all.”

Jim cursed and then parked it on one of the bar stools at the counter. “Not so much mayo for me.”

“Cool. Now talk.”

“I don't believe she is who she says, by the way.”

“Funny, me neither.”

“I mean, I did a background check on her.”

Vin glanced up in the process of getting the blue lid off the plastic jar. “You gonna tell me how you managed that?”

“Not on your life.”

“And the result was…?”

“She doesn't exist, literally. And trust me, if the people I use can't find her true identity, nobody can.”

Vin went light with the Hellman's on Jim's sourdough, heavier on his own rye, but it was a messy, imprecise job. Ambidextrous he was not.

God, it was so not a surprise about Devina…

“Still waiting for Thursday-night deets over here,” he said. “And do us both a favor and just talk. I don't have the energy to be polite right now.”

“Fuck…” Jim rubbed his face. “Okay…she was at the Iron Mask. I was with…friends, I guess you could call them, although 'sonsabitches' would also cover it. Anyway, she followed me out into the parking lot when I left. It was cold. She seemed lost. She was…You sure about this?”

“Yup.” Vin picked up a tomato, put it on a cutting board, and started slicing with the grace of a five-year-old. Hacking was more like it. “Keep going.”

Jim shook his head. “She was upset about you. And she appeared to be really unsure of herself.”

Vin frowned. “How was she upset?”

“How…you mean what for? She didn't go into specifics. I didn't ask. I was just…like, I wanted her to be okay with herself.”

Now Vin was doing the head shaking. “Devina is always okay. That's the thing. No matter her mood, down deep she's tight. It was one of the things that attracted me to her…well, that and the fact that she's one of the most physically confident women I've ever met. But that's what you get when you're built perfectly.”

“She said you wanted her to get breast implants.”

Vin's eyes flicked up. “Are you kidding me? I've told her she was perfect since the night I met her, and I meant it. I never wanted her to change a thing.”

Abruptly, Jim's brows drew in tight, a hard look coming onto his face.

“Looks like you were played, buddy.” Vin cracked apart the lettuce and went over to the sink with a couple of leaves to wash. “Let me guess, she poured her heart out to you, you saw a vulnerable woman tangled up with a mofo, you kissed her…maybe you didn't even think you would take things that far.”

“I couldn't believe where it ended up.”

“You felt bad for her, but you were also attracted.” Vin turned off the water and shook the romaine. “You wanted to give her something to make her feel good.”

Jim's voice grew low. “That's exactly how it was.”

“You want to know the way she got me?”

“Yeah. I do.”