Cheryl Bradshaw - Sinnerman

“We both know the answer to that. You’re looking at her.”

I hadn’t figured out why Sinnerman picked me, or why I was the only woman he didn’t choose at random, but I imagined it had something to do with Gabby. Either that or he was fascinated at my relentless approach to hunt him. The former seemed more likely.

“You look like you’re about to fall asleep on that chair.”

I looked up at a smiling Giovanni who hovered over the chair I sat in.

“Just got caught up in my thoughts,” I said. “My mind never really shuts off. I am kinda tired though.”

After the attempt on my life and the assassination at the station, Giovanni insisted I stay at his house, and his brother agreed. It was the safest place I could be, and given the fact that there were cameras all over the place and men who wandered around that looked like they were part of Giovanni’s crew of whatchamacallits, I believed him.

“Let me show you the room you’ll be staying in,” he said.

I lifted my arms into the air and stretched them out to both sides and yawned.

“Alright,” I said. “But it’s just for tonight.”

Giovanni gave me a look that made me feel like I wouldn’t be going home anytime soon, and then he turned and walked down the hall. I followed. At the midway point, he opened a door and stepped inside.

“I hope this works for you,” he said.

I looked around. In all my life I’d never stayed in a room so lavish. It mirrored the decor in the living room except that in the center of the room, instead of a sofa and chairs, was an enormous four poster bed fit for a queen, and I had one thing on my mind—sleep.

When I opened my eyes the next morning Maddie was on a chair diagonal from the bed. I sat up and leaned my head back against the headboard behind me.

“You slept long enough,” she said. “I’ve been worried about you since Wade told me what happened to you in the woods. And thanks for calling by the way.”

I wanted to tell her everything before the chief did, but it had all happened so fast.

“I’m sorry. Have you been here awhile?”

“Long enough to hear you chatter in your sleep.”

I don’t chatter.”

She rolled her eyes.

“I just listened to fifteen minutes of back and forth banter.”

“About what?”

“It was hard to make out,” she said. “You blabbed on and on and you were out of breath, like you were running away from something—or someone.”

I had a good idea of who the someone was.

“How’d you know I was here?”

“I have my ways, and on that subject,” she said thumbed in the direction of the doorway, “what a little hottie he is.”

“Who—Giovanni?”

“Who else? Surprised to see you slept in a different room though.”

“Maddie!”

She bobbed her shoulders up and down.

“What—you know me. I would have tapped that once, if not twice if I was in your position. I’m just sayin’.”

“It’s not like he’s taken.”

“Girl, please. The man’s talked about you nonstop since I got here. So do you like him, or what?”

“Too much is going on right now for me to even consider it, you know that.”

Maddie walked over and sat down next to me on the edge of the bed. “Make time for him,” she said. “Don’t let something that delicious get away.”

“I see what you’re doing.”

“Which is?” she said.

“You know I can’t let anything distract me right now, not until—”

Giovanni tapped on the door a few times and then came in.

“Would you ladies care for some breakfast?” he said.

“You bet,” Maddie said.

He looked in my direction.

“Sloane?”

“I don’t want you to put yourself out,” I said.

He made a face that reminded me of a disgruntled employee so I tried again.

“I’m starved,” I said. “Thank you.”

He smiled and said, “It will be ready in ten,” and then he turned and shut the door behind him.

Once he left Maddie prodded me in the arm with two of her fingers.

“What was that for?” I said.

“If you don’t stop acting like that the guy is going to think you’d rather get with some over-the-hill senior citizen than with him.”

“Oh stop it,” I said. “He understands. Have you examined the bodies from last night?”

She nodded and said, “Strange, don’t you think?”

“Because he used a gun?” I said.

“Yeah—I mean, what’s up with that?”

“He’s angry,” I said. “I shot him and ruined his plans, and because of that he was forced to clean up the mess he made, which started with Trisha. My guess is that he planned to kill her before she got the chance to talk.”

“And the other guy?”

“Sal? Wrong place, wrong time, maybe.”

“So why not you? He must have had a clear shot at some point, but he didn’t even try for you.”

“It’s like he skipped over me on purpose. Think about it, Maddie. He set this whole scheme up, framed someone for murder, and paid someone to help him do it. There has to be a driving force behind an action like that. He wants something.”

“Not something—someone,” she said. “You.”

“And a guy like that won’t stop until he gets what he wants.”

CHAPTER 40

After breakfast Maddie left and I showered and got ready—for what, I didn’t know. I was in the middle of towel drying my hair when a sound emanated from my phone.

“How are you?” I said.

“Why?” Nick said. “It’s not like you care.”

“Of course I do.”

“Why?”

“Where are you?” I said.

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Are you coming back?”

“Would it make a difference if I did?”

“I still care about you,” I said.

He laughed into the phone.

“Right. You care. From what I hear, you have someone else to look out for you now. I have to say, I knew it would happen, but not that fast.”

“It’s not what you think,” I said.

“Isn’t it? You slept at his house last night. That tells me all I need to know.”

Damn Coop, and damn his big mouth. I was sure he was the one who let that information slip out.

“Nick, why did you call me?” I said.

“You know what, I don’t know.”

And the line went dead.

I wrapped my bath towel around me and fell back on the bed and closed my eyes. I tried to muster up some tears, but they didn’t come, and I didn’t know why. After all, we’d had a long relationship and I’d loved him—hadn’t I? I thought back to what memories I had in my life where I remembered shedding tears of any kind. I could count them on one and a half hands. It wasn’t that I lacked feeling or emotion—I just didn’t have the ability to express my feelings like most other people. My life felt more in control this way, and when I was in charge of my emotions, I could manage my life. I’d never understood how most women could cry as easily as the rain falling from a wispy cloud on a dark and dreary day. How did they do that?

It was moments like this when I was all alone in a room with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company that I needed to be careful. I had to watch the bottle I’d set out to sea to make sure it didn’t come loose or worse—pop off and spray my emotions in the air for all the world to see.

During our relationship Nick prompted me to get some counseling, and all I could think about was how it would feel to be shrink-wrapped by some head case in a stuffy office painted in depressed shades of beige and decorated with knock off leather office furniture that squeaked every time my butt shifted a couple of inches. He said I needed to go in order to get past my sister. But there was no getting past Gabrielle; for me, there was but one option—closure. And no shrink could provide that. That was something I had to do for myself.