Tangled Web: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 6) by Giulia Lagomarsino (an ebook reader txt) 📕

shouted too loudly. “Uh…my brother, Eric, mentioned having a house to renovate for a woman that moved into town. Lorelei,” I chuckled nervously. “And new people in town are few and far between. Wild guess,” I laughed again.

She looked like she wasn’t going to buy it, and my mind started spinning on all the different ways I could get Sofia and I out of the store safely. Did she have a gun on her? Maybe poison? No, that was ridiculous. She would have to offer me a drink first, and then mix in the poison. Plus, she didn’t actually have a drink on her, which meant she would have to buy one. Then she would have to find a way to mix the poison in without me seeing, which could be complicated. Or was it? If she was a black widow, maybe this was second nature to her.

“—doing a great job on the design.”

I shook my head, confused since I missed everything she had just said. “Sorry, what was that?”

“I was saying that I’m glad I found your brother. He’s already doing a great job on the design. My house is in tatters, so there’s a ton of work to do.”

I nodded, way too much for it to be normal. I had to stop myself from nodding. Just stop doing it. Fucking stop! I finally got my head to sit still on my shoulders. She was staring at me now like I was a fucking psycho, and maybe I was. I was standing here looking like a lunatic in front of a gorgeous, yet very deadly woman. Well, that was still up for debate. Shit.

“So, are you doing all the work yourself?” I asked with a croak.

“No,” she laughed. “Remember? I said I hired your brother?”

I smacked myself in the head with a doh. “Right. Gotcha. I bet it’s a great house.”

“It is. I mean, it doesn’t look like much right now, but it’s going to look great when it’s done.”

“I’m sure it will. I’d love to see the before and after.”

“Really?”

Her eyes lit up and I realized that I had just fallen into her trap. Her web. Oh, God, she really was a black widow, and I had just invited myself along to be killed.

“You should come out some time and take a look at it. I would love some input from another male perspective. Your brother is all about making it my own, but I wouldn’t mind a second opinion on some things.”

“You know, I’m not really a design expert or anything.”

“No, but I heard how you helped your sister-in-law make the decision on paint. It was very clear and thoughtful. It made sense. I would love for someone to come out and do that with me. I wouldn’t feel like such an idiot when I talk to your brother.”

“Oh, he’s a good guy. All you have to do is tell him you need help and he’ll do it.”

She took a step toward me, her lithe body moving in such a way that made me feel like prey. I took a step back, but she kept moving forward. “I want a second opinion.”

I swallowed hard as I bumped up against the paint counter, knocking over the jar of pens. I quickly righted them and put the pens back inside, chuckling as she smiled sweetly at me. Too sweetly. Those eyes were drawing me in, luring me in until I got caught in her trap. She reached to my side and I flinched, sure she was about to stab me or something. Instead, she grabbed a pen out of the jar and clicked the end on. Taking my arm, she pushed up the sleeve and wrote down her number and her name. I did my best not to hyperventilate. What if the pen was poisoned? Maybe the ink was laced or something, and as the ink absorbed into my skin, I would die a slow, painful death….But then I remembered that she hadn’t gotten anything from me yet. It wouldn’t do her any good to kill me before she had what she wanted. She needed me for something first.

And that’s when it clicked. I could use her just as much as she was using me. All I had to do was get to know her on a more personal level, find out the type of person she really was, and then I would know if she was a killer. My instincts were rarely wrong. Well, aside from Sofia. I glanced down as she finished scrawling her number on my arm and swallowed hard. I was really going to go through with this.

She looked up at me beneath those thick eyelashes, her eyes boring into me and making me melt into a puddle. She had me in her trap. I knew it, and there was no getting out. I wanted this woman, even if it killed me. And I was fucking terrified.

“Call me sometime,” she smiled, giving me a wink as she turned and walked over to the owners to talk.

“Who was that?” Sofia asked as she stepped up beside me.

I swallowed hard and stared down at the scrawl on my arm. “Black Widow.”

Lorelei

Andrew was quirky and seemed very nervous around women, but it didn’t make any sense. He was hot. Despite the fact that he wore that weird looking hat, I still found him extremely attractive. His dirty blonde hair peeked out from under the beanie, and that only accentuated the blue of his eyes. His sharp cheekbones and angular jaw covered in a few days of scruff appealed to me even more. He had that small town look to him, like he wasn’t trying too hard, and I liked that a lot. Arlen was always dressing to impress, but Andrew just dressed like a normal guy.

I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted to see him again. He was a good-looking guy, and the fact that he was nervous around me would make it easier to draw