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

When I got upstairs, I remembered that I was going to check into Lorelei’s dad. I wanted to kill that fucker for what he had done to her. Apology letter or not, what he did was wrong. Nobody had the right to treat another person like a punching bag. I quickly grabbed my laptop and looked up the number for the sheriff’s department from her hometown. If Barty hadn’t given me this file on her, I wouldn’t know exactly where she grew up. I had to thank the man for at least that.

“McDowell County Sheriff’s Department,” a man said on the other line.

“Uh…yeah, I’m looking for some information on a man in the area.”

“What kind of information?” he asked suspiciously.

“I’m trying to find my girlfriend’s father. They haven’t spoken in years. I was just wondering if he was still in the area.”

“What’s the name?”

I quickly looked through her file. “Uh…Larry Colson.”

“Hold please.”

I waited for over five minutes, listening to the worst sort of elevator music. I kept glancing at the door, thinking Lorelei would walk through at any second and I would be busted.

“Sir?”

“Yes.”

“Larry Colson, you say?”

“Yes.”

“Is your girlfriend’s name Lorelei?”

“Yes.”

There was silence for a second and then he said, “Yeah, I remember Larry. Times hit that family hard…”

“From what Lorelei tells me, the whole town had it hard.”

He grunted. “Ain’t that the truth. When the mine shut down, everyone lost out. Almost everyone went looking for work, but Larry was stubborn. He kept thinking he would find work in town.”

“Do you know what happened to him?”

He sighed and I could hear some papers ruffling in the background. “The police were called out to the house one night, and your girlfriend had been beaten up pretty badly.” My fists clenched hearing about it, but I took a deep breath and listened as he continued. “We searched for him for a long time, but he never showed up again.”

“What about the letter he sent her?”

“Not much to go on there. There was no return address. He must have been in town still and stuck it in the mailbox. Lorelei and her friend Matthew used to tell us that they saw him around from time to time, but it sounded like he was too ashamed to show his face. And then Lorelei moved out of town and everyone stopped looking for him.”

“So, he never showed up again?”

“Not as far as anyone around here knows. Wherever he is, he’s probably drunk off his ass.”

I sighed in frustration. “Do you think he would still try and make contact with her?”

I really hoped not. I never wanted him to see Lorelei again, let alone speak to her.

“Honestly, after his wife died, he wasn’t the best father, if you could call him that at all. I can’t see why he would go seeking her out after all this time.”

“Thank you,” I said honestly. While I wanted to know where he was, knowing that he wasn’t considered a threat was even better.

“I can take down your information, call you if we hear from him. But after all this time, I doubt that’ll happen.”

“No, that’s okay. She didn’t want to see him. I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t a problem anymore.”

“Understood. You have a good day now.”

I hung up and picked up the file with Lorelei’s face staring back at me. After everything she had been through with her old man, I was surprised she was still so strong. Maybe it was like that phrase, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

I gathered up her file and took it into my room, hearing the apartment door open and shut while I was stuffing everything in my closet. Thank God Lorelei hadn’t walked in. She would rip me a new one, not that I didn’t love her feisty side. I grinned as I thought about the first time I was with her. There was nothing that compared.

“What’s that smile for?” Joe asked, coming out of his room as he pulled on a shirt.

“Nothing, I was just thinking about Lorelei.”

He grinned at me, nodding his head like he knew. “So, got yourself a little lady, did ya?”

“She’s not a little lady. In fact…never mind.”

“No, hey, you can’t just say something like that and then say never mind. That’s not how this works.”

I chewed my lip as I thought this through. I shouldn’t tell him, but I really needed advice. I glanced behind him to the bedroom.

“Is Sofia still out with the girls?” I whispered.

His face turned stony. “Yes,” he bit out. “Not that I had any choice in the matter.”

“Okay, what I say has to stay between us.”

“Well, you’re in luck that I already updated the town Facebook page on you then.”

“You did what?” I asked, pulling out my phone. I scrolled through the page and then stared at the page in shock.

Andrew Cortell, last single brother of the notorious Cortell family, finally met his match. As many of you did over the past few days, Andrew spent his time hunkered down and avoiding the cold. Only he wasn’t alone. That’s right, ladies. Andrew is officially off the market, rescuing the lovely Lorelei as they were caught in the winter storm at her house. And when the power’s out, there are only so many ways to stay warm.

“The notorious Cortell brothers?” I asked.

“What?” he shrugged. “This town only has any form of entertainment because we create it.”

“That’s not something to be proud of.”

“I am,” he said, as if it was his shining moment on stage.

“Why the fuck would you put that on the page?”

“I don’t know. Why would you assume that Sofia was a gold digger?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You know I love her. I’ve apologized. You didn’t need to do this.”

“I didn’t need to, but it sure was fun. Besides, I posted it before the whole hostage situation at the grocery store. Had I known that was going to happen, there wouldn’t have been