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

“What about leaving the state?”

His eyebrows shot up. “You want to go back there? Back to a man that turned you in for murder?”

I didn’t know what I wanted at this point. I had been sent to prison by a man that I thought loved me. I should at least have a chance to defend myself and prove to him that I wasn’t the person he thought I was. Well, not completely anyway. And another part of me wanted to hit him and tell him what a bastard he was for deceiving me the way he had. I didn’t know what my feelings were, but I knew I needed to talk to him before the trial began.

“Just see if you can get me out of here.”

Sofia

“Why are we meeting on a Thursday night?” Will asked. “It’s not poker night. And where the hell is Andrew?”

“Yeah, I don’t remember agreeing to being summoned like this,” Robert grumbled.

“I called everyone here,” I said, standing up at the entrance to the kitchen in Eric’s house. I had told Kat that I desperately needed help and asked her to help me round everyone up.

“Why?” Joe asked. “Is something wrong? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but one of us is definitely not fine.”

“Who?” Eric asked, a confused look on his face.

“Your brother.”

He glanced at Josh. “You good?”

Josh shrugged. “I’m fine.”

“Not that brother,” I huffed.

His eyes moved to Joe. “Is something wrong at the shop?”

“I’ve got no complaints.”

I rolled my eyes, stomping my foot. “Not that brother either. And not Will or Robert either. The brother that’s not here.”

“Well, technically there are two brothers not here,” Eric pointed out.

“Oh my God, it’s like you’re purposely being obtuse! Andrew. The brother that’s not in the room right now and recently had something devastating happen to him!”

Robert snorted. “I wouldn’t say that. He escaped a killer. Seems he got out just in time.”

“No kidding. The last thing we need is for the whole town to think that he was consorting with a killer,” Will muttered.

“Hey, count yourself lucky. I was in that house with her every day. With just a flick of her wrist, I could have been dead. And now that we all know that she tried to kill Andrew on multiple occasions, it makes me even happier that she’s out of his life. That could have been me.”

“Oh, would you stop,” Kat sighed. “God, you sound like such a baby. She’s not a killer.”

“Andrew heard her say it,” Eric argued.

“Yeah, I’m with Eric,” Robert agreed. “I’m not sure how you twist I’ve killed three people into something innocent.”

“She could have meant anything,” Charlie said. “Do you know how many times I’ve wished someone dead?”

“Yeah, but you never actually said you killed anyone,” Will argued.

“I could though. What if I was referring to people that died on my table?”

“But you didn’t kill them,” Will pointed out.

“Maybe not, but I also couldn’t save them. To me, that’s practically the same thing. Maybe what’s really going on is something similar.”

Robert snorted. “Right, except for the fact that Lorelei’s not a doctor.”

“The point is,” Kat cut in, “that none of us really know what happened, and neither does Andrew.”

“Exactly,” I snapped. “And it’s killing him. He’s laying around the house, just staring at the walls. He smells and he hasn’t taken a shower all week!”

Eric, ever the diplomatic one of the group, piped up. “He just needs time. It’s hard to find out that the person you love has so many secrets.”

“Hard, yes. But this is killing him, and if any of you bothered to stop by, you would see that.”

“I live with him,” Joe argued. “He seems normal to me. Maybe a little sad, but we’re guys. It’s not like we spill our emotions.”

“Yeah, that’s why you were curled up in bed with Sofia’s pillow when she left,” Kat retorted.

“Hey, that was one time, and I was seriously depressed.”

“The point is,” I interrupted, “Andrew needs something to focus on. He needs motivation. Like, when he was following us all around and making sure we didn’t fall down any steps.”

“No,” Anna groaned. “Please, things just got back to normal. I can’t go back to having one of these guys follow me around twenty-four/seven.”

“I second that,” Kat raised her hand. “I’m not up for being the solution to this problem.”

“He would do it for any of you,” I pointed out. “Kat, who brings you pizza when Eric won’t let you have any?”

“He does what?” Eric snapped. “You never told me that!”

“That’s because it’s pizza and I shouldn’t have to hide that from you,” Kat spat back.

“And Anna…well, he must have done something for you.”

“Nope,” she shook her head. “He’s all Team Kat.”

I rolled my eyes, getting seriously irritated with all this. “Carly, come on, you get it. Would you have wanted Josh to walk away from you because you killed a few people?”

“I like how we’re talking about killing people like it’s going for coffee,” Will grinned. “Is this the new normal in our family?”

“Maybe we could get a slogan of some kind. You bring ‘em, we kill ‘em.” Joe laughed. When no one else laughed, he huffed in annoyance. “What, it’s funny when everyone else jokes about it, but not me?”

“Can we please just get back to Andrew and pulling him out of this slump he’s in? We need a plan.”

“He needs to get laid,” Robert muttered. “Sorry, but the only way to get over her is to get under someone else.”

“Really,” Anna said, her arms crossed over her chest. “Was that your motto with me?”

Robert paled, shaking his head slightly. “Uh…”

“Uh…” she mocked. “That’s what I thought. Fine, I’m in. Whatever it takes.”

“Kat?”

She sighed at me, but nodded. “Fine, but don’t any of you get any ideas and start thinking that just because I’ll go along with this that you can start following me around.”

“Wait, what exactly are we agreeing to?” Anna asked in confusion.

I swallowed hard and looked at Kat and Anna. “We’re