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

“I gotta agree with him,” Kat laughed. “When you came to me, certain that Lorelei was trying to kill you because she put a bag of peas on your foot?”

“Hey, she brought me funeral flowers! Tell me that wouldn’t have freaked you out!”

“They were funeral flowers?” Lorelei asked. “I just thought they were pretty.”

“See!” Kat exclaimed. “I told you, women don’t pay attention to flowers. We want practical things, because all the shit you give us has a shelf life.”

“Wait, does this mean that we don’t have to shop for jewelry anymore?” Robert asked.

“No, this is a trick question,” Eric laughed. “Don’t believe them. This is one of those tricks where they tell you what they don’t want, but they secretly plant that thought in your head so you’ll go get it for them.”

“No, I really just want a vacuum,” Kat said.

“Right,” he snorted. “Like if I went and got you a vacuum, that would make you happy.”

“Yeah, I’m with Eric,” Will agreed. “If I brought home a vacuum, I would hear this long spiel about how it was like telling her that she belonged in the house doing women’s work.”

“That depends,” Charlie said. “Do you think that’s true? Is it a vacuum or is it a vacuum?” She quirked an eyebrow at him and waited for an answer.

Will looked at her and then glanced over at us. I shook my head, telling him not to answer. There was no way for him to answer this without ending up on the couch tonight.

“Uh…of course not. I mean, you’re great at the house work, but I would never in my life say that it’s w-women’s work.” He laughed slightly. “Not unless you want it to be.”

My eyes slipped closed. He was so close, and then he went and ruined it.

Lorelei

As Andrew’s brothers and sisters filed out of the office, leaving us alone with only Corduroy and Jack, the uncomfortable tension shot up to DEFCON 5.

“So, what are you going to do about what I told you?” I asked Jack.

Sighing, he took his seat behind his desk, his eyes narrowed as he thought for a minute. “I’m not condoning anything you’ve done, but I also can’t in good conscience tell the prosecution what you’ve told me.”

I sighed in relief, but it was short-lived.

“That being said, you need one hell of a defense lawyer to get you out of the shit you’ve stepped in. As for your mother…nobody knows what you did, and I can’t say I blame you for wanting to put your mother out of pain. And your father…he was a piece of shit.” I nodded, waiting for him to continue down the list. “Regarding Matthew, you can’t hold yourself responsible for a heart condition he had. He wanted to help you. He wouldn’t have pushed himself so hard if he didn’t want to help you. You can’t blame yourself for other people’s actions.”

“And Murray? How do I explain that one? My hair is at the scene of the crime. They’ll convict me for that.”

“Maybe. But if you still have that recording, it wouldn’t take much to convince a jury that you fled because you feared for your life. The man you were engaged to had just been killed after revealing very damning information. I think anyone would understand that you felt your life was at risk. But you’d better find the evidence to prove you’re innocent of killing Arlen. Without that, it may not matter with Murray’s case if you feared for your life. You need that footage from the house.”

I let out a long breath and nodded. “So, you’re not turning me in?”

He smirked slightly. “Not today. But I still hold out the right to take Andrew and his family in any time I see them doing shit they shouldn’t.”

“Just lay off the parking tickets.”

“You have the money,” Jack grinned. “Now get out of here. That’s enough drama for one night.”

Andrew and I headed for the door, but once outside, we both realized that neither of us knew where to go from here. How did you suddenly pick up your relationship after what we had been through? He shoved his hands in his pockets uncomfortably and stared at the ground.

“So, what happens now?”

“With the trial?”

“No, I meant with us.”

He laughed humorlessly. “You mean after I befriended you with the intention of finding out if you were a serial killer, considered multiple times that you were trying to kill me, then turned you into the police after overhearing a conversation you had about killing people?”

I nodded. “Yeah, that would be the one.”

“I don’t know,” Andrew shrugged.

“I mean, I wasn’t exactly the pillar of honesty, so I can’t blame you for drawing your own conclusions. Though I could have done without the jail time. Still, there’s a silver lining to every bad situation.”

“And what would that be?”

“Well, I met a lovely woman in jail, who turned out to be a man, and she taught me how to do an inverted french braid. I always wanted to learn.”

His lips twitched. “Now you have another skill to add to your growing list.”

“I know. I might have gone the rest of my life wondering how it was done.”

His grin slipped slightly and he jerked his thumb behind him. “I guess I should get back to my place. There’s a lot of work to be done if I’m going to keep you out of prison.”

“Right. I mean, unless you want to come home with me,” I said uneasily.

“Really?” he asked, his eyes bright. “Because I kind of figured the whole black widow accusation would have been a turn off.”

“I don’t know. It definitely fits us somehow.”

He swallowed hard. “Only if you’re sure.”

“I’m sure,” I said confidently. “As long as you’re okay with being with a woman that has a tracking anklet attached.”

“Well, hell, I slept with you multiple times and thought I would never wake up. This should be a piece of cake.”

“So, should we take your car or mine?”

He smirked