Page 90 of Little Sunshine

For reasons I didn’t want to inspect closely, I had the overwhelming urge to throw the iPad across the room. Instead, I settled back and flicked on the TV. I went through the options until I found the show Ash and I had been watching at night. I went to the episode we’d left off on and pressed play.

Watching without him.

The jerk.

Chapter 13

Hide Your Belongings

ASH

“What a fucking dump.” Cole scowled, shaking his head. “I can almost feel the sticky everything.”

After Mila’s nightmare and the confession about her mother, Cole made it his mission to track the bitch down. Her last known address was with a boyfriend in the suburbs, but when he’d gone to recon, he’d discovered her man had recently kicked her out.

According to the chatty neighbor with a yappy dog, it hadn’t been an amicable split, either. Veronica Rogers had stood on the lawn, screaming threats and insults until someone had called the cops.

I couldn’t picture how someone like that could be related to Mila. The same quiet Mila who tried to clean before she even made a mess. Who apologized for apologizing. Who tried to shrink herself until she blended into the background.

Not that she ever could.

Veronica hadn’t left a forwarding address as she’d flipped off her ex and the cops before peeling out, but Cole had gotten her burner number from Mila’s cell data. The moment it’d turned on, it’d been an easy trace to the shitty bar we stood outside of.

Cole grabbed the door handle, and his scowl deepened. “Knew it. Fucking sticky.”

It reeked of stale beer and fryer oil before we even stepped inside. At barely noon on a weekday, half the stools lining the bar were filled.

The bartender looked up as he wiped down the space in front of him and kept a wary eye on us.

Smart.

Elbowing me, Cole tilted his head to where two women sat with a group of men at the end of the bar. My gaze landed on the brunette first. Her thin face was pinched, with sad brown eyes and thin lips she coated in red lipstick.

Since Mila doesn’t act a thing like her mom, maybe she doesn’t look like her, either.

But then the bleached blonde looked up, and blue eyes met mine.

Bingo.

A flare of panic went across her face as those blue eyes darted between Cole and me.

Either she’s psychic and knows she should be fucking terrified, or she thinks we’re someone else.

Whispering to her friend as she stood, she hightailed it down a hallway that I was willing to bet led to an exit.

“I’ll take the long way,” Cole said while I took off after her.

Veronica Rogers was fast, but she couldn’t hop an alley fence like I could. Coming down a small pathway that ran between a porno shop and another trashy bar, she distractedly greeted a small group of smokers while she moved. Her head was turned to watch over her shoulder.

Except I was already in front of her, blocking where the alley met the sidewalk.

“Where you off to, Veronica?” I asked as she was about to knock into me.

She jolted at my voice and froze. “Just headed home… Detective?”

“Not a detective.”

She scanned my suit. “Cop?”

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