Page 65 of Keep Him Like Secrets

“Because this,” he said, gesturing toward his face, “is her handiwork.”

“What’d you do?” I asked.

“What? So I gotta be in the wrong? She’s a psycho, man. Straight-up crazy bitch—“

“Hey,” I snapped, surprised with the surge of anger within me. “Don’t.”

“What? She got you by the dick or something? Good fucking luck. She’ll probably get in one of those moods of hers and chop it off in your sleep. Don’t say I didn’t try to warn ya,” he said, throwing up his hands and getting out of line, heading toward the bathroom.

The barista, clearly not wanting to get in the middle, offered me a tight-lipped smile and handed me my coffee.

I moved back outside, figuring that I at least got something.

Saff, apparently, had a temper. And not just a normal temper. A violent one.

Granted, I didn’t know the specifics. Maybe he grabbed her ass or something. In which case, he had it coming.

My mind whirled back to those cuts on her wrists, the way she clumsily lied about them.

Had that been from messing up that guy’s face?

And if so, why not tell me that some guy got handsy?

Sighing, I made my way down the street, finding the first bookstore I came across and heading inside.

I was met with the scent of ink and paper and just a hint of some sort of lemon cleaner.

“Can I help you find anything?” a pretty middle-aged woman in a flowing rainbow skirt and knotted white tee asked, giving me a smile that made the apples of her cheeks push up her red glasses.

“Hey,” I greeted her, giving her a warm smile. “I’m not sure. My friend told me to check this place out.”

“Really? Anyone I might know?”

“Maybe? Saff? Blue hair, tiny, full of attitude?”

“Oh, my God. Yes. Saff. I adore her. She and her friends practically keep me in business. Especially Lore. And now that they all formed that book club of theirs.”

Lore.

That was another unusual name to lock away and try to look into. Even in a city full of seven million people, there couldn't have been a lot of women named Lore.

“Yeah, she’s got books all over,” I said, thinking of her office. Full of books she’d likely brought in from home. “What might she like to read? Might give me something to talk about with her the next time I see her.”

“Oh, she’s all over the place. One day, she might come in asking for alien smut. The next time, she wants gory female serial killer horror. Usually with some level of smut in those too, though, now that I think about it. And, hey, who doesn’t like a little spice in their reading?”

“Can’t argue with that.” Even if I’d never read a book with spice in it. I couldn’t imagine itdetractingfrom the story.

“If you want to read somethingbeforeshe has, so you canyou know,read it with her… I just got a couple in that I know she is going to gobble up the next time she stops by.”

“I’ll take one of each of ‘em,” I said, following her around as she prattled on about the stories themselves.

“You should have a good week to get at least one read before she comes back in. She’s usually here once a week. Sometimes more if she’s working less.”

“She does seem busy a lot. I can’t for the life of me remember what she told me she did for a living, though,” I said, following the shopkeeper to the counter where she started to ring up the books.

“Oh,” she said, looking suddenly tense. “Well, she… she is very well-respected around here,” she said. “And maybe a little feared.”

“Feared?” I asked. “She’s so tiny.”

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