Page 79 of Ice Cold Liar

Naomi swiped away a tear that had leaked down her cheek.

An actual tear.

Another knife in my chest.

“You need to very much consider us one and done.”Her brittle declaration.“I don’t like to repeat my mistakes.”

“Oh, shit,” Hunter rasped.“You’re a mistake, bro.That has to hurt.Savage.”

Yeah, it did hurt.“I heard her, Hunter.No need for the repeat.”Hadn’t he asked to speak with Naomi alone?

Her eyes glittered.“If you two will excuse me, Henry and I are heading to the kitchen.”

What?“We need to finish our talk!”She didn’t get to just drop a bombshell about stabbing Hudson and leave Eb hanging without telling him the rest of the story.

“I need to eat, and I am hoping like crazy there is something semi-edible in this house.”Her head swung toward Hunter.“Point me in the direction of the kitchen?”

“Yeah, sorry, but you’re not gonna find a whole lot in there.”A wince.“How about I order some pizzas?”

How about Naomi finishes telling me the damn story about Hudson’s murder before I lose my mind?

“I want pepperoni,” she said.

“You screwed up.”

Eb stared at the remains of the pepperoni pizza.They’d torn through two and a half boxes of pizza.Turned out that they’d all been famished.

Naomi had eaten.Then she’d vanished upstairs to her room.She had not dropped any other major bombshells on him.

“You’re wearing regret like a second skin.”

He slanted a glance toward Hunter.The other man slouched on the back porch of the house.They’d eaten outside.Sunset had come and gone, turning the sky a deep, dark red before the growing darkness had started to spread out like hungry tentacles.The insects chirped now, their calls getting stronger with every moment that passed.

“Did you apologize to her?Maybe try a bit of groveling?I’ve heard some women really go for that.”Hunter brought a beer bottle up to his mouth.Took a sip.“You came down here so big and bad.So determined to wreck her world.Now she has you wrapped around her pinky finger.That was a fast fall, got to say.”

“Thanks for that, buddy, appreciate it.”He brought his own beer up to his mouth.A practically full beer.

“Anytime.”

He put the beer back down, no sip.“You made any progress on the psych files?”

“Dude, you said your old CIA handler was in town.That she was the one interrogating you and Naomi at the police station.Why don’t you just ask her directly about the guy’s psych history?”

“Because she’ll lie.Madeline is even better at lying than I am.”She’d been the one to train him and Hudson.

A grunt.“If she’s such a world-class liar, then how do you know the other stuff she’s told you is the truth?That part about Hudson offing the real serial killer?Maybe that was BS.”

Maybe it had been.Except… “One rule you learned early on at the CIA was that the best lies were based in a kernel of truth.Made it easier to tell them.Made it easier for you to pass polygraphs because part of what you were saying was the truth.”

“You’re telling me that you can lie and pass a lie detector test.”He saluted Eb with the beer bottle.“Impressive.”

“No, it’s not.”It just meant he’d gone so far down the rabbit hole that his conscience didn’t tend to bother him any longer.At least, not most nights.

This night, it bothered him.

“Who do you think set the fire at Naomi’s place?”Hunter wanted to know.

“Thought it was Ivan.Then we found him beat to death.”

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