Page 83 of Roses Are Dead
Relying solely on her body language, something was still bothering her. Sure, having Carl creeping around was bad, but the tension in her shoulders and the way she wouldn’t look me in the eye went beyond what she’d already relayed. “Anything else I should know?”
She set her fork down with a choked sigh. “He killed two animals.”
I didn’t realize I’d slammed my hands on the table as I jolted up from my chair. But I must have done it, or knocked the table, hard. Her beer tipped over and left a spilled trail of foam right to the edge where she caught it.
To remedy my outburst, I grabbed a towel from the rail by the sink and helped Rose clean up the mess. Her hands were shaking too much to do more than make the mess worse.
I caught one. “Hey. I’m sorry.”
Hell, her whole body shook.
Now I’ve been known to make grown men piss their pants. It’s just the way I’m built. And the image I’ve cultivated. With probably a good helping of very real actions propping up all the rumors of my violence. But I’m not the same guy around women.
Except, I’d pulled a gun on her. Pulled a knife on her, too. Hell. She had to be scared as fuck of me by now.
Was she scared of me last weekend? Was that why she slept with me? Fear?
My stomach went sour.
“Rose?”
It took her at least two tries to meet my eyes. As she did, her spine straightened. Her exhale was shaky. “We really need a damp washcloth so the table isn’t sticky.”
“Let’s forget about the table for a minute and talk about this.” I pulled her arm up. She fought me a little, making a fist as I brought her arm into view.
“You caught me by surprise. That’s all.”
“That’s not all, and you know it.”
Her nostrils flared.
“Do you know that when you lie, your chin goes down? It’s almost as if your brain is saying, dig in. And that? Is one hell of a tell, woman. It means you’ve had to lie often.”
The hard focus she stabbed me with told me a lot more than words. Roishin Black did not like anyone knowing her secrets. I recognized that trait because I guarded mine just as fiercely.
I tried again. “Why are you shaking?”
“I’m not shaking anymore.”
And she wasn’t. She’d controlled it or squashed it. The white knuckles of her tiny fist gave me a clue. “No, now you’re pissed off.”
She tugged harder to try to extract herself from my grip. Cute, but ineffective. I smiled. Maybe it was time to broach another mystery Roishin Black hid. “Carl says you stole money from him.”
Her struggling ceased abruptly. “When did you talk to Carl?”
“I didn’t. He sent Fish with the message.” I noted that she didn’t deny it.
Something shifted by her eyes. The anger or maybe the fear was gone. Whatever had changed morphed her face from unguarded to a careful mask. The same one she wore that first night at Carl’s.
Odd.
I hated it because I knew my window of insight was gone.
To knock her off balance again, I pulled her fist to my lips and kissed it. “Keep your secrets, witch, but tell me everything that happened in my yard. And I’ll know if you leave anything out because I’ve got cameras covering both mine and Jackson’s house.” I loosened my grip on her arm.
Her hand slipped free. “We need to clean this up first.”
“No, eat and talk, then clean up. I’m not negotiating here.”
