Page 10 of Stone Deep
I froze and smiled weakly back at her over my shoulder. She’d changed her hair color yet again, this time opting for a dark red henna color. It didn’t seem to be working with her fair complexion, but who was I to judge? I’d been walking around with a pixie haircut for three months. It had been a drastic attempt to change the way I looked. One impossibly hard thing about losing an identical twin was seeing that person’s face in the mirror every morning.
The wheels on Nina’s chair squeaked as she nearly leapt from it. I liked Nina. She was my closest friend in the office, but I wasn’t ready to talk to her about the weekend. I’d told her I was going down to the beach to clear my head.
She shuffled toward me in her ridiculously high heels. “I’ll follow you to your cubicle,” she said. “I want to hear all about your weekend.” She stopped suddenly and lookedme up and down. “Shit, you look like you just stepped out of a clothes hamper. Wait, weren’t you wearing that skirt and blouse on Friday?”
I took hold of her arm and led her to my cubicle. I didn’t need everyone in the office hearing our conversation.
She dropped into the chair next to my desk. “You didn’t go home, did you?“
I stuck my purse under my desk, sat in my chair and turned on the computer. Nina was waiting for an answer. She knew that I was having a hard time adjusting to life without Perris, but she had no idea that I’d been out trying to find Damon. I’d told her some of the important surface stuff, but that was all. I didn’t need her to know more. She was one of those people who tended to give way too much unwanted advice.
“Brit, where are you staying?”
“Around. Look, I couldn’t stay at home anymore. I need to find a place of my own. Every day that I’m there, I lose a little piece of myself.” I took a deep breath. “Let’s drop the subject. I’ve got to get started on the reports, Nina.” I looked at her. “Please.” She was usually pesky about getting info from me, but she also knew when she’d stepped into a topic I didn’t want to dig through.
She reached forward and took my hand. “If you need a place to stay just let me know. Our house is small, but my mom won’t mind and she’s a great cook.”
Her generous offer made me feel guilty for cutting her off and dismissing her so quickly. “Thanks, but I’m fine. Meet you in the lunchroom at noon?”
“Sure thing.” She left looking more than a little hurt,but there wasn’t one moment of the weekend I could tell her about. It had started with my insane plan to point a gun at Damon’s brother and had ended in a motel bed with a complete stranger. I was still having a hard time convincing myself it had happened.
I leaned back in my chair and waited for my desktop to load. My reflection, Perris’s reflection, stared back at me in the monitor. That was the hardest part. Not being able to pick up the phone and dial my sister’s number to tell her about my weekend with the incredibly hot guy who saved me from getting pulverized and who had me pressed up against the wall of a motel room for the best sex I’ve had in a damn long time. I didn’t have that option anymore. Nina was a friend and we could talk about a lot of things, but I’d only ever told my deepest secrets to Perris. Now I had to keep them buried deep inside.
Tanner from accounting knocked on my cubicle. His arms were filled with reports, data that I had to enter into the system. “Here you go. I’m afraid it’s a big pile for Monday.” He looked down at me. He was one of those guys who had more fashion sense than most women, and it was obvious he spent a lot of time in front of the mirror. “You all right? You look like you were out late.”
Everyone in the office had their nosy parker hats on today. “I’m just peachy, Tanner. Anything else?”
“Nope. Just wanted to make sure you were all right.” Everyone knew that my twin sister had died and that I’d taken it extremely hard. In truth, they’d all been really supportive.
He turned to leave, looking just as hurt as Nina.
“Wait, Tanner.”
He turned back around.
“I’m sorry for sounding bitchy. I didn’t get much sleep last night. But thanks for asking.”
“Sure thing, Britty. Let me know if you need some help with those.”
I opened the first of many folders and sighed at the pile in front of me. My mind had been anywhere but work lately. As I pulled up the first report, my phone buzzed. I glanced at it and sighed again. The good thing about texts was that they could easily be ignored. I put the phone down and got to work. Three minutes later, it rang. I knew who it was before I picked it up.
“I’m at work,” I said sharply.
“You didn’t come home last night.”
“Told you I wasn’t going to come home.”
“Damn, Britton, we need to talk. What the hell are you doing? Are you still out chasing fucking ghosts? She’s gone and there’s nothing anyone can do to bring her back.”
I blinked back tears. “I’ve got work to do and as always, Ryan, thanks for being so damn understanding.” I hung up.
Two seconds later the phone rang again, and I was pissed enough now to answer it. “And another thing?—”
“Britton?” The deep voice was familiar, but I couldn’t place it at first. “What the hell are you up to? Two of Kyle’s friends just got arrested.”
“Damon?” I sat forward. I could feel my pulse pounding in my ears. “Where are you?”
He laughed. “As if I’d tell you.”
