Chapter 38 - The Husband I Buried

Now

When we got in, I filled Tess’s water bowl and kicked my shoes off by the door. She skidded across the tiles, nails clicking, already over the small thrill of the walk and on to the next thing.

I grabbed a cold Coke from the fridge and cracked it open, the hiss sharp in the quiet kitchen. The caffeine wouldn’t help much, but the cold did. I rolled the can across my forehead, eyes closed, willing the headache behind my eyes to back off.

That was when I noticed the drawer.

It wasn’t open enough to be obvious. Just enough to feel wrong.

I set the can down slowly and crossed the kitchen. Instead of closing the drawer like I’d intended, I opened it. It slid open with a soft scrape.

There was a new envelope inside. Sealed with an insignia. A circle with two snakes, eating their own tails. The double ouroboros.

I knew what it was before I touched it.

I shimmied open the wax seal, keeping the envelope intact.

We invite you to join us for a private gathering.

Sunday.

Details enclosed.

My pulse thudded once, hard.

The location was outside the city, near Barkley, with ‘transport arranged if required’. The time was precise. The kind of precision that didn’t invite negotiation.

Barkley. I felt my heart rate pick up and took a few breaths.

Then I checked the date again. Tomorrow.

I sat at the kitchen table, the invitation flat beneath my palm. I smelled the envelope, inhaling that familiar scent.

Luis.

It was a silent message. They were using his scent to lure me like a shark to blood. They assumed I wouldn’t be able to resist.

And they were right.

Because if Luis was anywhere I could reach him – if there was even a chance of talking to him – I wasn’t going to stay home and pretend restraint was the same thing as strength.

I folded the card carefully and put it back in the envelope.

Then I picked up my phone.

Keith answered faster than I expected.

‘Yeah?’

‘You need to learn to answer your phone like a normal person,’ I said.

‘Normal?’ he asked with a snigger. ‘What does that look like?’

‘Friendly. Maybe start with “hello”.’

A pause. Then, with a faint grin in his voice, ‘I know you didn’t call to lecture me. What do you want?’

‘Are you still up for that trip to Barkley?’

‘Hell yes,’ he said immediately. ‘When are we going?’

‘Tomorrow,’ I said. ‘I’ll message you the details.’

‘I’ll be ready.’

He hung up without a goodbye.

I stared at the phone for a moment, then set it down.

Tomorrow I’d ask Keith about Elena Farrell. Tomorrow, we’d follow the thread far enough to find out what had really happened to Luis.

But tonight, all I could think about was Luis, and why he hadn’t contacted me. What we would say when we saw each other.

Was I too late? Maybe they’d hurt him. But that didn’t make any sense. Why keep him alive for months after he supposedly died, only to kill him now?

The invitation sat where I’d left it, quiet and patient, like it already knew I’d decided to go.

For the first time since Luis died, I wasn’t chasing answers.

I was walking straight toward him.