Page 116 of Secrets in the Deep
At first, Nora didn’t see him. She crossed to the bar and ran the tips of her long red nails over the edge. Her lips curved in a smile as she said something to Dusty.
It felt like a gut punch.
Shit, she was beautiful. She had wavy brown hair that skimmed her shoulders and softened the angles of her face. And her eyes…they were always crinkled at the edges, like she’d spent too long smiling.
Shit. What was he doing? She was Ryan’s sister. She was hisbest friend’ssister.
He looked away, something he’d gotten pretty damn good at since she’d arrived in town.
He knew her upbringing. The one she and Ryan rarely talked about. Stories had slipped out of his friend over the years. Small pieces of what it had been like to grow up with a mother who suffered from schizophrenia.
That kind of upbringing rewired a person’s brain. Created a trauma that most probably couldn’t understand.
Yet Nora rarely stopped smiling.
Her eyes swept the bar, widening when they landed on him. Then her lips once again curved.
She moved down the bar toward him before dropping onto the stool beside his. “Uh,hi. Were you even going to say hello?”
“Who says I saw you?”
“Isay you saw me. I know the freaky way Ryan and the rest of you clock a room. You probably know exactly how many people are in this bar and who’s carrying.”
“Forty-eight. And ten.”
She scoffed as she lifted her drink to her lips. “Like I said…freaky.”
“Are you here alone?”
“Yeah. Is that a crime?”
“No.”
One of her brows lifted, that cute smile still on her face. “What areyoudoing here?”
His gaze flashed to Preston, who was now taking photos with a group of girls who barely looked legal.
Nora followed his gaze. “Ah…you’re here to catch a movie killer.”
A lock of hair fell over her cheek as she turned back from Preston. An urge to reach out and slip it behind her ear suddenly had his fingers tightening around his beer.
She leaned in close, her vanilla scent surrounding him. “Any progress on the slasher wannabe?”
“Slasher wannabe?”
“Yeah, the guy trying to make himself a Hollywood-killing icon.”
“Who says it’s a guy?”
Nora’s eyes widened. “It’s a woman?”
“Maybe. We don’t know.” Although, the hairpin and height of Emily’s attacker had them leaning toward woman.
Nora glanced behind her again. “The girl in blue. She could pass for a killer.”
“Faye? Why?”
“I don’t know. A look in her eyes.” She turned back to Zac. “She’s jealous that Preston Painter is getting all the attention. And jealousy can lead a person to do terrible things.”
