Page 38 of Unbound

I can’t imagine how it would’ve felt to move on after my dad died. To leave him behind completely. To push his memory to the back of my mind as I tried to navigate life without him.

“But you didn’t completely move on, because you have a picture of her in your office and her furniture in my room.” The reminder makes me feel better. Like Walker hasn’t been stoically suffering in silence all these years, trying to convince himself he was fine. He’s kept at least a little bit of her close, and for some reason that shrinks the lump in my throat.

But only a little.

“Those are recent additions.” His eyes come back to me. “I brought them up here right before I decided I wanted to find out what really happened the day she died.”

I swallow hard, trying to ease the strangle of tears still threatening to make my voice wobble. “When was that?”

“Almost a year ago.” His hand smooths up and down my leg, but I don’t think it’s for my benefit. “I asked Titus to see what he could find out.”

“What did he find?”

Up until now, my curiosity about Walker and his mother’s death could’ve been narrowed down to two specific motivations. The first being my desire to know what happened to my dad. The second was my desire to find out what Walker looks like with no clothes on. But those two things are far from my mind right now. Right now I’m wondering how I can help him. Because even if we discover our parents’ lives never converged, I can’t walk away leaving Walker still wondering what happened.

He barely shakes his head. “Not a lot. You’ve seen the records. It’s like they’ve either been destroyed, or they’re so convoluted and chaotic it’s nearly impossible to make any sense out of them.”

He seems despondent. Like he has no hope of ever learning the truth.

I should probably feel the same way, but fuck that. I know I can figure out the mystery of what happened to my dad. And that means I can figure out what happened to his mother too.

I reach for his face, resting my palm against his jaw so I can turn it toward mine. His beard is short enough I assumed it would feel a little rough, but the reddish-blond hairs are surprisingly soft against my skin as his clear blue eyes fix on my face.

“I’m going to figure out what happened to my dad, and then I’m going to figure out what happened to your mom.” I get a little distracted by his beard and dig my fingers into the fullness until I reach the warmth of his skin. “You look better like this.”

My brain has had so much to chew on that it takes me a few seconds to register the misstep I’ve made. The admission I inadvertently offered.

Walker’s brows climb his forehead. “Like… what?”

I clear my throat to cover my panic as I yank my hand away from his face. “What?” I practically fall off his lap, my landing on the couch cushion beside him anything but graceful. Managing to get to my feet, I decide changing the topic is my best choice. “We should probably go back and look at more of those papers. See what else we can find.” I spin away, fully intending to run right back into the office.

“Sybil.”

Walker’s voice is sharp and loud and it stops me in my tracks. The way he says my name has every muscle in my body clenching, especially the ones in my vagina. I can imagine him snapping out my name just like that, but for way naughtier reasons. Have imagined it. Enough times I should probably feel terrible.

But I don’t feel terrible right now. Right now I feel flushed. Hot in a way that has nothing to do with the temperature of the room.

Doing my best to fix my face, I turn toward him, hoping he is just as oblivious to my accidental slip as he was to the picture on my laptop. “Did you need something?”

Walker leans back against the sofa as he watches me intently. “I’d like to ask you a question.”

That doesn’t sound so bad. Maybe he wants to know what I’d like to have for dinner. If I need to do laundry. How long I think it’ll take me to go through the images. I’m sure everything’s fine.

His expression is completely neutral, giving nothing away as he stands, taking unhurried steps toward me. “Exactly how long would you say you’ve been stalking me?”

13

Walker

Sybil’s blue eyes widen, her skin flushing as she takes a step back. “Stalking is a strong word.”

“Are you claiming you weren’t stalking me?” A smile tries to work onto my face, which is fucking weird. As a general rule, I don’t smile. “Because it’s starting to seem a hell of a lot like you were doing more than just research.”

“Well…” Sybil continues backing across the great room. Her steps aren’t jerky or rushed, so it’s not like she’s trying to get away from me. More like she’s trying to buy time.

I angle a brow when she doesn’t continue. “Well, what?”

“It wasn’t so much stalking as it was…” Sybil flails her hands around like she thinks she’ll be able to grab an explanation from the air.