Her Secret Betrayal Read Online Free Page A

face and soaked down
through my clothes. I nodded and leaned against the stoplight, the
wine slowing my thoughts. Maris smiled and thumbed towards the
tunnel stairs.
    “I should go and you should stumble home
before you get the wild urge to describe how naughty you and Sean
really are. Without getting mugged this time?”
    “Right. Just say no to muggers. Thanks for a
great date.” I wrapped my arms around her neck and squeezed and she oofed and complained and fake struggled, but secretly she
loved the attention.
    “Well, I’m no four times in one night, but I
do my best.”
    “Have a safe trip. Text me.” I backed up to
the corner and waved. She backed up to the stairs and waved.
    “Later, gator.”
    She turned and ran down the steps for cover
and I watched her go until her dark hair disappeared beyond the
subway awning. Then I made my own way home alone. The well-lit
street of shops and restaurants in the Philomel neighborhood gave
way to the dark, flooded streets where I lived. Only half the
street lights had come back on and sewer drains all along my route
sat clogged and overfull, spilling onto the sidewalk.
    Not surprisingly, I saw no one else by the
time I jogged up the steps to my front door. I checked my mailbox
first, and when I went for the door handle I noticed an
advertisement taped at eye level.
    I almost ignored it, but the name on the
flyer caught my eye and I hesitated.
    Columbina . I skimmed the page and
quickly realized it wasn’t a flyer at all. It was the front page of
the restaurant’s website. Along the bottom ran a printing tag with
tonight’s date and time.
    The nerves at the back of my neck tingled to
life. I glanced nervously behind me and up and down the quiet, dark
street.
    A coincidence. Of course.
    I shook my head and shoved the old door
open, let it bang shut behind me loud enough that Ms. Glass would
hear it and get annoyed, but at least someone in the world would
know that I’d come home. I wasn’t sure why that felt necessary, but
it did. The wine and the flyer had me seeing bad guys where there
certainly were none, but enough horror movies had taught me that a
girl who lives alone in a crappy apartment could never be too
careful.
     
     
     
4
    ____________
     
    “Hey, earth to Kara. There’s some guy here
looking for you. Get your ass over here.”
    “Who?” I dropped an armful of old newspapers
into a pile on a desk and coughed at the cloud of dust I’d dragged
up with them from the basement archives. I waved my arms back and
forth to clear the air. “Don’t we have all these things digital? I
get turned on by old books as much as the next library girl, but
flash drives can be sexy too. Just saying.”
    “What? Kara, there’s some Hottie McHotterson
here asking for you by name. Forget the newspapers and come
ogle, library girl.” Daphne poked her head around the corner and
waved wildly for me to follow her, big brown eyes a little bug-eyed
behind her glasses.
    “Did you just say Hottie McHotterson ?
Wait, Daphne.” I chased her around the corner to where our library
aide, Kay, was also waiting and I immediately skidded to a
stop.
    One thing was clear as he turned around and
my heart did tiny backflips inside my chest, what happened two
nights ago had nothing to do with finding closure.
    He smiled briefly before eyeing the two
girls flanking me in full ogle mode. Sean crooked his finger at me
and my whole body reacted as if he’d said Come here, now in
that voice that commanded my body and soul. I nudged them aside,
ignored their huffs and underhanded accusations and slid out from
behind the counter. I stopped directly in front of him so that
there was hardly any space between our chests, though he had at
least a foot and a half on me and had to tuck his chin to his chest
to meet my upturned gaze. Fireworks erupted between our bodies and
had we not been smack in the middle of a room full of prying eyes,
I would likely have climbed into his arms.
    “Kara,” he