Page 100 of Dead Love

If Nyla were here, she would have been overjoyed for me. She’d even offer to switch places and would remind me of the qualities that made Andrew the perfect catch. But all I could see when I looked at him was the day he told me that I should investigate Vincent for the good of the town. How he had chosen his work instincts over my safety.

It’s like he knew more than he let on.

“Don’t forget our agreement,” Sheriff Mike said.

My father was right. A flash of heat rumbled through my body. “A date,” I said. I swallowed hard. “I’m looking forward to it too.”

“You could use the time to discuss the greenhouse,” she said. I had almost forgotten about that. I had so much on my mind lately; I was surprised my mother had remembered for me. But I knew that if it was just Andrew and me talking, I would probably be able to say more of what I wanted when it came to the business. Even if he had been weird when it came to the abduction, he had always been kind to me before that. There was a chance he could be reasonable now. “And you can go out wherever you two want. My treat. Who knows what could happen,” Shea said.

“A date. How exciting!” Catie said through her teeth.

“I know!” my mother squealed.

“The night is ours,” Andrew said, winking and pointing finger guns at me. His hand was bruised, parts of it nearly matching his uniform.

“What happened to your hand?” I asked.

Shea glanced too. “That looks like it hurts. Terrible, really,” she said.

“You get into a fight?” Catie asked.

“You know Andrew,” Sheriff Mike laughed, putting an arm around my mother. “He’s an overachiever.”

“I was helping my neighbor out. Hammer fell on my hand,” Andrew said. “Really, it was a clumsy affair, but no harm done. She apologized.”

The bruise was dark enough for that, but something didn’t sit right with me. When did he have time to help a neighbor, if he had just been on duty, saving Vincent from a car crash?

Andrew bowed his head at me. “What time works best for you?”

An idea crossed my mind. It was a date, for just the two of us? That meant that we could go by ourselves, and I could leave early, then use that time to see Vincentby myself,when I wasn’t surrounded by others, people that I wasn’t sure I trusted anymore.

“How about six?” I asked.

He grinned. “Well, of course.”

CHAPTER33

Vincent

A paradeof doctors and nurses surrounded me. My head throbbed and my skin stung with every touch. But I held onto the fact that Kora had been there. She had wanted to check on me.

The nurse checked my vitals, then let in a visitor. My heart squeezed in anticipation until I saw it was Catie. I was happy to see her—a familiar face—but she wasn’t Kora.

“Good news and bad news,” she said. I motioned for her to get on with it. “The good news? They’re going to discharge you soon.”

I could handle that. “And?”

“The bad news is that they’re saying you were drugged.”

I gently rubbed my forehead. I hadn’t had anything to drink. How could I have been drugged? “I told them that Andrew sprinkled that shit on my car, then attacked me.”

“Supposedly, one of the symptoms of the new batch of Echo is hallucinations.”

I leaned forward. “Supposedly?”

She lifted her shoulders. “I don’t know. They’re being hush-hush about it, but to me, it sounds like crap.”

A wave of relief ran through me. At least Catie was on my side. “And Andrew? What about him?”