Page 9 of Ogre on Patrol (Monsters, PI #5)

Chapter 9

Ellie

M y mind was whirling, and I didn't know how to process what I'd just discovered. All this time, I'd thought Thain betrayed me. Now I'd learned that maybe he hadn't. In some ways, I'd kind of betrayed him by not making him explain. I was mad back then. Sad. And my heart had split in two.

“Come inside, would you?” I asked. What if he told me he didn't want to talk about this any longer?

“Of course,” he said softly.

By the greenhouse door, I turned the faucet handle and scrubbed the soil from my hands, watching the muddy water swirl before disappearing down the drain. The quiet gurgle of it felt louder than it should have with Thain standing a few feet away, his presence big enough to fill the entire greenhouse. Grabbing a paper towel from the roll mounted on the wall, I dried my hands. I nudged my head toward the house and scooped up Crouton. He licked my wrist, his warm little body giving comfort like always. This gave me something to do with my hands, something to focus on that wasn’t Thain.

Thain didn’t move as I passed him, but I could feel his eyes lingering on me. I couldn’t look at him. Not yet.

Inside the house, the air felt cooler but not by much. I ticked through the usual motions of giving Crouton water and waving to the coffee maker to keep things from spiraling. “Would you like a cup?”

“I'd love one.” Thain's deep voice vibrated through his chest. His scent, earthy with a trace of spice, filled the kitchen as he strode toward the fridge. “You still take yours with cream only, right?”

“Yeah.” Of course he remembered, like I knew that he enjoyed his black with four—truly four —spoonfuls of sugar.

Grabbing mugs, I turned toward the carafe, pouring each of us a cup and pretending my hands weren’t shaking even a tiny bit. Sitting there on the counter, mocking me with its sheer audacity, was the bakery box Ophelia had brought earlier this morning. The betrayal muffins, I now called them. I stared at the gold logo stamped on top of the box, my stomach twisting. I still couldn’t process what happened, and I suspected it was going take me some time to work through it in my mind. But I hoped Thain had answers.

Crouton sat on the floor between us, his little tail sweeping back and forth on the tile.

“Want me to put a few muffins on a plate to share?” he asked. A hopeful note came through in his question, the kind I hadn’t heard in years, and it hit me in the place that still ached for this male alone.

Back when we were engaged, I used to tease him about his appetite. Thain was big, even for an ogre, and it took a mountain of calories to fuel all those muscles. Of course he’d see the box. Everyone knew Mythical Muffin made the best danishes, breads, and muffins. They made everything fresh early in the morning and sold out by noon. Thain and I used to line up out front early along with a few other locals to make sure we got the best picks. We'd sit outside on the cute little iron chairs—Thain squishing his muscular butt into one while we laughed. Even though it was winter then, we didn't miss a single Saturday at Mythical Muffin.

Until it was over. I didn't go there on Saturday again. How could I enjoy a cinnamon muffin like I had with Thain after what he'd done?

Or had he done it? Ophelia's behavior had left my mind spinning, and I was hoping Thain could drag me back to the ground.

Before I could tell him we'd be skipping the muffins today, his hand drifted to the box. As soon as his fingertips brushed the cardboard, the easy warmth he’d carried into the kitchen vanished.

He froze. A low breath hissed past his tusks as he blinked down at the box. His hand flinched back like it might bite him.

“Not these muffins,” he snarled, stepping away. His body coiled with tension, every move suggesting he was trying not to punch something .

“Thain,” I said.

His eyes snapped to mine, sharp and searching. “Did you know?” His words came out clipped. “All this time, did you know?”

The fact that Thain could pick up history and impressions from objects must be why he made such a good investigator.

What had he seen? A flash of Ophelia handing over the box this morning or the guilt written all over her face as we talked?

“I didn’t know,” I said, handing him his mug of coffee. My voice didn’t waver, but my hands sure were shaky.

We sat at the kitchen table, Crouton settling at my feet as if he belonged there. He always had—until he no longer did.

Thain didn’t touch the coffee. He stared down at it instead, his jaw twitching.

I sighed and traced the rim of my own mug. “Ophelia came by earlier.” I kept my tone steady like I was relaying a mundane story to an acquaintance, not starting to unpack years of misunderstandings. “She brought those muffins as a gift. We had coffee. She asked about the greenhouse, and I told her what was going on. That you were helping me.” The words got stuck in my throat. I coughed and continued. “She got flustered all of the sudden. Out of nowhere, she asked if you and I had talked about the past.”

The memory sharpened now that I was putting it into words. How her hands had tightened around her coffee cup, her knuckles going white. “There was something about the way she said it that unsettled me. Made me defensive, I guess. So I lied. I told her yes, we’d talked. A long talk.”

Thain’s shoulders tensed.

“Then she apologized.” The word tasted foreign. “She said she hadn’t meant to do it, that she'd made a mistake. That she'd do anything to go back and fix it.”

For a moment, the only sound was Crouton huffing softly in his sleep. I tried to find the right words. “She cried, Thain. Ophelia cried, and I don't think I've ever seen that from her before. And the thing is…” I met his gaze, hating the way my throat tightened. “It felt wrong, as if she was faking it. Using her tears to play on my sympathy.”

His nostrils flared as he closed his eyes, his hands still gripping the sides of his mug. “Why would she need to fake crying?”

“I need you to answer one question.”

He nodded, his gaze rising to lock on mine.

“Did you grope Ophelia all those years ago?”