Page 113 of On Edge

It’s the first time we’ve seen each other since the engagement party, since he kissed me like I mattered. Now, his expression is the same icy mask from my first day here, and I don’t know which Troy is real, or how I’m supposed to act around either of them.

Unnerving panic and something else I can’t quite place, snakes through my gut. I should be…what should I be? I don’t know.

Cold? Distant? Angry?

He blinks at me in disbelief, turns, and goes to leave, but then stops and looks at me again. “Nice dress. It goes well with the earrings.”

Mean. Be mean. “T-thanks.”

He frowns as his phone buzzes, and then answers it partway through the door.

“What?”

The door swings as he walks out, taking his traitorous dog with him. I hurry after him to hold the door open a crack to stop it from closing. When I look through the gap, Troy is standing in the hallway, staring at a portrait on the wall as he listens to someone on the other end of the line.

“Are you certain? She didn’t go to France? Well, where the bloody hell is she then?”

He exhales and shifts his stance, turning toward me.

“I don’t give a fuck, Elias. Find her. I don’t care what it takes.”

Suddenly, his eyes connect with mine. With a squeak, I run back into the kitchen, letting the door go behind me.

Find her.

Find who? Troy was telling Mundel to find someone, a female someone, and seemed very angry about it.

I don’t know what to think about that. Could it be something to do with this business deal he seems worried about?

I want to collapse in a mess on the floor. Instead, I’m standing bowed over, with my head resting on the table, enjoying how the stainless steel feels against my cheek, when Kathy comes back from the shops.

I straighten up immediately, the blood rushing to my head. “You’re back.”

“What are you doing? Are you feeling sick?” She bustles in, carrying so many bags, and starts emptying them, putting the produce away.

“I was just, er, resting.”

“Alright, well, don’t do it on the kitchen table. It’s not hygienic.”

“Of course, sorry.”

“Did you finish the pies?”

“In the oven.” I nod, dusting my clothes as I walk over to her, picking up a cucumber to help, and then not knowing where to put it, so I stand there with it.

She looks at me, the cucumber, and then sighs, taking the vegetable from me before I do any damage. It’s incredible how quickly she’s figured me out.

“Go and put these in the pantry.” She shoves a load of bags at me.

“Where’s the?—”

“Through the back.”

I head through, where Kathy said to go.

Now I remember this room. This is where I saw the keyhole with an eye blinking through it. I never did find out how to open it.

Putting down the bags, I glance over my shoulder to make sure Kathy isn’t coming in and walk around the shelving unit to where the keyhole was. It’s still there with the swan etched into the design around it; I didn’t imagine it.