Page 123 of Untouchable

But he wondered how many of them had been silently saying no.

25

Kelly woke up alone.

She experienced a strange heaviness before she was fully conscious, before she could fully open her eyes. Then she rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, remembering the long night before.

She felt different this morning. Like she was a different person, like Caleb was a different person too.

But when she turned her head to look over at his side of the bed, it was empty.

He was gone. It was Saturday, but that never stopped him from working. He was probably in his office even now, burying himself in work, remembering the man he’d always been.

He’d been vulnerable last night. Uncertain. Almost broken.

He wasn’t the kind of man who would allow that to continue.

It was good. It was just as well. It was hard enough for Kelly to do what needed to be done as it was. If Caleb became even softer, more human, then she might never be able to reach her end.

The distance he needed this morning would serve her well too, and the twisting feeling in her gut—like she felt let down,betrayed, because he’d left without talking to her after what had happened last night—didn’t matter at all.

She rolled over and reached into her purse on the floor next to the bed for her phone.

It was habit, really. She wasn’t expecting there to be any messages coming in between two and seven on a Saturday morning.

But there was a message from the unlisted phone number that Jack Martin always used to contact her.

She glanced at the closed door of the bedroom, assuring herself that Caleb wasn’t around, and listened to the message.

“Hey,” Jack’s pleasant, lazy voice said in the message. “Call me when you get a chance. Progress.”

She stared down at her phone for a minute, her heartbeat picking up.

He wouldn’t have said there was a lead like that if he hadn’t found more evidence. And the evidence they were really waiting for was going to point them either toward Vinnie DiMauro’s guilt in her father’s death… or toward Caleb’s.

She never called Jack from Caleb’s house. He had all kinds of security measures set up, and it was too dangerous to risk a call where she might be overheard or observed.

But she wouldn’t be able to get out of the house until the middle of the day—not without it looking suspicious—and she really wanted to know what Jack knew.

It would change things.

It might change everything.

She couldn’t imagine the tender, uncertain man from last night actually killing her father. Caleb was cold and ambitious, but he wasn’t heartless, and her father had been innocent.

Surely—surely—she wouldn’t be feeling like this toward Caleb if he were actually that kind of monster. What she’d overheard last night could have meant something else. Kellywasn’t naive, and she wasn’t weak. She wouldn’t have fallen for the man if he’d really killed her father.

She simply wouldn’t have done it.

So, nearly shaking with anxiety and expectation, she took her phone into the bathroom.

She locked the door and triple-checked to make sure it was locked. Then she turned on the shower, figuring if Caleb or Breah, his housekeeper, came into the bedroom, they’d only hear the shower running.

She scanned the room carefully, but she knew there wouldn’t be a security camera in Caleb’s bathroom. There would be limits to even his paranoia.

Satisfied that she was as safe as it was possible for her to be in this house, she pulled up Jack’s number and connected the call.

She normally wouldn’t have called anyone so early on a Saturday morning, but he’d left the message less than an hour ago, so he must be up himself.