Chapter 2
He left his precious truck unlocked. Too trusting.
I guess that’s both of our problem.
As if the driver’s seat is a hot griddle, I crack the egg I’m holding in a clean split and let the goopy yellow yolk and egg white splat onto the leather. I hope it has some time to bake in the sun before Daren realizes what I’ve done.
When I reach for another egg, my eye catches on a picture clipped to the visor. A set of four black-and-white images. Last year, we went to the state fair and found a little photo booth.
The Robin in the pictures is making silly faces. And lovey faces. And kissing the man she thought was different.
My hand whips out, the egg launching from my fingers to smash with a spectacular explosion against the back window.
“Calm. Controlled. Finish the mission,” I mutter the command to myself as I suck a breath in through my nose.
The mission: tear out every root of my life with Daren Kraut in one night and don’t crumble in the process.
I pull on my military training to maintain focus. One benefit of serving for seven years is that I know how to keep a cool head, even when the world is a shitstorm around me. I can do this. If I can survive a tour in Afghanistan, this is nothing.
He is only a man.
And I will never let a man break me.
“Robin.” The rumble of a voice comes from my right side, but I don’t turn to meet the man’s dark eyes.
Why did I stop at his house?
I didn’t need Arthur to call Daren. Didn’t need to see the horrified realization on his face as he discovered his cousin was a piece of shit. Clarine, a local PI who specializes in finding cheaters, got me all the evidence I needed.
Why did I pick him up?
I’m not looking for some big, beefy protection. Arthur might be built like a grizzly bear, but the guy is a gentle giant. Sure, he’ll brawl with his cousins sometimes, but I’m far more deadly than he could ever hope to be.
So, why did I see his house—sitting there quietly, windows dark—and suddenly need to slam on the brakes, jump out, and pound on his door?
“Almost done,” I tell him as I open the glove compartment and crack an egg over the documents inside.
I scoop up the almost-empty carton and back up, eyeing the yolk-splattered outside. I’ve already lobbed half a dozen at Trinity’s brother’s truck. If the woman were a stranger, I might have left her wheels alone. If she hadn’t known the guy she was sleeping with was a cheater, I’d have withheld my revenge.
But Trinity lives in Green Valley. She works at the front desk in the senior center, which is the gossip center of the whole town. Those old people know everything, which means she does too. There’s absolutely no way I—an out-of-towner with a Yankee accent, or so I’m told—moved in with one of the only eligible men in Green Valley and lived with him, unmarried, for a year and those facts were not chattered about where she could hear.
Not to mention the times I’ve seen the woman at Genie’s when Daren and I had the occasional date night.
And that time in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot when her battery was dead and I jumped her car for her.
This is no misunderstanding. Trinity knows exactly what she’s doing.
Which is why she got eggs.
Finding the few untouched spots on Daren’s immaculate paint job, I give them the poultry-revenge treatment, saving one for a special purpose.
Straight up the tailpipe.
“Robin,” Arthur says again. But nothing comes after my name. He simply hovers at my side, thick beard masking the bottom half of his face as the top half watches me with an unreadable expression.
Maybe he’s in shock. I certainly was when I was pulling the sheets off our bed a few weeks ago and found an acrylic nail that wasn’t mine. I can’t wear them with my job. They’d all break off on the first day.
And apparently, they also snap off sometimes when you’re in bed with another woman’s man.
My fists clench and release as I drag in a steadying breath.
Calm. Controlled. Finish the mission.
This next part is going to test every bit of will I have. I toss the empty Piggly Wiggly bag in my trunk, then aim my feet toward the front door.
“You’d better hide in the car if you don’t want Daren to know you were in on the discovery,” I warn him.
“Wait.” Arthur steps in front of me, hands up. “You want to go in there?”
I scoff. “You think I should let them finish?” Dodging around the big man, I continue to the front door. “Maybe go grab them a box of condoms?” I hiss the comment over my shoulder.
Another time, I might have had pity on the guy who just found out his cousin, the man he loves like a brother, is a cheating asshole. But tonight, my pity is all dried up in a desert of rage. The mailman can do whatever he wants, but I’m not about to retreat.
Another part of my military training taught me how to move with stealth. True, the diminished hearing on my left side makes it harder to double-check myself, but with my hearing aid in to help, I’m confident I can move like a ghost.
Daren won’t even know the woman he’s cheating on is in the house as he screws someone else.
Not until I want him to know.