Page 53 of Fracture
Lorelei considered the question, then nodded. “I guess so. I… I want answers, but it’s terrifying. The nightmares…”
“Are you still having them?”
Lorelei shook her head. “Not since Vinnie started sleeping with me again.”
Karli’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Not sex, just sleeping in the same bed as me.”
Karli’s raised brow said she didn’t believe Lorelei.
“There’s been no sex.”
“Just orgasms?”
Lorelei’s cheeks burned. “There have been a few of those.”
“Okay, start at the beginning and tell me how this all happened.”
Lorelei sighed heavily and grinned. “I yelled at him.”
“And he gave you orgasms?”
“Basically, yeah.” She told Karli the whole story about threatening to leave and Vinnie’s reaction, then the aftermath and how the last few days had gone.
“And things are okay?” Karli asked.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t they be?”
Karli inhaled, then let her breath out slowly.
Lorelei couldn’t remember her training, but she knew that slow breath meant Karli was about to say something Lorelei was not going to like.
“I keep going back and forth, but I wish you’d come to live with Cade and me. That you were around people you know.”
Lorelei wanted to argue that she didn’t really know any of them, but she kept her mouth shut.
“Vinnie is a stranger. We believe he’s one of the good guys, but we’ve thought that before.”
“He knows Marcus and Frannie,” Lorelei said, remembering Frannie saying she spoke to Karli. Maybe that would ease her cousin’s mind.
Karli nodded. “I know. And Frannie said he’s good. Said she would trust him with her life.”
“So why can’t I?” Lorelei asked.
Karli shook her head. “It’s not that you can’t. It’s just that…”
“You want me to trust you.”
Karli looked up at Lorelei and nodded. The pain in her eyes said it hurt her that Lorelei chose Vinnie over Karli.
“I’m sorry,” Lorelei said. “I do trust you. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. I wouldn’t have told you about my notes. I wouldn’t have let you in. But it’s hard. It’s so damn hard. I fucking hate my brain. I hate that I have no idea what is going on all the time. That I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel, who I’m supposed to turn to, what I’m supposed to do. It’s confusing and aggravating and miserable.”
Karli reached across for Lorelei’s hand. Her outburst drew the attention of diners closest to them, but Lorelei was having a hard time caring. She just wanted to remember something. Anything.
Karli’s phone buzzed, and she glanced down at it. “It’s Adam.” She let go of Lorelei’s hand and picked up the phone. “He said he remembers Bonnie. She was a little clingy, but she was telling the truth about her and Lexi and the ex-husband. The ex is in prison, but he cut a deal to flip on the group he was going to sell his daughter to.”
“Sounds like a great idea,” Lorelei dead-panned. “Why would we give people deals? He was going to sell his daughter.”