Page 63 of Ruin Me

Oye came from Nigeria and often seasoned her soups with scent leaves. She grew it in her backyard during the brief summers and inside during the rest of the year. Kent must have continued growing it.

My mouth watered. Not even Ife knew how to make her mother’s soup and the last I had a bowl was many years before she died. Even though I had no appetite, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try Oye’s soup.

I dipped my spoon in the bowl and slurped my first spoonful. Familiar heat from the peppers bloomed on my tongue, warming me from the inside. One spoon became another until I emptied the bowl.

“Want another?”

I sheepishly nodded.

Kent stood and exchanged my bowl with his. “Take mine.” He had yet to touch his soup. Before leaving the room, he kissed the tip of my nose. “I’ll be right back.”

I devoured the second bowl at a slower pace than my first, savoring each bite as I ate with Kent this time. When the last of the soup disappeared, I sagged against the bed. The warmth inside my body lulled at me, but Kent pulled me from the bedand marched me to the bathroom for a cool shower and fresh set of pajamas.

Neither of us acted on the desire thrumming below the surface. It was too soon after Ife to think about doing the very thing that splintered us. So we returned to the bedroom and clung to each other.

Two hours.

I sighed, realizing my reprieve was at an end. I fell asleep two hours ago but was now wide awake with a mind I couldn’t turn off. I peeked at Kent. He was deeply asleep.

I slid from the bed, as had become my habit after Kent put me to bed. I’d be lucky if he stayed asleep the rest of the night, but he inevitably missed my weight pressing against his and would come in search of me. I glanced at the clock. One A.M. I had two, maybe three hours before he became restless and realized I wasn’t beside him.

I snuck into my office and booted my laptop. Tyger soon joined me. The dogs were in their crates and I wasn’t letting them out. I stood strong against their puppy-eyed stare, feeling like the worst owner alive. I comforted myself knowing when they turned two they would have their freedom.

I turned to my computer and opened the mail application. A message from Omar caught my eye.

IT confirmed Hal hadn’t been hacked but couldn’t verify if he was @Nose2TheGrindstone. There’ve been no messages posted to the BBD site for weeks.

I wished the news made me happy, but Hal was still an unknown. I hadn’t felt one way or the other toward him until he suggested Kent and I split. He was now a permanent fixtureon my shit list, but that didn’t make him guilty of abducting me. Why would he? I always came back to motive and I’d found none.

I went back to the BBD site to search for posts about Kent. The most recent ones no longer centered on his connection with the murder victims. Instead, they speculated on our relationship. I took Kent’s employees not looking at him as a potential suspect as a win despite the embarrassment of having my personal life be fodder for the gossip mill.

As I scrolled the backlog of conversations and used my search engine to optimize what I was looking for, I noticed a pattern with a few user names. @Officevixen69, @Peoplepleaser13, and @In_the_know stopped posting around the time Carol disappeared.

Had she created multiple profiles to smear Kent at the office?

I wouldn’t put it past her. Her actions were unfathomable to most people. Maybe her erotomania manifested itself this way. If so, ruining a man’s reputation wasn’t so extreme she would see it as going too far. Convinced I had proof of her plotting, I needed to dig further.

Before me was a loom and warp threads waiting for me to weave the weft into a clear design. However, I couldn’t see the image clearly. How and why did Carol target Kent and the women she murdered? Did she do the actual murdering or was it her male accomplice? What beef did the man have against Kent?

There were still so many unanswered questions, but little by little, I found reason to be hopeful. I clung to it since hope was in little supply these days.

“I hope you found something useful to make you losing sleep worth it.”

I jumped with a squeak as Kent’s voice shattered the silence.

Tyger stood and glared balefully at Kent before sauntering off to lay claim to another part of the apartment.

I glanced at the time at the top of my screen. Two and a half hours. I sighed as I silently said goodbye to the last half hour of work I wouldn’t be doing, then swiveled my chair until I faced Kent. I shared my findings and suspicions with him but his demeanor remained… inexplicable.

He held his hand to me. “Let’s go back to bed so you’re fresh when you start again in a few hours.”

“That’s the excuse you’re going with?”

He arched his brow. “Oh? And I thought you were tired of me complaining about the other reason.”

I tilted my head to observe him from another angle. Rumpled, with tousled hair and pillow wrinkles embedded in his cheeks, Kent appeared softer than when he concentrated deeply on any subject. Despite his lowered guard, there was steel in his blue eyes as he willed me to bend to his will.

“Little bunny, come back to bed. You know I don’t do well when I don’t get sufficient cuddles before I start my day.”