Free Nowhere Safe by Nancy Bush

but it hasn’t been that long since you and I got like this.” She lifted a hand, to encompass the fact that they were lying in bed together.
    “I spent too much time with Loni.”
    “We both were living our lives.”
    “I know, but a lot of it was . . . a waste.” He looked down at her. “I can move your stuff myself.”
    “I have a queen bed. And your brother’s laid up and making babies. I wish I could promise Auggie’s help, but his schedule’s too unpredictable.”
    “Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.” She could hear the smile in his voice.
    “You’re a happy camper now?”
    “Very happy.”
    “We’re not kidding ourselves, are we?” she asked suddenly. “Making all these plans too soon?”
    “Nah.”
    “Okay. Good.”
    There was silence between them for a few minutes, and then the news came on. Jake had the television on channel seven and Pauline Kirby, in all her feral glory, came up, her attractive but sharp features making September’s skin crawl a bit as she remembered how the relentless reporter had drilled her with questions during their interview about Do Unto Others. “Can you—” she started, but Jake had already switched the channel.
    “A little of her goes a long way,” he said, and he settled on a station with its reporter outside a post office.
    September recognized the flagpole that the male reporter was standing by. “Oh . . . they’ve already made the connection.”
    “What?” Jake asked, as September hadn’t filled him in on the case in detail.
    She didn’t answer as the reporter launched first into an account of Christopher Ballonni’s death, and then, how the recent crime at the basketball pole mirrored Ballonni’s.
    “They don’t have Stefan’s name yet,” she realized.
    “Ah . . .” Jake said, as she’d told him over dinner about her earlier trip to the hospital to see Stefan and his story about being tied to the basketball pole. “You didn’t say what happened to Stefan was part of a pattern.”
    “I’m not on Stefan’s case. But they’re letting me follow up again on Ballonni. I’ve put a call in to his widow, but I haven’t heard back yet.”
    Jake nodded. September couldn’t tell whether or not he was bothered that she hadn’t told him everything. “It’s not the only case we have,” she reminded him, recalling the woman’s body found in Foxglove Park. Wes was following up on that one, hoping to learn her identity.
    “No, it’s fine. I was just thinking that if Pauline Kirby realizes Harmak is your stepbrother, she’ll be after another interview,” Jake said.
    “ Was my stepbrother. She’ll learn it eventually, but it’s not the first thing that’ll crop up.”
    “You hope.”
    “Yeah, I hope. So, enough about me. Tell me about your work. How’s the office move going?”
    “Uh . . . slow.”
    “Slow, because . . . ?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t know if I’m making the right choice.”
    She lifted her head to look at him. “Maybe you don’t want to quit.”
    “Maybe I don’t,” he agreed, shaking his head.
    “What changed your mind?” she asked.
    His gray eyes glanced down at her. “You. Maybe. This.” His gaze went to the gauze bandage on her shoulder, so close to her throat. “I thought it was the job that was the problem, but now I’m not so sure.”
    “You said you wanted to change your life. Maybe you mean . . . Loni,” September suggested.
    “No. That’s been over for almost a year.” He was frowning at the television, which had switched to a commercial.
    “What’s wrong?” September asked.
    “Nothing’s wrong. I’m just . . . figuring it out.”
    “You sure it doesn’t have to do with Loni?” she asked carefully.
    “What do you mean? No. That’s over. You know that.”
    “Why are you so defensive?”
    “I’m not defensive.”
    “No?”
    “No.” He heard himself and switched off the television with a snap of his thumb on the remote. “She’s . . . not a part of my life. I don’t