Free Unforgivable by Tina Wainscott Page B

arm, then at her. Since she was one step above him, he was face-to-face with her. “Be careful, okay?”
    She hadn’t expected anything, really, especially not what he’d shared. But a warning, least of all.
    “What do you mean?”
    He hesitated, searching her eyes. “Just be careful who you trust.”
    “Does that include you, Silas?”
    “Definitely.”
    “You said not to be afraid of you.”
    “I don’t want you afraid of me. But I don’t want you to trust me, either.”
    A warning. She needed that like a fish needed a fiddle.
    Her first thought, after chastising herself for going to see Silas, was what a contradiction the man was. Touched that she’d trusted him years ago and telling her not to trust him now. Why had he come back? She hit the steering wheel. It was driving her crazy.
    Her thoughts were abruptly returned to the present when she pulled down her driveway and saw a strange truck parked there. 
     

 
    CHAPTER  5
     
    A knot tightened in Katie’s throat. Before she even opened her car door, Ben and Morton Thorpe stepped out onto the porch. The knot grew bigger. The meeting should have lasted more than an hour, usually two. Both men walked toward her with hurried motions.
    “Good grief, Katie, where have you been?” Ben started before she could say a word.
    “Just driving around. It was nice to have the car to myself for a change.”
    “Your husband’s been out of his mind with worry,” Morton said, as though he were speaking to a little girl. Or maybe as he talked to his daughter, Geraldine. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself putting him through that.”
    Ben patted him on the back. “Thanks for the ride, Mort. And for being here for me.”
    “No problem, Ben. Anything for you, you know that. I don’t blame you a bit for being worried, especially with...” He looked at her with watery, gray eyes. “Well, you can handle things from here.”
    They both stood in silence as Morton pulled out of the drive. Katie had lied to Ben before, of course. Little lies, about liking the clothes he ordered for her, liking the decor in the house. Lies designed to save his feelings. This was a big lie. She couldn’t quite admit why she was reluctant to tell Ben about Silas. What if he saw something in her eyes, something that shouldn’t be in a married woman’s eyes?
    “Katie, what got into you?” 
    “I didn’t mean to worry you. I just wanted to”— enjoy her freedom , that’s what she wanted to say. When she wasn’t with Ben, she was stuck at the house without a car—“take a drive, that’s all.” 
    He rubbed the back of his neck. She thought about Silas’s words: where had the feisty Katie gone? Maybe you grew out of the feistiness.
    “I’m sorry, Ben.”
    He pulled her close. “You can’t blame a man for worrying about his wife. And with you acting so strange lately, hiding all the poisons in the house, talking about your mama dying. I called you, just to make sure you got home all right. I got a little worried after hearing...”
    “What?”
    “A girl went missing up toward Haddock last night. At first they thought she’d run away. The girl’s mother locked her out after she missed curfew, trying to teach her a lesson. When she didn’t turn up at school the next day, they started worrying. Sheriff told us at the beginning of the meeting that there’s still no sign of her.”
    “Just like that hitchhiker that disappeared up by Milledgeville five months ago.”
    “Without a trace. They don’t know if the cases are connected. This Haddock girl has gotten into some trouble in the past, so it might be something like that. But her boyfriend said she wasn’t in any mood to run off when he dropped her at her house.” He brushed the hair from her face. “And if she did, she would have run to him.”
      “I hope she’s all right. But what does that have to do with me?”
    “I was just worried, that’s all.”
    Maybe if some of that feistiness remained in her, she