Free Deception by Sharon Cullen

his sorry butt all over the state. Shannon might be shallow and self-serving, but no one deserved a philandering husband, especially a woman so close to delivering her fourth child.
     
    ***
     
    Two hours later Alex met Tess at the front door. He was leaning heavily on his cane, deep furrows bracketing the sides of his mouth and his eyes shadowed in pain.
    “You’ve done too much, Alex. You need to sit down, take some weight off the knee.”
    “Don’t baby me.” He helped her into the house. What a pair they made. It seemed he leaned more on her than she on him.
    Shannon stood on the porch, holding a pharmacy bag. “What’d the doctor say?” he asked her.
    “Pneumonia.” Shannon shoved the bag at him and backed up.
    “ Pneumonia .” He turned to Tess. “Shouldn’t you be in the hospital?”
    Tess shrugged out of her coat. “The doctor said to take it easy, rest, take my medicine and drink plenty of fluids. You know—the usual advice.”
    Just the thought of standing in the kitchen and mixing ingredients, then braving the cold and her temperamental van made her sick to her stomach.
    “I’ll get you something to drink and then you can take your medicine and sleep.”
    She shook her head, regretting the action when the room started to spin. “Wake me in an hour.”
    Alex’s dark gaze touched various places on her body and a frown deepened the lines in his tired face.
    “My business depends on it, Alex.” Her clients relied on her for their Christmas parties. If she didn’t complete these last important deliveries, her name would be mud in the catering industry.
    Something must have convinced him she was serious because he held his hand out to her. A smile tilted one corner of his mouth. “Take a nap. Take your medicine. I’ll help.”
    “You’ll help?”
    “I’ll do whatever I can.”
    “And you promise you’ll wake me?”
    “I’ll do whatever needs to be done.”
    Something didn’t seem quite right with that statement but damn if her foggy brain could figure out what.

Chapter Ten
    Alex opened the bedroom door and peeked in on Tess for the third time in an hour. Her face was pale with bright splotches of color on her cheeks and her breath rattled in her chest. He eased the door closed and made his way into the living room, Othello following close at his heels. He understood she needed to finish the gift baskets and cookie trays. He understood about wanting to complete a job, yet, for the first time in days, she was sleeping without coughing.
    He rubbed the stubble on his jaw and veered into the kitchen, eyeing the new cabinets and counters. The fax machine on the built-in desk beeped and spit out a few pages. Other pages littered the floor under the machine. For the most part, he’d ignored the fax when it rang. Now he gathered up the pages.
    Othello padded out of the kitchen and scratched at the front door. Alex followed, feeling guilty for not waking her when she’d asked him to. Othello scratched at the door again and whined.
    “Quit that, O. That’s a new door.”
    The doorbell rang, O barked. Alex limped to the door as fast as he could, shushing O before he woke Tess.
    In the pool of yellow made by the porch light, Tony was crouched down, looking at a small pile of blood and gore congealing on the Santa Claus doormat.
    “O bring you home a gift?” Tony asked.
    “What the hell?” Alex stared at the mess.
    Othello poked his nose between Alex’s legs and sniffed. The dog’s hackles rose and he growled. Using his cane, Alex shoved him back in the house and shut the door.
    Straightening his injured knee and bending his good one, Alex sank down to Tony’s level and inspected the mess. Tiny bones poked out from broken skin and fur, blood spreading over Santa’s hat and beard.
    Tony found a stick and started poking through the mess. “Hamsters.” Tony tossed the stick into the yard and stood.
    Alex had come to the same conclusion. A massacred family of hamsters. Or maybe gerbils. He