Sam kept sharing.
“He’s had a man on you for months all the while tryin’ to track down whoever got the call. His hope was, they heard your ex was dead and his woman was facing conspiracy charges and he’d figure he got an easy payday, know you were protected and back off. His worry was, he wouldn’t hear or wouldn’t care and would carry out the job regardless. Until they track that motherfucker down, they can have no clue. He’s been in fits since you’ve been gone, thinkin’ that guy’s after you here, which he could be.”
This couldn’t be true.
“That’s crazy,” I whispered.
“It sure the fuck is. It’s also the fuckin’ truth,” Sam returned.
“How do you know this?”
“My agent set one of his assistants on it. They called Boothe County Sheriff Department. To say Barney Oswald was relieved to hear you’d hooked up with me is a serious fuckin’ understatement. Peace of mind for him. For me, I got a woman with a hit on her, I had no clue and now I have significantly limited intel and no fuckin’ weapon.”
I couldn’t believe this.
This was unbelievable.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Sam asked again.
“I –” I started again.
“I can’t fuckin’ believe you didn’t fuckin’ tell me,” Sam growled and I snapped.
Just like that.
I snapped.
I didn’t remember the last time I snapped. It had been years since it was safe for me to snap.
But that didn’t mean, right then, with Sam, I didn’t snap.
I sure the heck did.
“If you’d shut up a minute and let me talk maybe you’d get an answer to one of your questions!” I shouted and when I did, Sam’s face turned to stone and his eyes turned to granite.
Okay, he was pissed. Maybe he had a right to be.
But I had a hit out on me!
And he wouldn’t let me fucking talk!
“I didn’t know this,” I told him.
“Sweetheart, five million dollars says differently. Oswald’s deputy shared that you called the fuckin’ thing in,” Sam retorted.
“I wasn’t done,” I hissed, Sam’s jaw flexed and I kept going. “Pardon me, Sam, but I think you’re forgetting that things have been a little crazy for me and not just the last two weeks but the last,” I leaned in, “seven years of my life. Then my husband gets half his head blown off by a guy I liked. Milo is cool. And now Milo is incarcerated because Cooter and Vanessa are assholes. At the same time I found out Cooter cheated on me and now I can guess it was probably repeatedly. I’m twenty-eight and I have no clue who I am. I just sold my house and I’m in a bidding war that’s out of hand for that unit so soon I’ll have nowhere to live. I quit my job so I have nothing to do. I came on vacation to sort my head and decide what to do with my life then I met you and that wasn’t exactly your everyday, run of the mill girl meets boy situation but girl meets famous, rich hot guy who she’s had a faraway crush on for years and suddenly finds herself sleeping with. I didn’t exactly forget but I also didn’t exactly remember. I wasn’t keeping it from you. I don’t know why I didn’t tell you. I just didn’t. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t get around to it. But, you know, it’s been a lot nicer since leaving Italy to focus on the pool and beach and Greek music and dancing and good food and hot sex and not on the fact my dead husband and his girlfriend wanted me dead. So forgive me for not coming clean and telling you the minute I met you like I told you about Cooter being killed. I’ve been freaked out, unsure and pretty stinking scared because I like this, a lot, you and me. This is something I never thought I’d have and, my apologies to the Sam Cooper who means a great deal to me but it’s partly about the fact that I’m suddenly sleeping with Sampson Cooper when that’s an unheard of reality after years of fantasy but it’s also about the fact that I was in a shitty, rotten marriage that was hell from the minute I woke to the minute I went to sleep and now I have something the exact opposite and I don’t know how to cope! So, if I didn’t share that my husband wanted me dead while all that was going on, I’m sorry. A thousand apologies. Now, too late, but by the way, Sam, my husband was more of a piece of shit than you can comprehend because he wanted me dead and fully intended to do something about it but the good news is, he left me his pension, he inexplicably took a five million dollar life insurance policy out on himself and he left me that and he left me his dog who might be yappy but I love her. Now you can consider yourself fully briefed.”
I ended this diatribe with deep sarcasm and, chest rising and falling rapidly, I ended it glaring at him.
Sam held my eyes and kept his jaw clenched. He did this a long time.
Too long.
Long enough for me to think of a couple of other things I wanted to say.